The original sand trap castings on #401 were rusted and eroded so badly that they were not salvageable. They were originally attached directly to the sand dome and resembled the large "Y" fittings that replaced them with the delivery pipes going directly down to the rail.
The replacements that I made are very simple and work well. With the exception of the air nozzle they are made up of standard pipe fittings. The basic design is similar to the traps used on diesel locomotives. They are operated by air at main reservoir pressure of 130 psi.
The orifice in the nozzle is probably small at 1/16" but I wanted to be able to fine tune it as needed. I think we ended up opening that up to around 3/32 or 1/8" after some testing. You also may need to extend the air nozzle out as much as two inches, rather than have it right in the sand flow as shown, if you get too much sand delivered to the rail.
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File comment: Sand Traps on SOU 401
Sand Trap Small Image.jpg [ 113.29 KiB | Viewed 4134 times ]
Sand Trap Small Image.jpg [ 113.29 KiB | Viewed 4134 times ]
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File comment: Sand Trap Drawing
Sand Trap Drawing Image.JPG [ 34.27 KiB | Viewed 4134 times ]
Sand Trap Drawing Image.JPG [ 34.27 KiB | Viewed 4134 times ]
Russ
Monticello Railway Museum