Many people have ask me how come my locomotive steams so well. My answer is that it has 'Marty Burners' in it.
Marty Siegel was a very knowledgeable and friendly club member who was always ready to offer his advice on a good problem. Back in 1998 I was complaining to Marty that my 'Tube and Slot' propane burner just wasn't giving me enough BTUs. He suggested that I try a set of these burners.
As Marty told me, he was helping another club member, Jim Dameron, get the firing right on Jim's Pacific. Marty was so impressed with the simplicity and efficiency of the commercial burners in Jims engine that he took the time to make a set of drawings for them.
Many club members have built variations of these burners and all of us have had good success. After a while we just started calling them 'Marty Burners'.
This is a scan of Marty's original drawing and should print out at 8.5 x 11.
When I decided to build a set of these burners I didn't have the hex brass. Besides that, I couldn't bring myself to throw that much brass in the trash. I looked at the design and figured it was just a piece of brass pipe with a plug in it, so that's how I built mine. When I first looked at Marty's drawing the only thing that bothered me was the slot saw for the burner head. Dremel makes one that is 0.050, and it seems to work just fine. These slots are a bit shorter so being wider helps keep the area about the same. If they are properly built they will run at well over 15 PSI before the flame jumps from the head. That's quite a lot more than 6000 BTU.
This is a drawing for my version of the burners.
These pictures are in order for the easiest way to build a Marty Burner.
If you click on each one it will take you to a page with a larger image
and a short amount of text about this step.
Once you have the burners you'll need a manifold for them. Marty usually built his from pipe fittings.
Several of us club members prefer to make then from square tube. This is a photograph of my (well used) Manifold and Burner assembly.
Marty suggested putting the burners on 2 inch centers and 1 inch from the fire box wall. I've found that you can tighten up the centers to 1.5 if you 'interlock' the flames.
