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Steam, not for heat

PRR
PRR Member Posts: 223
in Strictly Steam
Real steam, lots of pipe and castings, scum-blowing.
How To Fire Up a Steam Locomotive
"...Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) mikado (2-8-2) #491, one of the largest narrow gauge locomotives ever created..." 37 minutes trimmed from 6 hours(!).

Comments

  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,495
    Lot more to it than I thought.

    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • KC_Jones
    KC_Jones Member Posts: 5,792
    At the Strasburg excursion railroad in Pennsylvania you can take a Hostling tour early in the morning. Hostling is the engine prep between runs. They walk you through the entire process and then you can ride in the cab to hook up to the cars. Tour takes about 2 hours and this is starting with a warm/hot boiler that still has enough steam to move the engine.

    I’ve done the tour with one of their engines and this fall did the tour with 611 when it was there. That was truly incredible.
    2014 Weil Mclain EG-40
    EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Boiler Control
    Boiler pictures updated 2/21/15
  • mikeg2015
    mikeg2015 Member Posts: 1,194


    Was watching a a U tube video on the evolution of naval boilers.

    The navy wanted the power and speed, but placing a coal or wood fueled pressure bomb inside a ship of war was not ideal. They were initially made short and compact so they could sit below the water line to be protected from cannonball fire.

    The pinnacle of conventional naval boilers were the Babcock and Wilcox boiler in the Iowa Class Battleships. 600psi!!!

  • mikeg2015
    mikeg2015 Member Posts: 1,194
    I was working in a the crawl/basement of a 1880’s era Catholic Church. It’s been sold and in private hands and the steam system was long since replaced with hot water, then that froze a few years ago, and we were installing gas furnaces.

    Found two 10’ long shovels down there, that I assume were for feeding and stoking the coal boiler.

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