Re: Modern Steam Locomotives -- Spearfish Lake Tales

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Subject: Re: Modern Steam Locomotives

Author:
Lew

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Date Posted: 17:07:48 08/26/12 Sun
In reply to: Lew 's message, "Re: Modern Steam Locomotives" on 17:06:03 08/26/12 Sun

>>>
>>>Steam engines of their day could go a long distance
>on
>>>the coal they carried, but only a short distance
>>>between taking up water to have for steam. Unlike on
>a
>>>ship or sub, the train has no way to cool the steam
>>>back to water, so only gets to use the water once.
>>
>>There were some steam loco's with condenser stems to
>>se the water over. I remember reading in "TRAINS"
>>Magazine about such engines being used in South
>>Africa, but don't remember details. I will search
>>over the next few days and try to get more info. I
>>believe one of the main problems was the loss of
>>forced draught from the steam exhausting up the stack.
>>
>>
>>Lew
>
>
>Here are a couple items I found. The Yahoo search has
>many good hits.
>
>
>Lew

Hear are the hits I got OOPS!

Yahoo Search:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-hptb5&p=condensing%20steam%20locomotives&type=

Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensing_steam_locomotive

Lew

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[> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Modern Steam Locomotives

Author:
K Pelle aka dotB
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Date Posted: 19:09:14 08/26/12 Sun

Unfortunately condensing locomotives usually managed to do any cooling of the exhaust steam by running the condenser pipes through the water tanks. That would soon heat the water in the tanks to near boiling point, at which time the injectors on the engine would not function so they had to use steam powered pumps in order to refill the boilers. Not only that, but there are many other problems which crept into the situation, so often they lost any benefit in travel between watering points. All in all condensing locomotives were seldom a viable solution to the problem - instead most railroads tried to use the largest possible water tank they could and suffered with the inconvenience of frequent water stops.

[> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Modern Steam Locomotives

Author:
Lew
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Date Posted: 19:49:48 08/26/12 Sun

>Unfortunately condensing locomotives usually managed
>to do any cooling of the exhaust steam by running the
>condenser pipes through the water tanks. That would
>soon heat the water in the tanks to near boiling
>point, at which time the injectors on the engine would
>not function so they had to use steam powered pumps in
>order to refill the boilers. Not only that, but there
>are many other problems which crept into the
>situation, so often they lost any benefit in travel
>between watering points. All in all condensing
>locomotives were seldom a viable solution to the
>problem - instead most railroads tried to use the
>largest possible water tank they could and suffered
>with the inconvenience of frequent water stops.

Or else pull extra water tanks (N&W called them 'Thermos Bottles')to extend the range between water stops.

Lew

[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Modern Steam Locomotives

Author:
K Pelle aka dotB
[ Edit | View ]

Date Posted: 21:17:07 08/26/12 Sun

>>Unfortunately most railroads tried to use the
>>largest possible water tank they could and suffered
>>with the inconvenience of frequent water stops.
>
>Or else pull extra water tanks (N&W called them
>'Thermos Bottles')to extend the range between water
>stops.
>
>Lew

And the operating department got belly ached at because that extra tank of water was 'dead' weight, bringing no revenue to the railroad - just one more loss of profit that the financial department hated.

kp