Pat, I’m not sure about your handrail question as I have seen both positions. Perhaps this was a tender type/railroad-specific feature? As a former qualified ‘modern’ steam engineman I have never seen very large tender sand boxes on the engines I’ve been associated with (4-4-0’s to 2-8-2’s and cab rides in UP’s excursion steam) so the tender top filler view is very interesting. The rounded object on the front of the tender you mentioned could be a large sandbox but all the one’s I’ve seen were rectangular and smaller since you didn’t need a large amount of sand to effectively sand the flues during a trip. Yes, steam coils ran through the bunker to heat the oil and as Louis mentioned the heating would create a small amount of pressure. There would be some sort of manual release valve to de-pressurize the bunker before opening the filler. I’ve heard a few stories of the fate of the forgetful fireman who forgot to do so at the oil crane. It only takes a few pounds of pressure to make an awful mess. I vaguely recall one road having automatic pressure relief valves and if an inattentive fireman didn’t pay attention to his bunker temperature he could ‘cook’ his oil causing it overpressure in the bunker and flow out of the valve. At low speeds this would create a runny mess but at high speed the oozing oil would cool and become stringy creating an ugly mess on anything trailing. Earlier there was a question about lids to cover the exhaust stack. From what the old heads I learned from told me and engines I’ve worked the stack flap was to keep rain water and such out, not heat in. Fire or no fire the stack needs to be open to complete the draft which promotes consistent heating throughout the boiler whether it’s on shop steam or with a banked (coal) or spotted (oil) fire. You need a continuous flow of air from the firebox out through the stack to keep the boiler uniformly hot. Some may not know that it would take hours if not most of the day to bring a large boiler up to operating temperature. As has been mentioned previously about cooling the boiler down slowly to avoid metal fatigue, the same applies to heating it up, and keeping temperatures uniform as they rise or fall is the key goal. Hope this helps, Tom From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 7:47 PM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] What's The Hostler Doing? Thanks for the photo as I have been looking for one for several years. I have a couple of questions for anyone the list who can provide an answer. Was the handrail always offset to the side or did some come down the center line. The only oil tender I have seen is FW&D’s 304 in Wichita Falls, which has a centered hand rail? Was there a steam line inside the bunker to heat the oil so it would flow? An earlier post mentioned a slight amount of air pleasure to help push the oil out so where would the relief valve be on this tender? Thanks again for the photo. Sent: Friday, April 15, 2016 5:38 PM Subject: Re: [CBQ] What's The Hostler Doing? [1 Attachment] [Attachment(s) from LZadnichek@aol.com included below]
Scott - I've attached Jonathan's cropped image showing the topside of 5632's tender. You can clearly see the sand box pipe cover just back from the cab roof, as well as the Bunker C fuel oil lid cover at the rear of the tender, each at far ends from each other so there would be no mistake in filling..... Thanks Jonathan, your image answers a lot of questions. Best Regards - Louis In a message dated 4/15/2016 4:12:27 P.M. Central Daylight Time, CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
Jonathan,
Can you post this email with the images to the group for us all to view? Thanks, Scott Myers On Fri, Apr 15, 2016 at 4:02 PM, jonathanharris@earthlink.net [CBQ] <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote: Happy to, Louis. I can't see folks' email addresses here (tho very competent people have tried to show me how). So could you please send me your email to jonathanharris at earthlink.net
Best,
Jonathan
---In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, <LZadnichek@...> wrote :
Jonathan - I'm unable to get into the file. Please copy and send both images as regular attachments. Would like to see. Thanks - Louis
FWIW, I just uploaded a crop/zoom of that photo (in the same album) showing the tender top a little more clearly.
Jonathan
__._,_.___
Posted by: "Tom Kline" <tkline@airmail.net>
![]()
__,_._,___
|
|
