Steam & Excursion > The ugly (?) side of steam and its dieting

During the years of 1948 -1951 the T&P had converted many Pacific's and mountains into "eagle colors" in honor of the new eagle passenger trains, blue and gray and silver.  One such example # 706 sits underneath the shed at the Shreveport, La  T&P passenger station waiting for its time to leave.  There have been many changes to this engine.  It lost its  elesco feedwater heater, had its drivers updated with LFM drivers,  a nickel steel boiler, and an exhaust steam injector, tender from a retired 2-10-2, all to decrease weight for the Louisiana trackage.  This meant that many older 4-6-0s who handled those trains could be retired.

I remember seeing one of these engines and being shocked at its look!   And, a little later 706 sits on the Texarkana turntable with even more "styling" added to her. Only about 4 of them got the weight reduction  package and we can be thankful for that..

I much preferred the the looks of 705 in her T&P light russia boiler and cylinders,  red cab roof, and black running gear.

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Thanks for neat pictures and explanation.    But, what are LFM Drivers?

Tominde Wrote:

> Thanks for neat pictures and explanation.   
> But, what are LFM Drivers?

LFM was Locomotive Finished Materials, a foundry in Atchison, KS that made, among other things, Universal brand disc drivers.  See:

http://sbiii.com/rr1.html#lfm

Locomotive Finished Materials,  "LFM" drivers.  Some may confuse them with boxpok.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/15 17:28 by tomstp.

They should have hung an Elesco out front on them, put a big Delta trailing truck on them and forego the Eagle paint scheme.  I think they did one or two of the 900 4-8-2s like that too didn't they.   I like southwestern steam engines.  Frisco, MP, SSW, RI and T&P.

Tom, I'm with Don on the Elesco feedwater heater, out in front of the smokebox, just like the T&P had on their wonderful M1, ALCO-built 4-8-2's (you knew that I would be with Don on that score, didn't you?).

I'm curious about that "new" nickel steel boiler on the 706.  If it was a new boiler, then why would they equip it with a steam dome throttle, as opposed to a much more modern American Multiple Valve Front End Throttle?  Any thoughts?

Bob Callahan
Monticello, IN

Bob, I really can't answer the throttle question.  None of the 3 classes of pacifics had a front end throttle.. Only the 4-8-2 and 2-10-4 engines had front end throttles.  T&P actually got lucky on the nickle steel boilers.  They didn't use the engines long enough to start having the leaking problems of nickle steel boilers as a lot of roads did. Rio Grande had a lot of trouble with those boilers on the M-68 4-8-4 and L105  4-6-6-4.  They were always fixing leaks in those things.    In fact one of each blew up because of  low water probably due to leaking boilers.

Only the 5 M-1 4-8-2's and the 2-10-4's had the elescos hung out front.   The pacifics that had elescos, the  2-8-2's, 2-10-2's and the D-10 4-6-0's had them slightly indented into the smokebox .
top.  They were smaller than the others on the 4-8-2 and 2-10-4's which had to be hung out front due to the large size of them.  At one time T&P removed the elesco from a 2-10-4 to see if they would steam good without them.  They did make them steam but fuel usage went way up and after a 3 month trial they put it back on.  They were trying to cut down on maintenance of the heaters since they were   maintenance  intensive. The engines were very good steamers with them.

Yep, I agree with you and Don that elescos sure created good looking power.

Yes, 3 M-1's and 2 M-2's got the eagle paint scheme but on those engines it only lasted about 3 years and they were returned to the normal paint scheme by 1950.  Several pacifics went to scrap in the blue and gray.  And the # 710     4-6-2  in eagle paint went to the gravel company in Louisiana and was used there for many years.  I think it was scrapped in 1970.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/15 20:32 by tomstp.