Steam & Excursion > Triple expansion steam locomotives?

Triple expansion steam engines, where steam is expanded three times in successively larger cylinders before exhausting to a condenser, were common in steamships, but does anyone know of any steam locomotives that took compounding beyond two expansions? 

A friend recently shared the attached drawing of a proposed triple-expansion compound, water-tube boiler, cab-ahead 4-6-4+4-6-4 locomotive designed by Doble Steam Motors in 1928.  Based in Emeryville, CA, Doble was best known (if known at all) for producing around 35 finely crafted, steam-powered automobiles.  Abner Doble's inability to stop tinkering and release his cars from production, along with the high price of hand-building each car, reportedly prevented the company from achieving much market penetration before advances in internal combustion engines sent steam cars the way of the dodo bird. 

From the looks of the drawing, Doble had much grander ambitions than mere automaker, and evidently had engineering talent (or at least drafting talent) to spare.  The front section of this beast contains the water tube boiler, the high and medium-pressure cylinders are mounted in tandem under the cab, and the thing that looks like a firebox at the back of this section is the fuel tank.  The rear section houses the condenser, the low-pressure cylinders drive the six big wheels underneath it, and the thing that looks like firebox at the back is the water tank.  The cab configuration suggests Southern Pacific was the unwilling target market, but as far as I know, none of these things was ever built.  Did any other railroads anywhere else in the world actually field steam locomotives that used steam thrice?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/16 22:48 by Evan_Werkema.

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With 1500 lbs boiler pressure you would never find a crew to run it, or maybe even fire it up.

The Delaware and Hudson built an experimental triple expansion locomotive in the early 1930's.  It used a high pressure water tube boiler (500psi) and poppet valves. It used two pairs of cylinders (one pair under the cab) driving the main wheels.  One of the rear cylinders operated on high pressure steam from the boiler, the other rear cylinder used the exhaust steam from the HP cylinder, then the steam was used in the front LP cylinders before being exhausted.  It only had 63" drivers, so was not able to operate at very high speeds.  Like many other experimental designs, the improvements in thermal efficiency were not worth the additional mechanical complication.

You can read about it here .


 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/16 07:39 by sgriggs.

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More information on the D&H L.F. Loree is available at the bottom of this page:

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/USAhp/USAhp.htm

Note the comments by a D&H employee regarding the locomotive's reliability problems on the road:   "Every time we sent her out a machine shop had to go with her"

 
 

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There's a reason why single-expansion locomotives were referred to as "simple".

Posted from iPhone

I was going to mention the D&H experiments but was not sure if they were really triple expansion as they had a multi pressure boiler.

Offhand guess: D&H had no multipressure boilers.

The Liberty ship triple expansion engines turned 76 RPM, give or take, and produced 2500 shaft HP.
Very impressive machinery  and I recommend all to go either to Baltimore or San Francisco and
witness the engine under power.

ValvePilot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Liberty ship triple expansion engines turned
> 76 RPM, give or take, and produced 2500 shaft HP.
> Very impressive machinery  and I recommend all to
> go either to Baltimore or San Francisco and
> witness the engine under power.

Also the Victory ship ported in Los Angeles.

masterphots Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ValvePilot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The Liberty ship triple expansion engines
> turned
> > 76 RPM, give or take, and produced 2500 shaft
> HP.
> > Very impressive machinery  and I recommend all
> to
> > go either to Baltimore or San Francisco and
> > witness the engine under power.
>
> Also the Victory ship ported in Los Angeles.

Victory ships use steam turbines.

WP-M2051 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> masterphots Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > ValvePilot Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > The Liberty ship triple expansion engines
> > turned
> > > 76 RPM, give or take, and produced 2500 shaft
> > HP.
> > > Very impressive machinery  and I recommend
> all
> > to
> > > go either to Baltimore or San Francisco and
> > > witness the engine under power.
> >
> > Also the Victory ship ported in Los Angeles.
>
> Victory ships use steam turbines.

When I last took a trip on it, there was some huge piston/con rod moving ever so slowly .....sure didn´t look like a turbine.  Somewhere I have photos of the operation.

"> Victory ships use steam turbines......"


What's your definition of 'Victory Ships'?

What's your source for this mistaken statement?
Can you prove it?

W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/16 09:07 by wcamp1472.

The Wikipedia page for Victory Ships says they used either steam turbines, reciprocating steam engines, or diesel engines.  It does say that most Victory ships were powered by turbines.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_ship