Steam & Excursion > Y Santa Fe?

Santa Fe 1795 Albuquerque 10-23-47. I got this negative at a swap meet along with some other AT&SF ones that I'll share later. But hey, who can resist a nice big Santa Fe Y?

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AT&SF 3784 - no data, the negative was slightly damaged. I liked the composition though, and the activivty in it. And, D**N!! That thing is BIG!!!!

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Great looking loco. Too bad Santa Fe did not have more of these and keep them later.

Jeff

It sure has a long smokebox. Any particular reason why?

JDE

rswebber Wrote:

> Santa Fe 1795 Albuquerque 10-23-47.

Must have been just before they were shipped off to the Virginian. These second hand N&W Y-3's were the only Mallets Santa Fe would own after the mid-30's.

Thanks for those images!

John

The 3776 class had very long boilers because of the overall length of the locomotive. Four pairs of 80" drivers take up some track space. Plus ATSF used large lead truck wheels (42"??) which added to the stretched-out look. Underneath, the boiler is normally proportioned: 108 sq.ft. grate, 84" combustion chamber and 21' flues. That's about all you want. Extending the flues beyond 21' would increase resistance to gas flow without adding much to the heat transfer. So the difference is in the smokebox. If the 3784 had something like 74" drivers, for example, the smokebox could be shortened to compensate without changing the heating surfaces.

feltonhill Wrote:
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> The 3776 class had very long boilers because of
> the overall length of the locomotive. Four pairs
> of 80" drivers take up some track space. Plus
> ATSF used large lead truck wheels (42"??)

Yes to the 42" pony truck wheels. And the smoke box was just right for drafting, not to long not to short. Part of the reason for the large smoke box was the Santa fe draft device also called the "Sandhouse petticoat" It was very large at the bottom and went almost to the floor all the way around. It looked somewhat in shape like the NASA space capsule. Once that was in it went almost back to the superheaters and almost up to the smokebox door. When you see inside of a 2900 smokebox you can see that there was not to much room for anything else and little room to walk around in.

rswebber Wrote:

> AT&SF 3784 - no data, the negative was slightly
> damaged. I liked the composition though, and the
> activivty in it. And, D**N!! That thing is
> BIG!!!!

Indeed. In terms of total length, engine and tender, 3784 was a full 14 feet longer than 1795, and fully loaded, was 61 tons heavier. Admittedly, most of 3784's advantage was in the tender, which held 7,000 gallons of oil and 24,500 gallons of water compared to the Mallet's 15,000 gallons of water and 23 tons of coal. Engine alone, 1795 outweighed 3784 by 26 tons, and with more weight on more drivers of smaller diameter, the Y had gobs more tractive effort than the northern.

Interestingly, even with twice as many drivers and the big "platform" out front, the engine portion of 1795 was just one FOOT longer than 3784. According to Worley's _Iron Horses of the
Santa Fe Trail_, Uncle John toyed with the idea of mating the boilers of the 1790-class to the machinery of some of the 3751-class 4-8-4's (which were a little smaller than the 3776-class of which 3784 was a member). The idea didn't leave the drawing board before the 1790's left the Santa Fe for the Virginian in early 1948.