Steam & Excursion > Street Stokers

can anyone elaborate on the pros and cons of the Street Type B stoker vs. other models ?

Never fired with one, don't know of any surviving examples....

The main failing of the Street was the weakness of the 'buckets' kind of vertical conveyance for the coal lumps.

This is a variation of the common type of bucket conveyors used in early agriculture: grist mills and silos.

In loco service, it was common for the chain carrying the little buckets to break: thus the, now loose, conveyor segments, chains,buckets and loose coal, all piled up
in the bottom of the conveyor mechanism. There is no way to effect repairs without a complete dis assembly of the conveyor housing, repair the broken chain and
send her out again!

Google: Locomotive Stoker Company Street, Type B Stoker -- you can get a good idea of how this is product arranged.
Penna RR tried a lot of schemes....most were similar 'disasters'....

For a reliable stoker, use the Standard Stoker MB or the HT (smaller versions HT-1 & MB-1) for successful locomotive stokers ... be gentle, don't force them,
or try to ram the screw... or you'll be under the tender, learning how to extract the the pieces of the drive shaft's shear pin!
Careful, the reduction gears are encased in a grease filled gearbox (at the back end of the screw trough)--- Oh, Joy!)

Wes Camp

As with Wes, I've never fired one, but from what I understand they were very noisy, in addition to the other "virtues" Wes pointed out.

Bucket conveyor stokers were very popular in power plants, but their application to locomotives seems to be shortlived. Both the Street Stoker and the Type D stoker were manufactured by The Locomotive Stoker Co., and the Street fell out of use in the '20's in favor of the Type D "Duplex" stoker. I know an engineer who who went to work for the Great Northern at age 16 during WWII, and claims the Type D was THE BEST.

Both of these stokers made by the Locomotive Stoker Co. inserted the coal thru ports in the backhead, not thru the firedoor. Two attachments to this post show the Street Stoker.

-LD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/13 12:34 by LarryDoyle.

---

---

To: Train1275...

Now, I'm curious....

What was the reason you were asking about a very esoteric aspect of loco history: Street stokers?

The interesting fact is, that there were many attempts by inventors to come up with mechanical "apps" (of their day) that were patented and some were actually manufactured.
Most of these were dismal failures, 'versions 1.0', some went on to modified designs to see limited acceptance.

Another furtive area for failed designs was the development of superheaters, train braking arrangements [a chain attached to the trailing car's brake beams, wound around a large drum controlled by an engineer's lever, the drum's drive wheel was swung to engage the loco's rear driver wheel(s)].

There were also many ghastly contraptions, like the Street stoker, invented for trains and locos: many forms of boiler safety devices and the like.
It makes interesting history; but, thank the gods, never saw the spotlight of success.

Thanks,
Wes Camp

And then there was the Elvin paddle-type stoker..........

OMG !!!

Elvin! (the 'sweep paddles' would get Burnt-off & Stubby, if NOT retracted from the flame path!)

Wes.

The resaon for asking relates to researching information about the NYO&W Bullmoose Class 2-10-2 locomotives that originally had Street Stokers which the crews had little use for. I didn't really understand much about them.

Realist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> And then there was the Elvin paddle-type
> stoker..........


Hanna's also used paddles.

-LD

Fascinating and appalling at the same time. The designer obviously never knew the "KISS" principle "Keep It Simple Stupid!"