Steam & Excursion > The Syphon & Blowdown Keep The Fireman's Side Busy!

On our Winter Photo Charter this last January, my friend Kevin Madore was along and took a couple of photos that I thought I would re-post here. Both show 2 parts of steam operation that is not always seen by the public.

In the first view, we are running the steam syphon on Mount Emily Shay #1 at Lytle Creek on the City of Prineville Ry. This device uses a 4" steam pipe off the backhead to activate a syphon that is mounted just under the oil bunker on the fireman's side of the engine. We have dropped our hose and strainer into Lytle Creek where the water is quickly sucked up into the syphon and then on up the 4" pipe to the elbow and then down into the tender. Keven has caught me checking the measured stick I use to see how full we have the tender tank. It only takes a few short minutes to fill the tender using the syphon. While back in the days of steam logging many logging lokies had steam syphon's, not many are still in use in this day in age.

In the next shot, He has caught me giving the big 90-ton Shay a blowdown using the blowdown valve in the cab. This daily ritual allows the sediment that may be in the bottom of the boiler around the mud ring to be stirred up and ejected out of the boiler using the 200# PSI of the steam in the boiler. Needless to say, without a blowdown muffler, you have to be careful where you perform this necessary task.

As you can see, even on the fireman's side of a Shay there can b plenty of action.


Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/14 04:45 by LoggerHogger.

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Terrific pictures. That #1 photo has the feel of a nice painting.

Please don't let this degenerate into a bashing on lack of water treatment and blowdowns.


Do you test and treat the "creek water"? In the day, would loggers treat the siphoned water and if so what would they use?

We have tested the water sources we use. This includes City water from hydrants, Lytle Creek and The irrigation canals that we cross.

Not all loggers would test thier water, but most of the larger outfits did and used the available treatments of the day.

Martin

Very nice photos. Thanks for posting.

Nice photos but what they don't show is how much work it was for you guys to wrestle that big hose down the creek bank and into the water!

BTW, Cass uses their syphons on every Bald Knob trip. They take water at Oats Run, where a couple of tanks have been placed on the down hill side to catch water from the stream. They have it easier though, as there is a wood platform and the hoses are dropped down into an opening in the top of the tank.

Michael Allen

Two incredible photos...

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

Great photos...! The first one could have been 80 or so years ago... The second is great; but i happened to spot high voltage line towers in the background....

Again, thanks for posting these great pictures of a great machine...
leroy

Mike,

Yes that hose is pretty heavy and has a mind of it's own. We have several spots along the line that we can take water so it is better for us to simply pack the hose and use it where we can.

Martin

Martin,
Is there a story to the dent in the rear of the tender tank?

The dent in our tender came during the engines logging career when the engine backed into a poorly loaded log car an hit a log extending too far forward.

When the engine was back at Cass, W.V. some poor guy got to go inside the empty tender and bang out the dent with a sledge hammer.

Martin

LoggerHogger Wrote:
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> The dent in our tender came during the engines
> logging career when the engine backed into a
> poorly loaded log car an hit a log extending too
> far forward.
>
> When the engine was back at Cass, W.V. some poor
> guy got to go inside the empty tender and bang out
> the dent with a sledge hammer.
>
> Martin

I'm sure his ears weren't ringing with just praise for that work.

LoggerHogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
some poor guy got to go inside the empty tender and bang out
> the dent with a sledge hammer.
>
> Martin


What?!

From a different trip on Mt. Emily No. 1, Martin and crew assembling the siphon, and I'm not sure, but think this might be at Lytle Creek, as well. Pretty slick and simple machine to take on water.

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Jim,

Actually the photo you just posted is us taking water at one of the irrigation canals that runs through the Crooked River Valley where the COPRy track is. These only run from spring to summer so in the winter we need to use Lytle Creek as that runs year round.

Martin

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Martin,

When you sucked up water from a creek, I know they had strainers on the ends that went into the river.

Didn't the sucking motion stir up the water and cause you to suck up some mud ?? If it did, it would be my guess that you really had to blow down the boiler a lot (both sides) to get rid of it.

Keep those "terrible" pictures coming.

Nudge

When we use the syphon we do not lay it in a muddy bottom but on the rocks on the side. When I first start the syphon I hang the fill pipe over the side so the first rust or debris like mud is cleaned out. After the water is running clear (which is just a second or two) I pull the pipe over the tank opening and fill her with the fresh clean water.

Martin

Thanks,

Nudge