Steam & Excursion > steam locomotive emitting steam in the wrong locations.

After leaving Camp Roberts one summer day and heading north on hwy 101, I saw the coast passenger # 91
at the King City depot. Steam was coming out around the cyl piston rod in sufficient amount to take notice.
I would assume the rod packing was shot as this was '55 or '56 and SP steam was on it's last legs. But could
it also have been a leaky throttle assembly? There was no one about, I guess the head end crew were at
beans.


 

If it is leaking steam at either of these packing glands and no one is around, then you surmise correctly - both the placking gland and the throttle are leaking.

-John

---

It depends....

Early, older, steam engines commonly used Hydrostatic.lubricators.
These, to simplify, are water-displacement devices ( at boiler pressure) containing an elevated oil tank and separated piping & 'metering' valves to regulate the flow of oil and steam to various devices needing lubrication.

In order to get the oil flow to go 'down hill',  to the devices, the lubricators are mounted high up in the cabs.  In the hydrostatic lubricators the entire internal pressure in the body of the lubricator is at BOILER PRESSURE.  This ensures that the oil dribbled into the delivery lines is injected, down stream, to the cylinders , etc.  The oil, being contained in a reservoir,  at boile pressure; therefore, the oil flow away from the boiler is ensured.....

NOW, because trains may stop for varying intervals, the oil keeps flowing from the lubricator..... If the main pistons are stopped, there's no reason to dribble that oil and its attendant steam flow,  thus there is a way to turn 'off' the oil flow to the cylinders, while still lubricating accessories like the air compressors.  It's up to the engineer to turn off the oil to the cylinders.....he may forget...

SOOOOO. What may be going on here is, maybe, an older style engine, parked with the lubricator functioning and its attendant cylinder oil/steam still flowing, it's not a lot of oil ( if parked for a brief period).  

Your speculation about leaking rod packing may be logical.  But that raises the point you made about leaking throttle valves.
With more information, we could give better attribution as to the source of the steam flow.

I am curious.

Wes C.

( my spell-checker freezes-up, sorry..)

The engineer could have worked steam right up to the stop and didn't open the cylinder cocks after stopping and the steam was bleeding down around the piston rod.   Just a guess.

The chokes in the hydrostatic lubricator are very small, 1/32 of an inch in diameter, or less.  This amount of steam to the cylinders is a bare whisp at the snifters, certainly not enough to hold them closed, and not enough to show leaking at the packing glands as the OP described.

Shutting off the lubricator only shuts off the oil, not the steam.

I am wondering why the engineer would leave an engine unattended with the cylinder cocks closed.

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/16 21:43 by LarryDoyle.

A narrow gauge Mike, above?

What's with the U-bolts holding the crosshead guides, both ends?
Factory practice, or field modification?

Wes C.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A narrow gauge Mike, above?

C&TS 487
>
> What's with the U-bolts holding the crosshead
> guides, both ends?
> Factory practice, or field modification?

Couldn't tell ya for sure, but I'd bet on an in-service modificaion.

-John

A "Rio Grande Fixit".....  Just like the guard over the wrist pin nut to keep it from coming off if it works loose.  All the 480's and 490's have them.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wcamp1472 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A narrow gauge Mike, above?
>
> C&TS 487
> >
> > What's with the U-bolts holding the crosshead
> > guides, both ends?
> > Factory practice, or field modification?
>
> Couldn't tell ya for sure, but I'd bet on an
> in-service modificaion.
>
> -John

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The chokes in the hydrostatic lubricator are very
> small, 1/32 of an inch in diameter, or less. 
> This amount of steam to the cylinders is a bare
> whisp at the snifters, certainly not enough to
> hold them closed, and not enough to show leaking
> at the packing glands as the OP described.
>
> Shutting off the lubricator only shuts off the
> oil, not the steam.
>
> I am wondering why the engineer would leave an
> engine unattended with the cylinder cocks closed.
>
> -John

Violates rules and common sense, but there is one of today's steam "engineers" who does that all the time, because he does not want to see steam, oil, water, or all the above dripping from the cylinder cocks.

Go figure.

Realist Wrote:

> Violates rules and common sense, but there is one
> of today's steam "engineers" who does that all the
> time, because he does not want to see steam, oil,
> water, or all the above dripping from the cylinder
> cocks.
>
> Go figure.

Brings to mind pictures of an engine poking its face out the wall of a roundhouse. Or, in a turntable pit.
-john