Steam & Excursion > A Cool Wet Morning Shows What Steam Railroading Was About Here!

Each year we all long to kick off "old man winter" and are anxiously awaiting the return of spring.  So were the crews of steam logging railroads as spring meant the snow had receded and they could return to the high country with their steam powered log trains to harvest more forest timber.

One fine spring day in May 1958 found the the log trains on Medford Corporation's logging line out of Medford, Oregon have returned to the woods to resume their annual ritual of log harvest.  Fortunately for us, Jerry Hanson was there to record the scene.

We know this is a cold and wet morning at MEDCO Pond just outside of Butte Falls by the water dripping off the tender from the rain, and the steam escaping from the engine.  It must be cold enough that the fireman on MEDCO Willamette #7 has opened the line heat valve to heat the oil line from the oil bunker to the burner.  We see a small vapor could coming off the line heat pipe encasing the oil line below the cab.  Note too that on the tender the letteing for one of this engines prior owners, Anderson Middleton is starting to show through onher tender flanks.

On the next trip #7 makes to the MEDCO shops in Medford, they will ask the CMO to correct the fireman's check valve as we see she is leaking pretty good on this fine morning.  Once the day warms up, that leak will make the fireman's use of his injector an increasingly frustrating experience.

Soon Willamette #7 will have her train of fresh cut logs assembled and she will depart for Butte Falls where she will exchange these loads for a string of empties that MEDCO Baldwin 2-8-2 #3 has brought up from town and the ritual of springtime logging will have resumed.

Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/16 05:07 by LoggerHogger.

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I went to add an edit...to my essay on leaking piping..

i hit the 'edit' button a couple of times and the essay is now , mysteriously, lost.

And NO, I didn't  hit the 'delete' button by mistake...been there, done that....
Maybe someone can recover the original...

W.

There's more wrong with that boiler check valve, than what 'lapping' could cure.

The piping joint between the check valve body and the injector delivery pipe is where the leak is.
The problem is that with a leak that severe, with continued use, it will only get worse ( due to metal erosion) leading to a totally failed joint.

You never want to continue to operate with a steam leak that severe, in a boiler water supply line.
Back in the day, that was a severe violation of the 'safe and suitable condition for service' requirement by the ICC for continued operation.  The FRA has stronger enforcement rules available today.
The roundhouse forces should never have allowed that engine to depart in that condition. The crew should never have taken that engine to work.

But, that's the scary thing about logging operations, in general......they always operated their equipment ( of all sorts) in barely runable shape...".oh, let's just try and get her through another day ..."
"Never time to do it right, but always time to do it over."

The term 'lapping' ( in discussing check valves and other steam/air/water valves) refers to the practice of repairing the mating surfaces of the operating disk of the check ( using abrasive lapping compounds)  and the fixed seat of the valve body.  
The constant use of the worn check, over time, wears minute grooves in the seat components.  As the grooves are continually eroded, the check never completely closes----- the continuously leaking  steam in an internal leak that is not visible; but, eventually the leak can overheat the whole injector body, making it very hard to get the injector to prime, or to pick-up.  
However injectors are manufacture with their own discharge checkvalve for just such an occurrence as an internally leaking boiler check. And in some applications, an additional check valve is installed just 'downstream from the injector body.

So, there's a distinction between an external leak, as we see here ( apparently, in this case the the leak is coming from both a valve leaking---- past the internal check and past the threaded-joint ), and the internal, non visible leaks of a faulty check, at its seat.
I surmise that the injector is not forcing water at this time, and that the leak is simply boiler pressure leaking at a totally defective boiler check. Had the injector been operating, and forcing water, there would be a steady sream of injector-fed water at that bad joint---- being under considerable pressure, that water leak would be a REAL show.....

In today's world, if you ever see that condition on an operating steamer, ----- RUN, don't walk, away from that operation.
Get to a safe distance before reporting that condition to the operating owners.....if they fail to take action, go further.
Shoot me an email at wcamp91543@aol.com.....'document'  the situation & I'll get into it, with 'my people' and it WILL get fixed!

​W.

 

I did a copy/paste and re-post...

My original intent was to add & relate a similar incident that I experienced where the ring-joint at the boiler shell would leak when cold water went through it, while the water pump was operated.,

It only leaked during then, &  showed up 'over the road', ----- fixed it before next trip....

Never leaked since..

​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/16 10:35 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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> The roundhouse forces should never have allowed
> that engine to depart in that condition. The crew
> should never have taken that engine to work.
>
> But, that's the scary thing about logging
> operations, in general......they always operated
> their equipment ( of all sorts) in barely runable
> shape...".oh, let's just try and get her through
> another day ..."
>
> ​W.

Wes,

I must take polite exception to your condemnation of steam powered logging railroad operators.

You have unfairly based your criticism of them by holding them to the same standards of that of a mainline or even shortline railroad.  Logging lines operated usually under vastly different conditions.

First, the steam locomotives of the mainline operators were usually bought new and maintained by the mainline road under strict guidelines of maintenance.  Logging locomotives (like the one in this photo) were often bought 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th hand from other prior owners.  The level of prior maintenance was not as constant as that of the mainline roads.

Next, you assumed that this lokie (as logging locomotives were called) had been dispatched with this crew from a "roundhouse with it's own roundhouse crew".  Not so.  Certainly, most mainline and even shortline operations had roundhouses and backshops with many experiaince maschinists on hand ready to work on the engines every night when they returned to the roundhouse.  That was a luxury not found on logging railroads.  As an example, here is a photo of MEDCO Willamette #2 tied up for the night at the "shop" at Butte Falls Camp.  Yes, that is the WHOLE shop!

Most logging locomotives (and certainly most geared lokies) did not have the luxury of a roundhouse or a roundhouse crew to maintain them.  Many logging lokies were maintained in the woods in the log camp by the operating crew and perhaps a jack of all trades machinist.  In the case of the MEDCO operation shown here, their small fleet of geared lokies were service in an open-air trio of tracks at their Butte Falls logging camp.  The MeDCO lokies only went into Medford to the roundhouse there when major servicing was required.  All the daily servicing week in and week out took place in the log camp out in the open with few tools available.

Given the remote nature of most logging camps (such as the MEDCO camp at Butte Falls) the steam crews did a magnificent job of maintaining these lokies and keeping them ready for rigorous 6-7 day a week service in the woods.  MEDCO never had a boiler failure or other serious mechanical failure on any of it's fleet of rod-type or geared lokies during all the years they operated.  The mill pond was always full of logs brought down by train from the woods and the railroad itself lasted until 1962 when finally trucks took over. 

This says a lot for the type of maintenance the crews gave their lokies.

Martin
 



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/16 03:13 by LoggerHogger.

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Touché!
Point well taken.., Sir.
I apologize for my prejudicial comments regarding logging operations, never having been around them.

And, yes, during war times, especially---- I have heard of scary stories about Big Mainline operations related to maintenance issues and scary, yet ingenious work-arounds taken by Engine crews--- just to get over the road.

The thing about the steamers (lokies) was that they COULD endure a lot of abuses and shortcuts, and still remain capable, over not only rough treatment by the people, but by the rough terrain, the brutal weather, poor, I'll-equipped facilities, and immense logging loads.

Logging lore is filled with heroic stories and legends of great accomplishments in harvesting millions of acres of American
old-growth forests...

W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/16 08:59 by wcamp1472.

Having kept steam locomotives operating on a demanding basis, there are many tricks to keep them running...safely and reliably.  Leaky boiler check is not a major problem (makes running a lifting injector frustrating) and is a quick repair as long as the stop valve closes tight.

I commend the west coast logging outfits on their creative approaches to keeping hard working steamers working 7 days a week for months on end.  I've seen some iffy repairs that lasted years and some unbelievable repairs that kept them running until the logging show was over.

Oh Wes, haven't you ever lapped a leaking union with a liberal amount of welding rod?

Out

No, but I've beat the bejeesus out of the union nut with a hammer!!!

My welding skills are rudimentary, at best....
Especially when attempting cast iron repairs, like union nuts, etc.

​W.

I enjoyed the photos and the discussion very much. A small correction: Medco ran it's last train from the woods in 1962.

Thanks for catching my typo Tony.

Martin

Where are the air pumps on the #7? I see the hoses are tied up so they are using air in this train. #2 had no pumps on the engineers side either. If they were bunks, no air would be in use, and engines would not even need to have any air brakes.  Note the Safety Appliance Act which first listed:  4-wheel cars: Exempt.  Locomotives used exclusively for logging service: Exempt.  Log train even without air ran over common-carrier railroad taking advantage of these SAA exemption and ICC had no jurisdiction. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/16 04:43 by PlyWoody.

Both MEDCO #7 and #2 have their cross-compund pump on the engineer's side in front of the cylinders.  If you go back and look close at the photo of #2 you will see the pump just ahead of the cylinders, tucked in a little bit.  They show very clearly in this photo of #7 down at the MEDCO min=ll.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/16 06:05 by LoggerHogger.

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