Steam & Excursion > Question for Bob K or Hotwater

On 844 trips like the current one, who stays up with 844 to keep her hot? Or is the boiler filled with water, heated till almost steam, then shut down till the wee hours next day and relit?

Thanks in advance.

Posted from iPhone

CPRR Wrote:
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> On 844 trips like the current one, who stays up
> with 844 to keep her hot?

Nobody, she stay "hot" overnight even without a fire.

Or is the boiler filled
> with water, heated till almost steam, then shut
> down till the wee hours next day and re-lit?

Not quite. The procedure is to fill the boiler almost completely full, all the while maintaining 280 to 300 psi. Then about 10 or 11 PM, the fire is extinguished, and all steam supplies are shut off, the cab is closed-up and locked. The boiler remains hot over night and still has about 150 psi steam pressure, when the fire is re-lit, about 5AM.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Jack answered your question and that's the way it is done.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Thank you very much gentleman.

Posted from iPhone

I don't know if their procedure included capping the stack, but we capped 1522 in addition to the steps they mentioned. Capped stack and closed dampers. She stayed hot enough to relight for a long time.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> I don't know if their procedure included capping
> the stack, but we capped 1522 in addition to the
> steps they mentioned. Capped stack and closed
> dampers. She stayed hot enough to relight for a
> long time.

Right Don. I forgot to mention that, i.e. placing a cover over the stack and closing the air intake dampers. Thanks.

Yep, that too. I was just waking up this morn and forgot that as well.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

That's interesting that capping the stack is an important step. I wonder if that's why lots of logging engines had a stack cap attached to the smoke stack. It thought it was just there to cap the stack when it wasn't in service.

When I worked at the NSRM, I remember putting the V&T #25 away, for the week, on a Sunday night. I dumped the fired and topped the boiler off with (cold) water. When I came in to work the next morning, she had a head of steam and her whistle was wheezing!

crackerjackhoghead Wrote:
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> When I worked at the NSRM, I remember putting the
> V&T #25 away, for the week, on a Sunday night. I
> dumped the fired and topped the boiler off with
> (cold) water. When I came in to work the next
> morning, she had a head of steam and her whistle
> was wheezing!

OK, but how did you put "cold" water in the boiler? Even an injector preheats the water as it goes in. However, using a Worthington type S feedwater system, DOES pump stone cold water into the boiler, when the throttle is closed.

wingomann Wrote:
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> That's interesting that capping the stack is an
> important step. I wonder if that's why lots of
> logging engines had a stack cap attached to the
> smoke stack. It thought it was just there to cap
> the stack when it wasn't in service.
It makes a very material difference in how much heat leaves the boiler overnight, which is connected to how much steam is left in the morning.

Posted from iPhone

We were in Galesburg, IL with 1522 and had to do some work on her. We shut her down with a full glass of water and the needle on the peg at 11. Almost 30 hours later, we still had 25psi which was enough to heat the oil and light her off. I was amazed that she stayed hot that long. She had a tight boiler.
We would shut her down when we got back to the MOT and put her to bed and 3-4 days later you could open the firebox door and still get a good shot of hot air.

So they use diesel fuel correct?

CarNutandTrainNut2 Wrote:
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> So they use diesel fuel correct?

No, not anymore, to my knowledge. That was one of the reasons that the current manager had so many problems with leaking staybolts, after he switched from using reprocessed waste oil, to #2 diesel. Seems that was back in 2012 or 2013. Hopefully he learned at least one lesson!

wingomann Wrote:
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> That's interesting that capping the stack is an
> important step. I wonder if that's why lots of
> logging engines had a stack cap attached to the
> smoke stack. It thought it was just there to cap
> the stack when it wasn't in service.
Most of those caps you see are spark arrestors or traps. They keep ashes, cinders and sparks from flying out of the smoke stack catching anything on fire. Because those logging engines are in wooded areas and fire danger is moderate to high.

Posted from Android

When the UP Mechanical team ran the 8444 they burned the cheapest slop oil they could. Evidently that came back to haunt them when one of the crew got burned from a flashback trying to relight the fire that had gone out. They did a study to see what was in the fuel that made it do that. From that time on they burned a #5 Burner oil like what is used to heat up asphalt in the plants.
When I was on the crew we were getting either #5 or #6 bunker oil to burn which burns longer and hotter.
Bunker C was what was burned in these locomotives in the early days and also in the turbine diesels.

Hopefully this explains the fuel situation. While working for Steve I kept good records and was involved with ordering the fuel thru the fuel desk in Omaha.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY