Steam & Excursion > A Single Locomotive Chosen For These 3 Different Experiments!

There were times that various railroads in the steam era would experiment with various appliances for certain steam locomotives on their rosters. Here is just one such experiment.

Between 1937 and 1939 the Western Pacific shop crews wanted to develop workable smoke lifters for their fleet of used 4-8-2's obtained from the Florida East Coast Railroad. Here are the 3 versions they came up with in order of their creation.

WP #172 was the only WP engine to outfitted with each of the various versions of the smoke deflectors. The first one was the largest and by far the most hideous in design. It was soon abandoned as she was found too inefficient for the job.

The second version shown on #172 at Oakland in 1937 we see lasted a bit longer, but it too was deemed not to give the smoke enough lift to be warranted.

The 3rd and final design shown on #172 at Oroville in July 1939 was the one finally chosen as efficient enough to remain in service.

While none were things of beauty, you can certainly credit the shop crews for ingenuity for their design.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/17 03:57 by LoggerHogger.

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LoggerHogger Wrote:


> WP #172 was the only WP engine to outfitted with
> each of the various versions of the smoke
> deflectors. The first one was the largest and by
> far the most hideous in design. It was soon
> abandoned as she was found too inefficient for the
> job.

According to page 139 of Dunscomb & Stindt's Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains, and Cars, this was the second version of the smoke lifter, applied to 4-8-2's #172, 173, and 177 in 1938. The book has a 1938 photo of 172 carrying this style of lifter on p.155 and photos of 177 in December 1938 on pages 144 and 150.

> The second version shown on #172 at Oakland in
> 1937 we see lasted a bit longer, but it too was
> deemed not to give the smoke enough lift to be
> warranted.

The book says this was the first version, applied in 1937. A cropped version of this photo is on p.150 of the book, credited to Guy Dunscomb, Oakland, CA, December 1937. Page 150 also shows engine 178 fitted with an even more hideous style of smoke lifter in April 1938, which 172 apparently never got.

> The 3rd and final design shown on #172 at Oroville
> in July 1939 was the one finally chosen as
> efficient enough to remain in service.

This photo appears on p.141, credited to James E. Boynton. The same page has a Dunscomb photo of 172 in February 1939 with no lifter fitted at all.

The flange-in-front-of-the-stack was the final smoke lifter configuration, but not necessarily the final shape. Some of the 4-8-2's got lifters that tapered back further on the stack rather than coming halfway back and then dropping straight down - see this view of WP 173:

https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/keyword/salt/i-7wbMg6F/A

Interesting that he headlight has a shield on it.

Hi Martin - very interesting deflector designs. The British Bulleid Pacifics in their original form had smoke deflectors built into the 'air smoothed' design. It didn't always have the desired effect as can be seen with 34057 'Biggin Hill' at Woking, restarting the 1pm London Waterloo to Exeter on 31st March 1967. The combination of steam, smoke and a crosswind meant that the driver's (engineer's) view ahead was completely obscured for several seconds as the locomotive restarted the train.
John McIvor
svsfilm.com

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John,

Your photo reminded me of this.

Martin

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I always found that 2-6-0 with smoke lifters pretty amusing. I wonder if it ever ran over 30 mph?

Wasn't necessary, you just needed to get the wind direction right!

Out

Amusing, is an understatement, almost hilarious. It looks like something my late father might have kit bashed in HO scale. About the only other thing it could use, is the smooth pilot from a Milwaukee Road northern like the #261.
This photo still makes me smile. It looks like the owners really admired the big power on other roads. They even put skirts under the all weather cab. This had to take a lot of somebodies time to concoct. The all weather cab probably made good sense in Manitoba, but like was mentioned above, the elephant ear smoke deflectors probably had little effect.
Thanks again for the photo, Martin

C. Hanson
Vay, Idaho

hawkinsun Wrote:
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> Amusing, is an understatement, almost hilarious.
> It looks like something my late father might have
> kit bashed in HO scale. About the only other
> thing it could use, is the smooth pilot from a
> Milwaukee Road northern like the #261.
> This photo still makes me smile. It looks
> like the owners really admired the big power on
> other roads. They even put skirts under the all
> weather cab. This had to take a lot of somebodies
> time to concoct. The all weather cab probably
> made good sense in Manitoba, but like was
> mentioned above, the elephant ear smoke deflectors
> probably had little effect.

Judging from the all weather cab, bay windows and covered tender. I'd say that ran in some real bad weather. Perhaps they encountered lots of headwinds.
> Thanks again for the photo, Martin
>
> C. Hanson
> Vay, Idaho