Steam & Excursion > Firing & "Efficiency". Part 2

I'll go into a little further explanation ..... I didnt become experienced in steam until I volunteered with George Hart's Rail Tours, Inc and his operation, based in York, PA in '65 & 66.

While there, Hart, a rail fan in the 1920s thru the 30s, 40s & 50s. His nagative collection was composed, mostly, of Kodak, postcard-format b&w.

Astounding stuff ....
Also, Hart was the power behind the inspiration by Reading Co. to resume the Rambles, in 1960, after Hollywood fixed up
the 2124, T-class, 4-8-4, for filming of the movie: " From the Terrace"----- shot in Jersey City. 2124 was too big for Reading Terminal, Philly, so Hollywood 'doctored' the background ads, etc in Jersey City.... To look like Philly...

Following, that Hart was adviser to Reading until '64, the last year of the Rambles.
They ran more than 50, and Hart was the key to the excursions & Reading's Gen'l Boiler Inspector was the Key Man to the mechanical operations of keeping three T1s in fan trip service : 2124, 2100 & 2102...

Anyway, Hart described the Antracite firing practices on the Reading. Kantner coached me on care and feeding and Ross Rowland gave me wings...

So, aside from growing up
In a home heated by BlueCoal, anthracite, ) and firing up the cold fire in the mornings & banking the fire to go all nite,... )

it was Hart that explained how the Reafing crews managed their fleet of Anthracite burners...

Anthracite burns low & slow.
It's heat is mostly 'radiant', and confined to the firebox.
Because of the low, blue flames, they were not much at superheating... Most ( old style) ran saturated steam to the cylinders.

Because the engines could burn the non-marketable sizes of Anthtacite, those Anthracite 'Roads devised a way to burn it, as it was a 'free' fuel.

Designer, Wooten, of the Lehigh Valley, devised an immense, wide grate and a broad curving, low arch, crown sheet for the firebox... Since most of the heat was radiant, and the fuel burned slowly, The combination worked well for modest to medium-sized engines: switchers, 2-8-0, 4-4-0, 4-4-2, 4-6-2, etc, These types predated the coming of successful superheating designs, developed during the early 20th century.

Firing Anthracite was very much a matter of proper fire preparation.... Once built, the coal slowly oxidized, and the ensuing, burned out sections had to be covered with fresh coal, ----before the old embers became cold. So, burning hard coal was smattering of bare spots in a fairly deep fire, that you watched, and fed the bare spots.

Anthracite fire will
not soread, laterally,,,, the heat will not ignite adjacent fresh fuel, only the fuel that lands on top of the hot embers will ignite and slowly burn.

If you look in the fire box at an active Anthracite bed, the coal burns with a low, blue flame, and the deeper embers burn red, until they die..

As I said, the heat is radiant, vey hot and boils water well.
However, it won't work for the genomes that took advantage of superheating, in the years before WW1.

The wide firebox, endangers the engineer ( he had to hang out so far) so they moved the cab to the middle of the boiler, and called them Camelbacks, or, Mother Hubbards.... (The cabs looked like her cupboard)

Because firing anthracite was a matter of covering the Bare spots, stokers were never developed for locos.

The power demands were constantly changing, unlike power plants and boats, where the loads were constant ----- locos needed a keen set of eyes to predict the bare spots, and cover them with well-placed scoops...

Also, anthracite burners, typically, were not fitted with firebrick arches over the grates. Because the draft rates through the firebed a was very slow, superheating was not really a concern.

The mid-boiler location of the Cab, meant that broken, whirling siderods, would tear open the cab floor and kill the engineers... Soon the old ICC laws banned the manufacture of mid-cab engines, in the early 1900s

According to Hart, the trip from Reafing Terminal to Jersy City, could be run, at timetable speeds, WITHOUT the fireman having to add any coal.... Even though there were a couple of stops in the schedule.... That skill was a contest that only the best crews could manage... It took both members to baby the engines so that they could accomplish that ....

So, now you can see that efficiency-wise, anthracite burners were easy yo fire and easy to keep up with,,,

With the introduction of successful superheaters,
Locomotives became more capable of sustained steam production, could haul longer trains for greater distances, at lower costs.

But the improvements were evolutionary, since a lot of the big factory machinery to construct the bigger engines was yet to be developed.

Navy ships, with the development of Ericcson's rotating turret fitted to descendants of the 1863 "Monitor --- began to sprout several turrets, mounting bigger and bigger guns. Again, developing the manufacturing machines to
Make the bigger pieces, soon could be adapted to making large parts for locos --- thus small 2-8-0 locos, morphed into 2-8-2s, carrying deep fireboxes supported by trailer trucks...

Lima's development of the 4-wheel, "trailer frame", was necessary because the ability to cast the one-piece, "cast engine bed" had not yet been perfected,,,, However, the casting of cylinders with the front portion of the loco frame was an early, first step...

After the introduction of the C&O 2-10-4, and the explosion of production of the Berks for various roads, the whole Ametican economy got a kick-start.... Until the adoption of the Smoot-Hawley Tarrifs.

The Tarrifs hit the American farmers worse than they punished the European factories,,, the Europeans soon bought the grain they need from other countries than the USofA ....Soon, farmers bid not have the money to buy stuff, or the need to grow crops, since there were no buyers.... Factories, closed, banks did nasty things, panic hit the gamblers of Wall Street, firms and more factories closed, and railroads lost most of their business...

But, things like the development of the 4-8-4 and large engines went-on, apace...
To be continued...

W.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/17 09:58 by wcamp1472.

Now to take up 'soft coal '

With the demise, and obsolescence, of the Camelbacks, Antracite soon was not able to power the larger, replacement engines that were superheated.

The later engines of the anthracite roads, soon adopted the practice of burning a blend of the two
types... The later fireboxes incorporated the brick arch and other equipment, including stokers, superheaters and similar improvements.

The RDG T-1s grew out of the need for healthy power after WW2, (had worn out all
the old steamers) and the high costs of replacement diesels, typified by multiple unit sets, was prohibitively expensive.

Reading, took the old 2-8-0, 2000 series engines, added the cast one-piece steel, complete chassis, lengthened the boiler shell ----- added an all-welded tender. It built about thirty T-1s, for under $100,000 per copy,

They were great performers, right out of the shops,.... Last versions, like 2124 had all roller bearing axles. ( the earlier engines used Hennessy, pump operated oil cellars....on the driver boxes; Rollers on the smaller axles)
Two single-action pumps. were push-rod activated, as the drive axles slid, side to side. The pumps refilled the pads and lubricated the driver hubs..
Hennessys failed if crushed or damaged...)

So the T1 class served as a good example of how a modern "soft coal
burner" operates ,,,, take a big, flat grate, add a stoker and superheater, a long lire box combustion chamber, and a properly drafted smoke stack ... And you've got the basics.

Firing bituminous is different than firing hard coal, in that the stuff burns with a long flame and the temperature varied with the wind velocity through the thin firebed.

Thus, firing the soft coal successfully means bringing a lot of coal to the bed, and replacing it constantly.... An ideal assignment for a power operated screw stoker.

The draft through the bed is much different from a hard coal engine---- where the draft is low and steady, not varying rabidly. Sure you had to get the bed ready for a hard climb up a hill, but you stated well
In advance...

Soft coal burns very quickly, according to wind velocity.
The design of the modern grate and brick arch, together with the long combustion chamber, means that at varying draft rates (determined by the power setting combination of the throttle/ valve travel) dramatically changes the draft characteristics....

Specifically, the flame path is designed to be lengthened by the brick-arch forcing the wind, back & around the top of the brick arch ( Where Ralph Johnson got his high velocity reading's )...

HOWEVER, the shorter, higher velocity path is at the back of the grate and up
the rear, door sheet, --- thus the two wind velocities, burn the coal at two different rates:
Slow, over the 80% of the grate covered by the brick arch, and....
Very Rapid up
the region at the rear door sheet and the stoker firing table....

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Low battery warning...
More to come, later ..

W,

Posted from iPhone



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/17 12:08 by wcamp1472.

I was always told that the Ramble engines used a combo of bituminous and anthracite coal. Memory says !0% hard rest soft.
I found this chart many years ago,saved as a jpg, hope it comes out.
I did watch a T being serviced at Erie Ave for a Ramble, the coaling tower was dumping lump anthracite then they shifted to another shoot and loaded some of the worst looking coal I have ever seen in my then Young life, looked like bituminous with lots of cinders.
just a comment.

---

If they dumped in X tons of anthracite and moved to another chute to load Y tons of bituminous, the coal could not have been mixed to any particular proportion, could it?

Agree on the Mix procedure, the coaling tower at Erie Ave had seen better days, I am going from memory of a long ago event. I was one a a handful of people who got close to the T while being serviced for a Ramble the next day.
They could have just been emptying what was available? Lost to time.

Very interesting data and I loved the 'chart' ... From 1941,

In my experience with stokers,
any layering of coal, tends to fall into the screw trough, with the bottom stuff falling first, then the upper stuff dribbles & mixes-in.

So layers of coal almost "work out" to fairly even mix rates--- by the time it gets to the firing table...

At the terminals, I suspect that the aggregate coal consumption, for the month, was more important than the actual proportions, per loco.

It's puzzling what was the 'driver', economically?
Also what was the Real reason for mixing?

My suspicion is more to do
with pennies than BTUs ...

Oh well, probably lost to the ages ...

W.

Posted from iPhone

For continuation & conclusion of best firing practices, stoker equipped...
See later posts : "Stoker vs Human question" of 6/21/17


Or send PM, if further information & comments...


Wes C.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/17 06:13 by wcamp1472.