Steam & Excursion > Big Boy smoke deflectors

I've seen very few photos of the smoke stack area on the 4000's. They had a smoke deflector that looks like it folded up and down. Did these remain intact to the end of the Big Boy's service life, or was that something that got removed early on ? Is 4014 fitted with one of these ? The Challengers had a very similar front end, did they have deflector to start with also? Do we have any close up photos of the stack area on any of these ? I can't seem to find anything showing the details.

Posted from Android

Are you referring to the clamshell that goes over the stack?

Posted from Android

Yes, not the elephant ears.

Posted from Android

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> Yes, not the elephant ears.
>

Oh, Darn-it !!

W.

We have at least one shot as I recall in our "Big Boys and Challengers" dvd.  I think it was the scene exiting Hermosa Tunnel eastbound helping a passenger train.
If you go to youtube and search for this title and add my name it should show a preview clip.
Here is what the cover looks like if you go to our website under Vintage Steam and look for it.  
http://www.gregschollvideo.com/images/bigboy_lge.jpg
There is no preview there however, just on YT.
Greg Scholl
http://www.gregschollvideo.com

You should be able to find the film "Big Boy" on u-tube.  Look at it and you will see them (stack covers" close and open from above.

There just aren't any good photos taken from above to be had. I've got O scale,& HO Big Boys in brass, they have a lot of details, but none of them have the clamshell hood device. I was kinda wondering if they were removed early to simplify maintenance. I have seen a video somewhere of them being tested for function with an employee up there giving signals. I don't remember seeing one of these on 3985, might have been Big Boy only.

Posted from Android

4004 still had its clamshell in Holliday Park here in Cheyenne. They may have removed them in the recent restoration. So they did keep them into retirement years. 

I would offer a distinction between (commonly understood) smoke deflectors, and the collapsible blast deflectors, like these that were designed to protect the undersides of ‘friable’ bridge structures, tunnels and the like.

Strong exhaust blasts knock loose things like rocks, concrete chunks and related sources of missiles.

Smoke deflectors commonly are designed to direct a stream of air under the exhaust plume to raise out of the low-pressure areas along the top of the locos and the trailing train..  They mostly work only when the trains are traveling at very fast speeds, and the exhaust blast is not strong chugs,   But is a steady jet of high velocity, but low intensity.
 
The “blast deflectors” are designed to redirect the strong steam column coming out of the stacks rearward, back along the top of the boiler.   These Blast effects,  up the stack, are most pronounced at low speeds—— at the lower speeds there is NOT the
boiler-top-hugging clouds of exhaust smoke, and drifting clouds hugging the roof of the trains.

So, I would advocate that we call these, and similar related,  devices:  ‘blast deflectors’...

Wes Camp



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/19 02:12 by wcamp1472.

Wes, do you know if just the 4000's were so equipped, or did other classes use the same apparatus ?

Posted from Android

LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> Wes, do you know if just the 4000's were so
> equipped, or did other classes use the same
> apparatus ?

The Challengers had them also.

Several other RRs used them — there are recently posted photos of Southern RR locos, with blast deflectors.
I think Santa Fe used blast-deflectors.   There are probably several other RRs adopted collapsable blast deflectors.

​W.

Wes,
Union Pacific called them Smoke Deflectors on the 4884s! 
GMUP

Union Pacific can call them anything they want...

​W.

GMUP Wrote:
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> Wes,
> Union Pacific called them Smoke Deflectors on the
> 4884s! 
> GMUP

That's because the UP records & drawings show that the smoke LIFTERS, or otherwise known as "Elephant Ears", were actually named Wind Wings.