Steam & Excursion > Bad Morning or good morning?

You are fireman on a hand fired 4-6-2, just showing up in the morning.  You throw your grip in a safe place, open the windows and roof vent to clear the smoke in the cab, and manually (there's no air to open the firedoors) peek into the firebox.  This is what you see.   You've got water barely visible at the bottom of the glass. 

Is this a good way to start out your day?  or, bad?   Why?  What are you looking for?

What do you do next to have the engine ready for work two hours from now?

-LD

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/19 16:33 by LarryDoyle.

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What’s that  “square structure” in front of the fire doors....?
I’ve not seen stoker firing table quite like that.

All, in all, I like what I see.    
That’s a firebed I love to work with....some fire at the back, glowing down front, all good signs..
Water’s visible in the glass ?
Is there any residual bolier steam pressure?  Can I use a gentle blower?  
Or, do I have “shop air”?

How long ( how much time)  do I have before the crew takes over?

​W.

( I’ll have a “talk” with the ‘lay-up’ crew, next time I see them, about how I want them to properly ‘bank’ an Engine for extended periods, like over night, etc..
 That fire is definitely NOT what I trained our crews to do....very poor practices..especially the ‘low water’ the morning after’..
But then, I’m not used to dealing with tea-kettles, mostly I liked Big Power).

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/19 16:10 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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> What’s that  “square structure” in front of
> the fire doors....?
Firing table for Standard Type "MB" stoker.  It is horseshoe shaped, it just doesn't look that way under the accumulated ash.
>
> All, in all, I like what I see.    
Pretty much dead on the righthand side.  Bad bank.  Left side looks pretty workable.

> That’s a firebed I love to work with....some
> fire at the back, glowing down front, all good
> signs..

> Water’s visible in the glass ?
As I said, visible at the bottom of the glass.

> Is there any residual bolier steam pressure?  Can
> I use a gentle blower?  
Forgot to mention that.  Abt. 20 psi.

> Or, do I have “shop air”?
No..

> How long ( how much time)  do I have before the
> crew takes over?
Two hours.
>
> ​W.

BTW, this is engine SOO 2719, now safely back in the hands of the LSRM at Duluth, MN.

-John
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/19 16:52 by LarryDoyle.

Looks like a good excuse to go back home! Long live oil burners!

Out

I’m very familiar with MB ( NKP 759) ,  but the apparently ‘square plates’ were unfamiliar..
Also, the stoker jet ‘spray head’ is obscured...

Leaving the stoker elevator full of coal can be problematic...we would reverse our stoker screw to pull the combustible coal down, away from the banked fire....


​W.

The elevator is empty.  You see spillage from handshoveling the bank.

-John

Empty elevator?

That’s a crucial part of proper lay-up preparations....for both the MB & the HT...
I’m glad to see that...

Getting to a fully involved grate & hot firebox is going to be easy...
I’ ll let others chime-in from here..

W.

( It’s good to see a big ‘heel’ of ‘green coal’ around the stoker ‘pot’....under that layer is a big mass of glowing coke....that’s part of the secret.. and I’ll take advantage of it.   i still can’t fugure out the square corners, of the pictured objects, on top of a round elevator tube...).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/19 07:08 by wcamp1472.

Where's the burner?  I can't see the burner.  Who threw all this stuff in the firebox?

The first thing I'm doing is blowing down the water glass and checking the tri cocks to make sure the water is where the glass says it is. Then I would worry about getting the fire in order...

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> Where's the burner?  I can't see the burner. 
> Who threw all this stuff in the firebox?

Don, you outa see what they've got in the tender. Savages I tell ya!

MWPerkins
Puget Sound PV
1522 crew member back in the day

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Txhighballer Wrote:
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> The first thing I'm doing is blowing down the
> water glass and checking the tri cocks to make
> sure the water is where the glass says it is. Then
> I would worry about getting the fire in order...


Exactly!!! Nothing is more important. LD