Steam & Excursion > Steam Locomotives Needed This Added Before They Left The Yard!

While fuel and water were the main necessities for all steam locomotives in order for them to operate, there was one more item that the hostlers had to make sure they had on board each day before they left the servicing facility.  That commodity was sand.

We see one such hostler in the Southern Pacific yard in Fresno, California tending to 2-10-2 #3629 under the sand pipe one September day in 1956.  Even these big freight hogs needed to use sand on a regular basis to give them the traction they needed to give them the grip they needed while assisting the heavy freights they were assigned to.

While not a fun task or a glamorous one, the hostler knew he had to make sure she was filled with sand before any engine left the yards for the day.

Martin

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Another great action shot.  The ICC, now FRA, could care less if you couldn't pull up the hill without sand for traction, but you better have sand to use in order to brake the engine and train to stop.  You could not leave any service facility without having sand in the bins.

The "Tractive effort" figures listed in the sheet of steam loco specs: Clean, dry rail or dry, sanded rail...sand under all drivers?
What determines slipping point?  What generates the steam loco  Tractive effort 'numbers'?

GOOD engineers anticipate starting conditions, as they roll to a stop...
Since sand delivery pipes are ahead of the the wheels...thus, you want to have  all the drivers
'on sand' as you come to a stop...if you anticipate a demanding start-up condition(s).

Sand, left behind the drivers, on the rail increases rolling resistance on the train's wheels...
With steamers, we have 'rail-washers',  behind the powered drivers.  It was typically a cab-located valve
that the engineer opened ( delivering boiler water to the rail--- that flashed into wet-steam ... cleaning the rail-head).

Diesels don't  have rail washers... but had lots of brothers shoving...

Worst stuff I've experienced for slipperyness  was rails coated with corn syrup residue from empty tank cars.
Empty Tank cars were pulled from customer's plant, without closing the bottom valves & replacing the drain valve caps...
slowly dripping gooey corn syrup  and 'strings' wind-blown onto the running rails.  
This was on the CRIP RR, up West Davenport hill, after crossing the Mississippi...

In '79 & '80, I was on local switcher duty...and we got many pleas ( over the radio) for rescue boosts up the hill,
from trains stalled by gooey rails. Every train over the sticky rail extended the slippery spot...rain only made it worser...
aided in spreading the curse...

​W.
 

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/20 06:34 by wcamp1472.

All diesels use sand, too.

Probably I've seen one before and it escapes me, but Iook at the tender (whale back?) behind that big horse...I guess I'm programmed to expect those to only be behind an SP narrow gauge locomotive....great photo!

Cheers, Dave

The big Mikes had them as well.

Out

How much Sand did that Steam Loco use/carry compared to a Diesel ?

Shouldn't that worker be wearing a helmet and safety vest? Amazing how anyone survived without them back in the day. 

Hard to compare...

Steamers were serviced more frequently....
Dismals had sand boxes in 4 corners, and may have a pipe to each corner of the truck frame.
Also,  typically there were for or more units MU'd to power the trains....so,  you potentially
had, say 16 sand boxes to fill, vs. one for the steamers..,

Other factors were at play also...territory terrain, weather, etc. 
Not really a significant distinction to worry about..
 
When spotted at the sand tower, you tended to fill up the boxes...

Some facilities skimped on filling the dismals' boxes ....anticipating that other facilities would have greater supplies,
so the out-lying service points tended to skimp on serving 'foreign' engines at the smaller terminals...

The 'human factor' had more to affect the quantity of sand actually given to road engines...

​W.

Then there was/is the QUALITY of the sand. Where the sand is obtained was/is critical to its intended purpose, otherwise it is just "ball bearings" between the wheel and the rail head. I remember that EMD even had an Engineering drawing for "Sand", which was pretty funny to some folks, but it provided a lot of information, such as NOT using "river-bottom sand". The sand for railroad use must be quarried, in order for the grains of sand to be sharp, i.e. NOT nice smooth sand from rivers or lakes.

A case in point was the KCS RR, many years ago. They got a bunch of new units, that were equipped with EMD's patented "Super-Series" wheel adhesion control system (50s, 60s, and 70 Series units). It didn't take long before the KCS was complaining that the new units where NOT "pulling as advertised". After sending Service Dept. and Engineering Dept. personnel to ride the heavy trains, south of Pittsburgh, KS., the root cause was determined to be the sand. The KCS somehow changed their supplier of locomotive sand, and it was found to be "river-bottom sand", i.e. nice smooth little "ball bearings" between the wheel and rail! When the proper sand was supplied and used, the "pulling problems" disappeared.