Steam & Excursion > Fancy hub caps ?

I was up in Duluth the other day, and drove on up to Two Harbors to see well kept DM&IR 229. It looks to be in excellent condition, so unlike it's sister in Proctor. Not in a good place for photos. A cloudy day, and you've all seen them anyway, but I have to ask about the pony truck on this monstrous locomotive. The hose in front, what is it for ? Couldn't be a sander. Steam rail cleaner maybe, flange lube maybe ? At about 2:00 there is some kind of scraper for the flange, what's that for ? And lastly, what is the purpose of what looks like a bolted on hub cap ?

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LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> I was up in Duluth the other day, and drove on up
> to Two Harbors to see well kept DM&IR 229. It
> looks to be in excellent condition, so unlike it's
> sister in Proctor. Not in a good place for photos.
> A cloudy day, and you've all seen them anyway, but
> I have to ask about the pony truck on this
> monstrous locomotive. The hose in front, what is
> it for ? Couldn't be a sander.

Yet,,,,,,,,it is connected to what sure LOOKS like a sand-trap.

Steam rail cleaner
> maybe, flange lube maybe ? At about 2:00 there is
> some kind of scraper for the flange, what's that
> for ? And lastly, what is the purpose of what
> looks like a bolted on hub cap ?

It does appear that 229 has sand boxes directly above the pilot wheels.

This is the roller bearings used the pilot truck wheels on the DM&IR Yellowstones.

-LD

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The rigid axle is bolted tight to the supporting 'journal box'----- it's similar
to the front spindles of conventional ( non-powered) automotive front wheels.

The inner race of the roller assembly (cup) is also a press-fit onto
the axle --- the rollers and the outer race (cone) rotate as the wheel rotates..

Yes it's a sander....probably related to windy winter storms...

W.

 

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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>
> Yes it's a sander....probably related to windy
> winter storms...
>
> W.
>
...... and, controlling 18,000 ton trains down 2.2 and 3 percent grades, with no dynamics.

-LD

So the axle doesn't rotate, and the wheels rotate independently ? A differential effect then on curves. Might reduce flange & rail wear.

Posted from Android

Makes sense..  

Differential effects acknowledged...

W

 

if the axle doesn't rotate , maybe you want to make sure the wheels don't slide and actually keep rotating ?

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trainman Wrote:
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> if the axle doesn't rotate , maybe you want to
> make sure the wheels don't slide and actually keep
> rotating ?

Just a guess but, since there are no brake shoes on the lead truck wheels, and there is probably something over 60,000 pounds on that lead axle, what pray tell, could/would cause them to "slide"?

I'm just a stranger in steam discussions but the thought occurred that possibly DM&IR designed the sander system
on these, and maybe others on their roster, so that all sanding for the front engine is applied ahead of the pilot wheels
so that a even application of sand is laid down prior to the first driving wheel passing over where it's needed. I haven't
found a photo that shows sander piping ahead of the the first engine, yet. Maybe ICC wouldn't allow this. Just a thought.

Charlie

This is the other engine I visited in Proctor. Kinda hard to see, but it has sander piping ahead of the front engine drivers, and it too has piping ahead of the pony truck. I also found a photo of a 2-10-2 with the same arrangement.

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LocoPilot750 Wrote:
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> This is the other engine I visited in Proctor.
> Kinda hard to see, but it has sander piping ahead
> of the front engine drivers, and it too has piping
> ahead of the pony truck. I also found a photo of a
> 2-10-2 with the same arrangement.

Your picture of the Proctor engine is of the rear engine, showing a sander to the 5th driver.  (The power reverse is over the 5th driver.)  The front engine does not have a sand delivery pipe to the first driver 17 feet forward of the front sandbox atop the boiler, but rather delivers it to the front of the second driver, which explains why they designed the pilot deck sandbox to deliver sand to the pilot wheels.

The D&RGW 2-8-8-2's upon which the DM&IR engines were based (as well as D&RGW 4-6-6-4's) also had pilot deck sandboxes.  The Rio Grande 4-6-6-4's also had the same "hub caps" on pilot truck bearings.

-LD



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/20 07:52 by LarryDoyle.

I got so wrapped up in the air lines, the sand trap, and the pipe to the pilot wheels, that I forgot to explore the source for the sand ....!!!

Thanks for bringing that up... about the pilot deck sand boxes...
I totally forgot about that..

Clever, these old-heads...

W.

Posted from iPhone

It’s interesting to note:

Under temperate conditions, the air in the main reservoirs is at 100%
Relative Humidity...
The ambient air can be much lower
RH...

When squeezed to 150PSI in the loco storage tanks ( Main Resevoirs) , the reduced volume squeezes out the water in the compressed air... any RH above 100% precipitates-out and collects in the low spots..

Sanders typically use air at MR
pressure to operate... moisture-laden air can collect in the air lines connected to the sander valve in the cab.... so when sanders are
turned-on, a slug of water can be sent to the sanders...

In sub freezing temps, that slug can
Freeze... when it hits the cold sand trap and the cold sand...

The best way to avoid that eventuality is for the engineer to
Intermittently operate all the sanders to mitigate condensate accumulation at the sanders ...

In the (pictured) sanders above the pilot wheel, there are two air lines...
The one at the top ‘sand entrance’
pipe blows the sand towards the front & the pipe leading to the rail, and the air line at the front of the trap, blows the sand down to the track...

In bitter cold winter, everything is tougher, by far, than at warmer temperatures—- everything fights you —- ice clogs up the tiny passages in car air brakes.. alcohol induction systems lower the freezing point of the condensate..
that accumulates in train brakes..

But, over time, alcohol does bad things to pieces like Rubber gaskets used to seal airbrake subassemblies..

Steam-In-the-snow is for the brave!
( or foolish)..

W.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/20 10:58 by wcamp1472.

Larry D is correct, wrong photo of the wrong engine, on the wrong engine. I was going to post again with the right photo, but it's too dark to see a hose that isn't there anyway! Speaking of the engine in Proctor, it's in bad shape, inside the cab, it's a real mess, everything vandalized, and rusting away. Somehow, they parked it up on a hillside on small rail, in soft dirt it looks like. The rail is sagging badly under the trailing truck, and the whole engine is starting to lean towards the engineers side. The tender, being spread out on so many axles and empty of course, is still pretty much upright. And, it looks like the rail on the low side is starting to twist over, which wont be an easy thing to stabilize.

Posted from Android

Ice , cold bearings ? Lol

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