Steam & Excursion > House steam

Question for the experts...
Often, I've read how house steam can be used to quickly prepare a cold engine for service. Maybe as fast as an hour or less.
How does this work?  Does every engine have a special connection for admitting house steam? How does that route into the engine? Was that some sort of standard scheme?
Also, is the entire boiler filled with hot water from a house reservoir during this operation?
How much infarstructure was required in the shop to make this work?
Do any of the modern restoration/heratige operations still use this capability (4449, UP, 611, etc.)?

Another related question, is is possible for one locomotive to fast heat another? Was that done regularly?

Always curious. Thanks in advance,
...bill

Illbay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Question for the experts...
> Often, I've read how house steam can be used to
> quickly prepare a cold engine for service. Maybe
> as fast as an hour or less.

That is a little fast, but back in the days of steam, with a roundhouse full of Boilermakers & Machinists, they could do such things pretty fast.

> How does this work? 

Hot water & steam are supplied to the boiler from the roundhouse/shop boiler, which supplied steam for heating and other items throughout the whole faculty.

Does every engine have a
> special connection for admitting house steam?

Pretty much, yes.

How
> does that route into the engine?

Not "routed into the engine", but into the boiler, generally through one of the blowdown valves.

Was that some
> sort of standard scheme?

Each railroad had their own "standard" system, but overall there really were not that many differences.

> Also, is the entire boiler filled with hot water
> from a house reservoir during this operation?

No. One would not want to fill the whole boiler full of water, unless a hydro-static was going to be performed. Normally, the boiler would be filled so as to show water level on the bottom of the gauge glass. Thus allowing space in the boiler for the water to expand as heat and pressure increase to the normal working pressure.

> How much infrastructure was required in the shop
> to make this work?

A complete steam plant, with associated fuel supply and lots and lots of piping throughout the entire faculty.

> Do any of the modern restoration/heratige
> operations still use this capability (4449, UP,
> 611, etc.)?

Only the UP Cheyenne Steam Shop has a stationary steam boiler (natural gas fired) for such purposes. The SP4449 group have a steam heater car (Little Boy) equipped with a steam generator that is used to supply steam & water for firing up either 4449 or SP&S 700.


> Another related question, is is possible for one
> locomotive to fast heat another?

I suppose, if they are close enough to each other and there is a proper quantity of large flexible steam hose available.

Was that done
> regularly?

No.


> Always curious. Thanks in advance,
> ...bill

On the Nickel Plate Road, while at Conneaut Roundhouse in the late 60's
( restoring NKP 759), there were remnants of steam supply lines at each stall.

The 'central,plant' had been dismantled years ago, but the senior advisors 
that led the restoration team gave us history lessons about how the engines were 
fired-up, after inspections and repairs...

There were two live steam 'drops' at the stalls: one at the smokebox and one by the loco
cab.   The one at the smokebox end was connected to the steam draft pipes mounted on the
loco's blast pipe ( below the flared base of the smokestack--- the 'petticoat'  base of the stack--
the base of the petticoat is about 2-feel above the nozzle and blower-ring).  

The loco's blast nozzle and flared petticoat base form the massive Venturi jet that 
creates the vacuum in the smokebox that, in turn, drafts the fire when powering down the mainline.
It is that Venturi-created draft that draws the fresh air through the grates and firebed.
The massive Venturi jet is only operative when the throttle is open. --- supplying steam to the
cylinders that  gets exhausted up the stack....  
There are times that the engine is rolling...with the throttle virtually closed..
there's no draft and the fire's smoke and deadly gasses fill the crew cab when there's a
big fire and zero draft..

Thus, engines are piped with 'artificial draft' piping . ... controlled by the fireman in the cab.
 This arrangement is called "the blower", for short...  The blower steam line is external and at
the smokebox, under the stack;  there are the blower valve and a tee-pipe fitting ( one port plugged)
that make the blower apparatus functional and controllable.

Upon arrival at the roundhouse stall service track ( fire had been dumped and ashpan cleaned)
the boiler inspectors crawled into the hot firebox and the grates, and with 100 to 150 lbs of
residual pressure on the boiler --- and a boiler containing the hot water--- the inspectors 
rapped each staybolt with the inspectors hammer.   A sharp, reflexive rebound from a deliberate 
blow onto a solid bolt, will kick the hammerhead away from a bolt that rapped;  a cracked or
broken bolt will NOT "kick" the hammer away...the crack/break traps the compression wave,
and a defective bolt has the hammer head stick --- like a magnet--- to a cracked or broken bolt segment.

The boiler was under pressure so that the staybolts woud be stretched...and any cracks would be 
opened and blowing water and steam out the staybolt's 'tell-tale' holes.  Generally, the bolts' threads
tear right-at the inner connection to the 3/8" thick firebox sheets. Trying to hammer test non-stretched
Flannery bolts does not work because the  ball-shaped head of the bolt is loose in its socket..
thus a hammer test will not rebound the hammer-head in the tester's hand

A boilermaker will get into a rythm with one blow per bolt--- so that the hammer-kick allows the
insoector to strike the next bolt -- a little under a second per smack testing like 70 bolts a minute...

There are 3 types of staybolts filted into the firebox: shorter 'rigid' staybolts threaded into the outer
( wrapper) sheets and into the firebox sheets, there are 'flexible stays' that have a ball-like head
at the outer, wrapper sheets. The 'ball & socket' arrangement allows for slight movement of tge bolt,
at the outer end --- while the fireboxend is threaded and welded into the firebox sheets..

The typical 'flexible stay' ( Flannery corporation ) was hollow-drilled it's entire length, into the 
ball head...   this tell-hole was vital to staybolt testing--- and must remain entirely unobstructed
by solid matter blowing around in the firebox ...  Thus, Flannery pugged the firebox-ends of the teltale 
holes with porous plugs.  (;at hydro test times, the plugs were chipped out...to open the telltsle
holes to allow water to run from cracked or broken Flannery bolts.   All the bolts can only be stretched 
when the boiler in under pressure...)

The 3rd Type of bolt are the long, crown stays .... these are very long bolts that are used to support
the roof of the firebox ....their length makes them very flexible and not subject to breaking,
as with the shorter bolts supporting the sides and flat sheets of the furnace.
Crown stays are too long to be successfully hammer tested.

Meanwhile, back in the firebox, the boilermaker is hammer testing every one of the 'stretched' bolts,
while the pressurized boiler is hot and is carrying normal levels of water...  ( since each bolt
typically supports 16 sq. Inches,  150 psi will apply 2,400 lbs of 'stretch'  to each bolt --- which
opens any cracks!).

To make the testing environment bearable, the 'house blower' steam is connected at the smokebox end to the blower 
connection, and the valve from the cab is closed--- then the "house blower" sucks fresh air through the grates 
and out the stack....somewhat cooling-off the boilermakers ..laboring in the heat.   It is typical, in large 
fireboxes to fail as many as 6 or seven broken stay bolts...at every boiler wash.

( small fireboxes, will not break as many bolts as the larger that were fireboxes built ...
.strong fireboxes were common in engines the size of 2-8-0s & 4-6-2s....much bigger than that,
and broken stays were very common.)

Sometimes, the staybolt can be broken entirely, leaving a bolt-disk ( several threads thick)
in the side sheet, and NOT leaking...the boilermaker's hammer blow often jars the disk out of hole---
shooting the 'disk' actoss the grate with high pressure, hot water filling the firebox interior with
steam and water...

The boilermaker then scrambled out the firedoors--- the rest  of the staybolt testing will have to be 
completed during a later hydro test.  He always works from the rear of the firebox, forward..
with the firedoors open...as an emergency escape exit...

To save the hot water from the engines to be drained, there were 'draining pipes'  connected to
one of the firebox mud ring blow-down valves.. thus, the boilers filled with hot water were drained
into insulated 'blow-down' tanks.  These were closed-up, insulated, old steam loco boiler shells,
mounted vertically, outside the rounhouse walls. ..  At fire-up times, the boilers were refilled from
the stored hot water from the holding ( settling)  tanks...

At the end of all the boiler testing and repairs ...the boilers were re-filled with stored hot water, and 
roundhouse steam lines, near the cab, were connected to the supply steam to the stoker engine and jets..
The stoker engine steam supply valve at the engine's steam turret is closed during this stage of the fire-up, 
until the loco is ready to be moved ..

The operable stoker engine and jets are used to 'coal-over' the entirety of bare grates ...
to about 4 to 5 inches deep of green coal from the stoker trough...
( using the stoker and jets saves a lot of labor in trying get a nice depth to the fire ). 

When there is sufficient level of hot water,  two air-powered, 'fire lances' were set at the open 
Butterfly firedoors to the firebox...the oil fuel, fire-lances were set to have a cross flame path directed at these 
coaled-over grates....  

In under 30 minutes from light-off, fresh with their own fires, the Big Berks were moved out of the 'house;
coal, sand and water was topped-off , and the engine ready for its new crew.  

A typical  'boiler wash' , as above, was completed in one, eight-hour shift...including all
uncovered and reported "repair defects..".   This went on 24-7, on the road of fast freight,
on the Nickel Plate...at many roundhouses  ​around the entire NKP system..
"Ninety-day" work was completed on the same timetable..  Things like hammer tested,
prepared drawbars & pins were exchanged for the ones removed... Airbrake components 
were changed-out with re-qualified assemblies, etc..

​W.

( The most onerous task was done by the guys that were tasked with "blowing the flues'...
a nasty, dirty job done with long blast-pipes inserted at the firebox-end going into the flues
and tubes...

When a tube was fully blocked, the forcing air came back at the flue blower-guy...
Thick, dark clouds of soot came back out  of the  tubes .... 'until you punched a hole-through"
the blockage...   Needless to say, the 'house-powered' steam blower connection up the stack took most
of the soot with it..

The roundhouse foremen never bothered 'blower-guy' whenever he would be taking
a fresh-air break....and for as along as he wanted one...)

not proofed, yet..



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/20 19:48 by wcamp1472.

Hotwater...
Thank you for your concise answers. From the descriptions of steam infrastructure installed at the shop, it must have been rare to start a loco from dead cold without some shop steam assistance. 

Wes...
Thank you for your reply and the stories that go with them. Must have been a terrible and dangerous job to climb into a just dumped firebox to test staybolts and flues. Any one of those could let go, not to mention the air quality must have been awful. Soot, dust, water, stink, heat. Yuck.
Wow, the hot water was stored to drain the boiler.  Would a broken staybolt be repaired immediately during one of these inspections?    Was it a welding job as we've see in restorations, or were they simply screwed in?

Still fascinating. All of this forgotton infrastructure for steam.

Thanks,
...bill

The boiler inspection was part of a complete evaluation of all the work needed..
The RH Foreman and his staff complied all the collected Engineers' daily trip inspections
(/during the time since the last 30-day washout) with exceptions noted, matched-up the
'in-take' inspectors' reports --- from the receiving tracks approaching the roundhouse.

Machinst inspectors surveyed and hammer tested all the major bolts and fittings on the loco--
with a lot of attention paid while the engine was over the inspection pit.  Axles, journals, grease
cakes, binder-bolts, truck bolts, equalizers, all got rapped and thoroughly examined, as well as
the wheels and tires.  Injectors and water pumping systems were function-tested, etc

Airbrake inspectors went over all the fittings, the compressors and the end hoses and angle-cocks...  

The Foreman combined those reports with scheduled 30-day, 90-day, one and 2-yr inspections
that might be due.  All of these sources were organized by available crafts and importance.

Once the Foreman had evaluated the work needed and expected completion time,
he called his counterpart in the Transportation  department with his estimate of 
completion time and date for each loco undergoing the repair process ..... 
Some locos wouod require several days' repairs before being made available for 
hauling trains..

On oil burners, most were equipped with 'drop safety plugs' screwed into the crown sheet...
There were up to 6 ( or more) drop plugs in each crown sheet.  These were hollow brass plugs
with a drop-out insert soldered into the sleeve... If an engine crew was inattentive, and let the 
water over the crown sheet get too low...one or more of the drop plugs would melt out..
and fill the firebox with steam and loud screaming...

The dropped safety plugs made firing the oil-burner very difficult, but not impossible...
When arriving at the inspection pit of the terminal...the screaming dropped plugs announced
"to all the world"  that the entire crew was going to be put-off for 30-days without pay...

However, in service, mud and minerals can accumulate around the potion of the plug that
is exposed to the water space over the crown sheet being protected.  

If left in place for a year or more,  the build-up of insulating impurities on the top of the 
drop plugs, can keep the water from  cooling the soldered joint ---- if neglected, drop plugs can fail,
from a build-up insulating deposits...   Thus, a routine process was formalized where-in all drop plugs 
were removed and the en-caked  portions polished clean ...at every 30-day boiler washout.
There is a dedicated line on the 30-day boiler certificate certifying  that the drop plugs were
removed cleaned and replaced..

( In practice, machinist would carry a set of cleaned drop safety-plugs into the firebox and
simply replace all the plugs.  The plugs needing cleaning were returned to the boiler shop
where they were cleaned and wire-brushed, and racked for the next locomotive..)

If the crew wanted to blame a faulty drop safety plug, they'd insist that the problem 
was NOT caused by a low water event..caused by the crew with the blowing drop plugs..
The duly-sworn and noted 30-day certificate put a stop to such claims..

Typically, a crew , that 'fessed-up" to the incident was given a suspension of less than
the 30-day penalty.   

So, there was a lot of paperwork behind the daily routine of roundhouse life...
The crafts worked well to get all the work done, completed and tested...before
releasing the engines for another day's work.  

Times were especially hectic during the war years. of the 1940s and improvised repairs 
we're applied, simply to keep,the engines running..
 
​W.


Not proofed, yet..

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/20 14:03 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On the Nickel Plate Road, while at Conneaut
> Roundhouse in the late 60's
> ( restoring NKP 759), there were remnants of steam
> supply lines at each stall.
>
> The 'central,plant' had been dismantled years ago,
> but the senior advisors 
> that led the restoration team gave us history
> lessons about how the engines were 
> fired-up, after inspections and repairs...
>
> There were two live steam 'drops' at the stalls:
> one at the smokebox and one by the loco
> cab.   The one at the smokebox end was connected
> to the steam draft pipes mounted on the
> loco's blast pipe ( below the flared base of the
> smokestack--- the 'petticoat'  base of the
> stack--
> the base of the petticoat is about 2-feel above
> the nozzle and blower-ring).  
>
> The loco's blast nozzle and flared petticoat base
> form the massive Venturi jet that 
> creates the vacuum in the smokebox that, in turn,
> drafts the fire when powering down the mainline.
> It is that Venturi-created draft that draws the
> fresh air through the grates and firebed.
> The massive Venturi jet is only operative when the
> throttle is open. --- supplying steam to the
> cylinders that  gets exhausted up the stack....
>  
> There are times that the engine is rolling...with
> the throttle virtually closed..
> there's no draft and the fire's smoke and deadly
> gasses fill the crew cab when there's a
> big fire and zero draft..
>
> Thus, engines are piped with 'artificial draft'
> piping . ... controlled by the fireman in the
> cab.
>  This arrangement is called "the blower", for
> short...  The blower steam line is external and
> at
> the smokebox, under the stack;  there are the
> blower valve and a tee-pipe fitting ( one port
> plugged)
> that make the blower apparatus functional and
> controllable.
>
> Upon arrival at the roundhouse stall service track
> ( fire had been dumped and ashpan cleaned)
> the boiler inspectors crawled into the hot firebox
> and the grates, and with 100 to 150 lbs of
> residual pressure on the boiler --- and a boiler
> containing the hot water--- the inspectors 
> rapped each staybolt with the inspectors hammer.
>   A sharp, reflexive rebound from a deliberate 
> blow onto a solid bolt, will kick the hammerhead
> away from a bolt that rapped;  a cracked or
> broken bolt will NOT "kick" the hammer away...the
> crack/break traps the compression wave,
> and a defective bolt has the hammer head stick
> --- like a magnet--- to a cracked or broken bolt
> segment.
>
> The boiler was under pressure so that the
> staybolts woud be stretched...and any cracks would
> be 
> opened and blowing water and steam out the
> staybolt's 'tell-tale' holes.  Generally, the
> bolts' threads
> tear right-at the inner connection to the 3/8"
> thick firebox sheets. Trying to hammer test
> non-stretched
> Flannery bolts does not work because the
>  ball-shaped head of the bolt is loose in its
> socket..
> thus a hammer test will not rebound the
> hammer-head in the tester's hand
>
> A boilermaker will get into a rythm with one blow
> per bolt--- so that the hammer-kick allows the
> insoector to strike the next bolt -- a little
> under a second per smack testing like 70 bolts a
> minute...
>
> There are 3 types of staybolts filted into the
> firebox: shorter 'rigid' staybolts threaded into
> the outer
> ( wrapper) sheets and into the firebox sheets,
> there are 'flexible stays' that have a ball-like
> head
> at the outer, wrapper sheets. The 'ball & socket'
> arrangement allows for slight movement of tge
> bolt,
> at the outer end --- while the fireboxend is
> threaded and welded into the firebox sheets..
>
> The typical 'flexible stay' ( Flannery corporation
> ) was hollow-drilled it's entire length, into
> the 
> ball head...   this tell-hole was vital to
> staybolt testing--- and must remain entirely
> unobstructed
> by solid matter blowing around in the firebox ...
>  Thus, Flannery pugged the firebox-ends of the
> teltale 
> holes with porous plugs.  (;at hydro test times,
> the plugs were chipped out...to open the telltsle
> holes to allow water to run from cracked or broken
> Flannery bolts.   All the bolts can only be
> stretched 
> when the boiler in under pressure...)
>
> The 3rd Type of bolt are the long, crown stays
> .... these are very long bolts that are used to
> support
> the roof of the firebox ....their length makes
> them very flexible and not subject to breaking,
> as with the shorter bolts supporting the sides and
> flat sheets of the furnace.
> Crown stays are too long to be successfully hammer
> tested.
>
> Meanwhile, back in the firebox, the boilermaker is
> hammer testing every one of the 'stretched'
> bolts,
> while the pressurized boiler is hot and is
> carrying normal levels of water...  ( since each
> bolt
> typically supports 16 sq. Inches,  150 psi will
> apply 2,400 lbs of 'stretch'  to each bolt ---
> which
> opens any cracks!).
>
> To make the testing environment bearable, the
> 'house blower' steam is connected at the smokebox
> end to the blower 
> connection, and the valve from the cab is
> closed--- then the "house blower" sucks fresh air
> through the grates 
> and out the stack....somewhat cooling-off the
> boilermakers ..laboring in the heat.   It is
> typical, in large 
> fireboxes to fail as many as 6 or seven broken
> stay bolts...at every boiler wash.
>
> ( small fireboxes, will not break as many bolts as
> the larger that were fireboxes built ...
> .strong fireboxes were common in engines the size
> of 2-8-0s & 4-6-2s....much bigger than that,
> and broken stays were very common.)
>
> Sometimes, the staybolt can be broken entirely,
> leaving a bolt-disk ( several threads thick)
> in the side sheet, and NOT leaking...the
> boilermaker's hammer blow often jars the disk out
> of hole---
> shooting the 'disk' actoss the grate with high
> pressure, hot water filling the firebox interior
> with
> steam and water...
>
> The boilermaker then scrambled out the
> firedoors--- the rest  of the staybolt testing
> will have to be 
> completed during a later hydro test.  He always
> works from the rear of the firebox, forward..
> with the firedoors open...as an emergency escape
> exit...
>
> To save the hot water from the engines to be
> drained, there were 'draining pipes'  connected
> to
> one of the firebox mud ring blow-down valves..
> thus, the boilers filled with hot water were
> drained
> into insulated 'blow-down' tanks.  These were
> closed-up, insulated, old steam loco boiler
> shells,
> mounted vertically, outside the rounhouse walls.
> ..  At fire-up times, the boilers were refilled
> from
> the stored hot water from the holding ( settling)
>  tanks...
>
> At the end of all the boiler testing and repairs
> ...the boilers were re-filled with stored hot
> water, and 
> roundhouse steam lines, near the cab, were
> connected to the supply steam to the stoker engine
> and jets..
> The stoker engine steam supply valve at the
> engine's steam turret is closed during this stage
> of the fire-up, 
> until the loco is ready to be moved ..
>
> The operable stoker engine and jets are used to
> 'coal-over' the entirety of bare grates ...
> to about 4 to 5 inches deep of green coal from
> the stoker trough...
> ( using the stoker and jets saves a lot of labor
> in trying get a nice depth to the fife+. 
>
> When there is sufficient level of hot water,
>  two air-powered, 'fire lances' were set at the
> open 
> Butterfly firedoors to the firebox...the oil fuel,
> fire-lances were set to have a cross flame path
> directed at these 
> coaled-over grates....  
>
> In under 30 minutes from light-off, fresh with
> their own fires, the Big Berks were moved out of
> the 'house;
> coal, sand and water was topped-off , and the
> engine ready for its new crew.  
>
> A typical  'boiler wash' , as above, was
> completed in one, eight-hour shift...including
> all
> uncovered and reported "repair defects..".
>   This went on 24-7, on the road of fast
> freight,
> on the Nickel Plate...at many roundhouses
>  ​around the entire NKP system..
> "Ninety-day" work was completed on the same
> timetable..  Things like hammer tested,
> prepared drawbars & pins were exchanged for the
> ones removed... Airbrake components 
> were changed-out with re-qualified assemblies,
> etc..
>
> ​W.
>
> ( The most onerous task was done by the guys that
> were tasked with "blowing the flues'...
> a nasty, dirty job done with long blast-pipes
> inserted at the firebox-end going into the flues
> and tubes...
>
> When a tube was fully blocked, the forcing air
> came back at the flue blower-guy...
> Thick, dark clouds of soot came back out  of the
>  tubes .... 'until you punched a hole-through"
> the blockage...   Needless to say, the
> 'house-powered' steam blower connection up the
> stack took most
> of the soot with it..
>
> The roundhouse foremen never bothered 'blower-guy'
> whenever he would be taking
> a fresh-air break....and for as along as he wanted
> one...)
>
> not proofed, yet..

Another fascinating post Prof. Camp!!! Cannot thank you enough for your ability to share your vast knowledge in a way that the average Joe can understand. Appreciate you!!

Regards,
Mark V.
The Fort in Indiana

Posted from iPhone

We used a second engine to fire up on the C&TS in Chama.  We plumbed up a pipe off the blower line, above the blower valve.  The pipe went down through the cab floor and had another valve below the cab.  We would attach a hose to this pipe and run it over to the identical valve on the engine to fire up.  By closing the turret off on the dead engine and opening the valves from the live one, you could operate all the auxiliaries on the dead engine with steam from the live engine.  You could fill the boiler using the injectors on the dead locomotive, giving you a boiler ful of nice hot water. 

Having hot water to start with cut about 2 hours out of the fire up time.  By the time you get a decent fire covering all the grates, the dead engine would be starting to make its own steam.  Once you got 25-50 lbs on the engine you were fring up, it was time to shut the valves on the aux. steam hose and disconnect it.  At that point the locmotive being fired was breathing on its own.  Fire up time went from 5-6 hours to 3-4 hours firing up a 90-ton 2-8-2.
 

" Would a broken staybolt be repaired
> immediately during one of these inspections?   
> Was it a welding job as we've see in restorations,
> or were they simply screwed in?"


Once all the factors were gathered, and the total numbers tallied,then the decision could
 be made.  Although a few broken staybolts will not necessarily remove a loco from service;
however, coming out of a 30-day boiler wash, all of the known broken or defective stays
would had to have been renewed before returning the engine to service.  
You cannot return a loco to service, out of an inspection  repair cycle, with known
broken bolts in the firebox ...

In the old days, the holes were cleaned-up and new stays were applied, 'driven'
( the ends peened-over and the bolt expanded into the threads of the sheet)*.
 After driving the staybolts modern RRs would run a weld-bead ( a single pass) to the
bolt and side sheet..  The theory is that the seal weld would  make a thermally- conductive
& uniform molecule pattern in the  joint at the connection of the bolt and side sheet.

A pure, threaded joint will not efficiently transmit heat across the seam between the two.  
So, the effect is that non-welded bolts leak more easily with thermal fluctuations attendant
with service variances and temperature changes..
The 'seal weld' is thought to make the heat flow more evenly across sheet/bolt interface.

Modern practice seems to be welding bolts into the sheets, and eliminating the drilling and
tapping of the staybolt holes.   

W.

( * peening-over the ends [rigid stays] tends to close the telltale holes in the staybolts ....so, after 'driving the bolts,
they'll re-drill the telltale holes).



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/20 19:53 by wcamp1472.

The UP's howard Fogg car caN DO THAT FOR THE STEAM ENGINES CAN'T THEY?

dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The UP's howard Fogg car caN DO THAT FOR THE STEAM
> ENGINES CAN'T THEY?

The boiler dorm, i.e. the "Howard Fogg", does have a steam generator and a Cat HEP generator in one end. The steam generator was/is used for firing up the locomotive after a shutdown for a boiler wash when for long outing on the road.