Steam & Excursion > "The Boardwalk Flyer"

The "Jolly Roger" locomotive crew having fun before our run. Hank Webber (l) HICO fireman and Charlie Strunk (r) last steam qualified CNJ engineer. The date was Saturday May 4, 1968 at the New York shipyards in Camden. The next day May 5th, we ran the 127 from Camden to Cape May and return and run we did! What a gas! Of the 8 or 9 locomotives I've worked on, the 127 is still my favorite, powerful, fast, small by some comparisons, but good looking. She was easy to work on, easy to maintain, and easy to run. Those were the days when The High Iron Company did what the railroaders said we couldn't do. Oh yeah?? Sadly she's in peices at the Age of Steam museum in Ohio. Nothing that $2 or $3mm couldn't repair. Who knows, maybe some day?     

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Great memories..
Thank you, 'Scoop'!

That was a winner in so many ways
All a Tuscan red cars, high speed running..destination: The Beach!

On Time performance,  Packed coaches.  Great fun..
The engine performed beautifully ...
( then it was off to Lake Winnipesaukee, & city of Laconia, NH. --- for a full week of steam trips).

Wes Camp

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/20 04:19 by wcamp1472.

Those must have been good times.

I like the front-end throttle linkage through the handrail.  But there is no boiler expansion compensation like you get with the more common bellcrank linkage, however.  Does it matter if the closed position of the throttle lever varies by a few inches between hot and cold?

Ah-Ha...

Very observant...
However, the designers were very clever..

Note that the lever on the throttle valve operating camshaft operates over the TOP portion of the arc.
Thus, achieving the same ‘compensation characteristic’ as the
more common intermediate compensating lever ( operating in the lower arc..).

On ‘conventional’ front-end throttles
the cam’s operating lever operates in the lower arc of the operating range—- requiring the common, mid-shaft compensating-lever arrangements.

The change of 180-degrees of the lever connection provides the same compensating function.

Thus, the ‘compensating’ function is preserved—- and the boiler’s expansion/contraction does not lead to unintended throttle openings
when standing idle*.

The engineer’s throttle lever in the cab is pinned in the closed postion.
Thus, the operating lever at the front end leans froward when in the closed position. As the throttle is opened, pulling the reach-rod rearward, towards the cab, & retracts into the handrail-tube and the throttle would be wide-open at about the short lever’s, rearward, 10-O’clock position.

Also, at the throttle’s cam-rod connection, there is a short link connecting the reach-rod to the cam operating lever, to allow free motion over the arc-swing of the lever’s ‘travel’’.... to prevent the cab’s long reach-rod from binding
inside the hollow tube of the handrail.

There are many similar ‘modern’
applications on the G5 classes —
some built as late as 1948..

Wes Camp

( * When standing idle, the boiler can shrink in length by a couple of inches... but the operating lever
[in the cooler ambient air temps] is ‘cold’ and without the compensation
features, the linkage may force & crack-open the throttle, thus leading to pressure build-up in the pistons and cylinders—- a very bad thing...

As this boiler contracts, the cold, fixed-length reach-rod’s linkage tightens the force —- pressure—-acting to keep the throttle tightly closed..).


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Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/20 08:52 by wcamp1472.

Wes, thanks for the explanation.  I hadn't noticed that the throttle camshaft lever was above center, but that takes care of the throttle rod motion.

I would like to point out however that the conventional front end throttle linkage, with a reversing crank about halfway between cab and the throttle, is fully temperature compensating.  That is, if the two rods, upper/aft and lower/forward, are the same length and the same temperature as each other, they will cancel out the effect of the boiler expanding or contracting.

Think of it as the boiler expanding, which would create tension in the lower/forward rod if it were tied down at the back, tending to close the throttle.  But the same tension in the upper/aft rod would tend to open the throttle because the force is reversed by the intermediate crank.  So they cancel out each other.  

In other words, changes in distance between the throttle lever in the cab and the throttle shaft are accommodated by rotation of the intermediate crank, with no forces in the rods required.

With the CP approach, I think they must do something different to avoid problems.  The throttle rod would get some heating inside the handrail -- the support brackets are no doubt tapped into the boiler shell -- but probably not enough.

With a dome throttle, there is no problem because the throttle rod is mostly inside the boiler and therefore the same temperature as the boiler.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/25/20 14:22 by Elesco.

"No problem with the dome throttle" ??   Really?
Not True.

Look at the common pictures of engines that creeped into the open turntable pits, and others,
through roundhouses' outer walls.

Dome throttle equipped engines were notorious for their common habit of "walking away"
as they cooled down..   That's where the practice of securely chocking ( both sides) of multiple drivers..
to ensure that engines stayed 'put'.

Also, the venting valves on the steam chests..."the 'house valves'.  They were always to be
opened while parked.. .again,  to prevent pressure from building in the spool-valve housing
and on piston faces, as well as the practice positively opening the cylinder cocks.
( Okadee air-operated cykinder cocks, with ball-checks CAN [and have] closed inadvertently 
with enough standing water accumulation..).

Dome throttles and old engines were always subject to the creeping hazard.

​W.
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/20 10:57 by wcamp1472.