Steam & Excursion > Never Say Never

Up until today, I had thought that this single one-day encounter that I had with UP 3985 back in 1982 (an excursion from Salt Lake City to Provo and back) would be the only time that I would have seen this magnificent machine in operation. But with today's announcement of the UP's donation of the 3985 to the Railroading Heritage of the Midwest association, with the announced intention of rebuild and return to operation, one has to ask: "Do you believe in miracles?".

LJG
 

---

That was quite a trip for your first encounter.  We had to be careful not to get enveloped in flames from the instant grass fires set-off by the coal cinders along the way.  Definitely a memorable experience of the first order.  Wonderful display of brute force.  Lots of fun.  Glad to know that it will be well looked-after.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

I to shared that experience drove to Prove to watch her turn and followed her back.  Between American Fork and Lehi some unlucky guy's hat blew of and I recovered it,  Still have it just says 3985.
That was a fine day.  Now I am 89 and won't see her again even when she runs again.
Blaine
American Fork

Believe it or not, we had the Loram rail grinder go by on the WV side of the river on CSX a couple of days ago, damp green grass all the way, and EIGHT brush fires broke out in about five miles before the fire department chased them down and hinted they might want to stop. Diesel equipment is less likely to cause that much trouble in the Ohio rainforest. Right now, when you can't look at a grassy field without it bursting into flames, an actual cinder-emitting engine would be a giant risk.

Rebecca Morgan
Jacobsburg, OH

More Black Smoke Please!!
Fantastic Photo.

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

Great shot & damned if it does not have white tires to boot. Spiff and class always looks good on a steamer.

RailRat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> More Black Smoke Please!!
> Fantastic Photo.
Unfortunately, heavy black smoke = poor firing.
And with oil fired it means lots of sand run thru the flues to clean the soot off for better heat transfer.
Sand wears out the ends of the tubes.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

And, after a while you can get a sand build up in the smokebox..  Nasty stuff.

Again, .class:  Why is the smoke black?

Because it is made of unburnable carbon particles...
The firebox temperature is too low to combust the fuel...
And there is not enough OXYGEN  to raise the temperature of
the fuel to the needed "state-change" ( solid-to-gas) to make a gas
of the partially-released carbon...

The addition of more fuel cools the fire even MORE!
The carbon must be heated SO HOT, that it becomes a gas....
so that the carbon gas can combine with the Oxygen in the air 
supply.... The hottest flame temperatures occur when the air/fuel 
gas-mixture is 16 parts O2 to 1 part Carbon...('part' = WEIGHT, not 'volume')
Now, picture the needed equal amounts of weight of the two elements
needed to produce the chemical-compound, CO2.

The key concept is the  'weight' of the available O2 in the air ( about 20%).
You can begin to understand the immense volumes of cubic-feet of air 
to 'weigh' 16-lbs of available O2, to mix with 1 lb of carbon 'gas'...

It's the fireman's job to build a very thin, burning layer ( 'reduction-zone) in
order to allow the millions of cubic feet of air needed to properly burn the
fuel.

The temperature needed to heat the carbon to the gaseous-state is detived 
from the heat of the firebed, and the refractory-brick,... a thin,hot firebed
has to both 'gasify' the cold carbon fuel AND boil the water in the boiler..

Why is that so hard to grasp?

It takes skill to build that kind of firebed ....and a heavy train to pull..
A big engine needs a big train....to pull the necessary amount ( weight)  of oxygen through
the 'combustion chamber'.....the firebox ..  

A thick, deep firebed is the enemy of oxygen-flow.... adding more fuel only sends
unburned carbon ( and carbon monoxide) into the air...

There will an Exam on loco combustion, next week!

W.


 

wcamp1472 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Again, .class:  Why is the smoke black?
>
> Because it is made of unburnable carbon
> particles...
> The firebox temperature is too low to combust the
> fuel...
> And there is not enough OXYGEN  to raise the
> temperature of
> the fuel to the needed "state-change" (
> solid-to-gas) to make a gas
> of the partially-released carbon...
>
> The addition of more fuel cools the fire even
> MORE!
> The carbon must be heated SO HOT, that it becomes
> a gas....
> so that the carbon gas can combine with the Oxygen
> in the air 
> supply.... The hottest flame temperatures occur
> when the air/fuel 
> gas-mixture is 16 parts O2 to 1 part
> Carbon...('part' = WEIGHT, not 'volume')
> Now, picture the needed equal amounts of weight of
> the two elements
> needed to produce the chemical-compound, CO2.
>
> The key concept is the  'weight' of the available
> O2 in the air ( about 20%).
> You can begin to understand the immense volumes of
> cubic-feet of air 
> to 'weigh' 16-lbs of available O2, to mix with 1
> lb of carbon 'gas'...
>
> It's the fireman's job to build a very thin,
> burning layer ( 'reduction-zone) in
> order to allow the millions of cubic feet of air
> needed to properly burn the
> fuel.
>
> The temperature needed to heat the carbon to the
> gaseous-state is detived 
> from the heat of the firebed, and the
> refractory-brick,... a thin,hot firebed
> has to both 'gasify' the cold carbon fuel AND boil
> the water in the boiler..
>
> Why is that so hard to grasp?
>
> It takes skill to build that kind of firebed
> ....and a heavy train to pull..
> A big engine needs a big train....to pull the
> necessary amount ( weight)  of oxygen through
> the 'combustion chamber'.....the firebox ..  
>
> A thick, deep firebed is the enemy
> of oxygen-flow.... adding more fuel only sends
> unburned carbon ( and carbon monoxide) into the
> air...
>
> There will an Exam on loco combustion, next week!
>
> W.
>
>
>  

If that's the only question on the test Wes, and you're a fan of brevity in an answer, I'll get an A!

Cheers, Dave

RailRat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> More Black Smoke Please!!
> Fantastic Photo.

MORE SMOKE PLEASE
Is that better? I like more smoke, That's what I liked about 3985,compared to 844, even though I have learned here on TO about the importance of a clean smokeless stack.😁

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/22 10:17 by RailRat.

I never did see her run, thanks to the boiler incident at Railfair '99.  But she was a beast to look at even standing still.  Love the photo LJG!  That area has changed quite a bit.  I-15 in the background has probably tripled in size.  The beatiful fields in the Salt Lake valley have sprouted a ton of houses and office buildings and such.  And that track has sat dormant for decades.  I now ride my bike along the "Southern Rail Trail" that parallels the tracks from Lehi to Draper.  While we won't see 3985 on this route ever again, I did catch 4014 on the ex-DRGW line a few years ago, down the hill and to the left from this spot.

Nathan