Steam & Excursion > SOO 1003 steam visits Metra

.Soo Line 1003 visited Metra's operation, specifically the Metra Western Ave. Shop, for the employee open house scheduled for 8/6/22. 

More photos in higher resolution can be found on my Flickr site. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jet-photography/

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Outstanding part of your beautiful collection.  Great work.
 

JETRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> .Soo Line 1003 visited Metra's operation,
> specifically the Metra Western Ave. Shop, for the
> employee open house scheduled for 8/6/22. 
>
> More photos in higher resolution can be found on
> my Flickr site. 
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/jet-photography/

She's a beautiful beefy little engine. Not bad for 109 years old! Hope the visit was a success for all involved.

Reliable power-operated stokers only became available a decade, or so, after the loco
was  built.   Has it been subsequently equipped with a stoker during its regular service-life?
Which model stoker is it fitted with?
Or,  is it still hand-fired?

​W.

( My guess is that it would nave been fitted with a Standard Duplex stoker,
   or maybe a Standard Stoker, model MB....)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/22 08:13 by wcamp1472.

wcamp1472 Wrote:

>
> ( My guess is that it would nave been fitted with
> a Standard Duplex stoker,
>    or maybe a Standard Stoker, model MB....)

Yes, a Standard model "MB".

-LD

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The MB makes for a much more simple retro-fit for adding a stoker.

The only drawback is that the steam-jet spray array is above the column
of coal brought up from beneath...

My experience has been that the fine stuff gets blown across the fire, 
and way down under the brick arch,  while  the larger lumps do not get into
the direct path of the steam jets...just sort of roll off the firing table and
land in the lower right, rear corner of the grate.

You have to watch the distribution of the coal with more diligence.
I've found that with the varying drafts with excursions, that firing with 
a big 'bank' of coking coal across the rear 25% of the grate is the easiest 
way to manage.

We used thoroughly water-soaked coal and roll in large amounts of coal,
as needed onto the coking coal bank.  It gets to be a large mass of glowing,
well-coked mountsin of carbon.  It is gradually consumed and must be added-to
during the trip.

The rest of the grate's 80% could be the brightest part of the fire bed.
Most excursion consists require the heating ability of only 30% of the grate.... 
if you've got a good heel across the rear portion of the grates.
( of course, a little Pacific will be fired proportionately less than a Big Berk!) 

Its important that all of the grate square footage has  fire, and with no bare spots 
that allow-in cold air.   A good sign of bare spots on a grate is black smoke
out the stack...

The black smoke results from the fireman adding more coal than would be
necessary----- he's presuming that the 'high-volatiles'  coming off the coal and adding
to the flames is "working".... Two factors are dropping firebox temps: too much fresh fuel
( which cools off the flames ) and too much cold air coming through the rear corners of
the grate.  

You don't want dropping firebox temperatures!  
Black smoke is only a symptom....

In reality, the cold air is cooling-down the firebox temperatures so the copious amount of
released carbon is low-temperature soot and carbon monoxide..

 In the drafting vacuum created by the exhaust stack, bare grates allow the free-flow of
coldest air into the combustion space.... the fire-covered other areas of the grates restrict
the air flow ...compared to the huge volumes of unrestricted air-flow coming through 
the bare spots of your fire!   Those bare spots are very costly: both in money and in hard work .

An MB stoker can fire the largest of grates ....it's what had been supplied to the UP 4000s
when they were in regular service.  A conventional Standard MB!

My favorite stoker is the Standard 'HT' and the ( post WW2) 'HT-1'.
The HT-1 is about 75% the size of the HT, both use the same conveyor and firing table.
used on smaller engines ( 4-6-2 & 2-8-2, 2-8-4..etc...).

​W.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/22 16:16 by wcamp1472.

Great shot, thank you for posting!

Randy in PHX