Steam & Excursion > Superheater type on the N&W Y6/6a/6b

I have read that the Y6 classes used the Type A superheaters, whereas the Class A and class J used the larger Type E which provides a greater degree of superheat. I this true and, if so, why was the Type E not used?

It's posts like these where Wes Camps loss will be most poignantly felt. He most likely would have had a comprehensive answer to this question for you.

You hit that one right. Over the years I've done a number of tech training courses for a couple of Class 1s
and the toughest part of that was distilling the content down to a point where everyone in the class could
both understand it and find it useful. Wes was a master at that, steam looks simple but in reality it's not.
There's part 1 to get it running and part 2 to get it running right. Wes could explain both parts, tell why and
communicate that at a level we all could understand. Wes will be much missed, had great friends and
RIP Sir, your memory will live on and the appreciation for all you did and gave will only grow.

Out 

I am thinking somewhere I read about that very subject and it was written by Clarence Pond of N&W who designed them, or at least an article about him and the locomotives. Maybe an ASME paper, or maybe something in a long ago TRAINS Magazine ?

Interesting question, but I think the answer is out there somewhere.

See the thread from 12-31-2013 on Trainorders, titled Type "A" vs. Type "E" superheaters. There is an excellent explanation there.

traindude2926 Wrote:

----------- Is this true

How about it -- is it true? No one has
the Prince book? Maybe Jeffries would show.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/25 15:42 by timz.

traindude2926 Wrote:
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> I have read that the Y6 classes used the Type A
> superheaters, whereas the Class A and class J used
> the larger Type E which provides a greater degree
> of superheat. I this true and, if so, why was the
> Type E not used?

Yes, it is true, i.e. the Type E provides a greater degree of superheat. However, the Type E are harder to work with and harder to repair, thus the Type A require much less maintenance.

Thanks. I figured it was something like that. Flues for Type Es can get clogged more easily with soot/cindets. But they still used Elesco Type E on all the Js and As.

Interestingly, UPs first 4-8-4s, the FEF-! class had typr A. Then the fifteen FEF-2s had type E. But they reverted to type A for the final ten, the FEF-3s.

The Y6s were more for power and the As and Js needed speed and power, would that have made a differance in superheater type? 

holiwood Wrote:
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> The Y6s were more for power and the As and Js
> needed speed and power, would that have made a
> differance in superheater type? 

Yes since the Type E design produced higher steam temperatures, and hotter steam means increased horsepower for faster speeds.

On a coal burner, especially with type Es I'd think you'd need decent gas velocity to keep the tubes
clean around the heater bundle. Just more in the way with an E over an A, trade off there effectiveness
vs service issues.

Out 

I'm thinking it might have something to do with compounding.  The Type E superheater's ability to make hotter steam, didn't make much difference by the time the steam got to the low pressure cylinders.

Very true and that huge piece of pipe makes a decent heat exhanger to make it worse. So the poor locomotive
designer gets to figure out what the actual compound pressure is when it hits the low pressure cylinders.

Out 

Earlk Wrote:
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> I'm thinking it might have something to do with
> compounding.  The Type E superheater's ability to
> make hotter steam, didn't make much difference by
> the time the steam got to the low pressure
> cylinders.
The Y6s had a booster valve to add some high pressure and hotter steam to the low pressure cylinders when they needed more power so maybe that made up for difference in superheaters