Nostalgia & History > Why the jets?

Picture 1 is from the website,

http://heritage.utah.gov/history/digital-photos

Picture 1, “Title: Japanese in Utah. Collection: Mss C 239; Peoples of Utah Photograph Collection. Photo number: C-239, No. 45, Box 5. Publisher: Digitized by: University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library. Date of Photograph: 1910. Person: Kariya, Utaro. Geopolitical place: Ogden (Utah). Utaro Kariya (in white shirt). 400 Japanese people were working for Union Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Kariya was the personnel man who provided jobs for the Japanese people. Union Pacific Locomotive in Ogden, Japanese workers on train. Source donors: Uno, Mrs. Osako.”

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Picture 2, picture 1 enlarged.

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Picture 3, picture 1 enlarged.

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Looks like compressor (air pump) exhaust.

Cheers,
Jack

New York football fans have been asking that for years. Gerry

Perhaps these are cylinder exhaust passage anti-vacuum ("snifter") valves, that are open because the engine isn't working steam? (Most throttles leak a little, even when closed.) Snifter valves were designed to prevent the cylinders from sucking in cinders while running downhill with the throttle shut off, or nearly shut off.

The valve placement seems peculiarly designed to generate steam jets that interfere with the view forward. I suspect they were re-plumbed later to exhaust at a less-conspicuous angle.

Utah has a lot of cold weather, so hopefully the steam jets aren't from the air compressor exhausts. That would be a problem enroute.

- Doug Debs

That is one clean drag-freight locomotive, especially considering the modest-grade Rock Springs coal that U.P. burned; it generated at lot of ash and cinders. That service crew has put a lot of hard work into wiping and polishing. The white-shirted foreman is rightly proud of his crew.

- Doug Debs

In 1910 Utah experienced one of its periodic "grasshopper" (actually, locust) plagues causing state authorities to hire this Union Pacific locomotive for a unique experiment. A bunker of liquified hydrogen cyanide insecticide (not visible) was placed on top of the tender and the liquid was fed into the spray nozzles seen here using modified steam injectors. The articulated was chosen for the experiment because of its long boiler length, which was judged to provide better crew protection from the insecticide than a shorter locomotive. The Japanese were selected for the project because it was perceived by white Americans that all Japanese were horticultural experts who were not susceptible to pesticides. This was the age of the Yellow Peril, after all. The setup was judged not to be cost-effective. Shortly after the photo was taken, when it was translated into Japanese what substance the nozzles were spraying, the men collectively uttered the traditional Japanese version of "up yours" and headed off for parts unknown. America was not a nice place in those days.

-E.O.