Steam to the Rescue?

I remember going to the Bluebell's Terrier Gala with my grandparents in 2000. We were on a double header with W11 Newport and 2678 Knowle.

On the approach to Sharpthorne Tunnel, one of them ran short of water (I think it was 2678), we were stranded for a while as the fire was thrown out and in the end I think W8 Freshwater rescued us.

 

That would have been interesting as W8 and W11 are "air brake only".

There was something of an echo of this at Smallbrook a couple of years ago when an electric train broke down at the interchange platform. The stranded passengers were picked up by a train hauled by the somewhat newer 41298, taken to Havenstreet and then transferred to Ryde by taxi,.

PH

 

I just looked it up on the Bluebell's archive and it was 473 that rescued us and not W8, although it was at the Gala. And it was 2678 whose fire was dropped just short of the tunnel (it ran again later that day).

 

That would fit. Incidentally, an A1x is allowed to haul rather more tonnage on the I.O.W. than the Bluebell but W8 & W11 run slightly over 10 miles between water stops. I can only think a vacuum ejector uses substantially more steam than an air pump.

PH

 

Phillipson (Steam locomotive design: data and formulae) estimated that a vacuum ejector used three times as much steam as an air pump on comparable duty. For what it's worth, the respective numbers he based this on were 298 and 106 lb/hour, so approximately 30 and 10 gallons of water per hour respectively. Not colossal for either of them. Steam heat is a much bigger draw on the boiler than either - apparently 1600 lb/hour during trials with a King Arthur (453 himself, in fact) on twelve bogies.

 

On 21st June, 2017 , at the end of SD's Emerald Isle Explorer, 85 worked Whitehead -Belfast Central -Bangor - Portadown - Whitehead. It was booked to follow the 11.27 train from Bangor, but that train was cancelled because the inward working was blocked behind a failed Dublin - Belfast Enterprise. Belfast passengers were put on to the Steam train ( much to their delight), and because there was a clear road we had a good run as well!
Ian

 

Eric Langridge in 'Under Ten CMEs' hat when diesel locos were to provide ETH, the power draw brought attention to just how much had been taken from steam boilers in the past.

 

Presumably depends on train length as well - a longer train must consume more water in absolute terms to maintain vacuum, though possibly a smaller proportion of the sustained steaming rate of the boiler on a larger loco?

Of course, with a Terrier, you only 500 gallons to start with, so something consuming 30 gallons / hour is actually quite significant in how it eats (or drinks...) in to the available water supply. I remember always needing to be very careful starting the injectors on ours because of not wishing to waste any water at the overflow, which is significant given that they have very fast injectors that you tend to need to keep putting on and off.

Tom

 

I would guess that with a vacuum ejector the steam required to create the desired vacuum is strongly dependent on ejector size with a small load dependency up to its flow limit for that vacuum. In practice, if the driver sets and forgets the small ejector steam valve at the start of the day, demand will be pretty much constant pumping against the relief valve, when recovering from a brake application the instantaneous steam consumption will be if anything reduced by the greater air flow at low vacuum (reduced pressure differential across the steam cone). Increased use of the large ejector is an obvious increase in demand.

I suspect Phillipson's figures were based on an 8" pump and comparable ejector, rather than Terrier size kit, but since he cited figures from a Railway Gazette circa 1924 I'm not going to check his sources.

 

Not quite a "rescue" but probably a unique steam working back in 1980. As part of the build up to Rocket 150 we had arranged a joint B.R./Steamport exhibition at Southport station over the Easter weekend. Unfortunately the nearest shunter was in Wigan (a long way at 15mph on an 08!) so we had to use what was available - Derek Foster's newly overhauled Jinty to move the stock into the station. When it came to moving the, then quite new, 507 over we had a couple of problems as the platforms in question were 'off the juice' and the unit had knuckle couplers. Not to be outdone B.R. knocked up a converter knuckle which went on the Jinty drawhook and, as you can see in the photo was used to move the unit over the non-electrified lines. I have no doubt that this was the only occasion that a 507/8 was steam-hauled. This was just one example of 'can do' thinking which made Rocket 150 and the events around it so successful.
Cheers,
Ray.

 

At some point in the mid-70s Lambton No.29 ventured up the Esk Valley to rescue a failed Class 31. I don't recall the exact date or details.