Smokebox door fastenings

Far too Hi-Tec ...... see eighth photo down for how a smokebox door seal was maintained on the Talyllyn, in early preservation days:

https://www.faulkner-talyllyn.com/1950_1960_talyllyn.htm
(A fascinating website, that)

Disclaimer: AFAIK, that photo reflects no official TR policy, even back then!

 

Is it fire cement or asbestos tape? That was a common method of sealing smokebox doors. It looks more like the latter. Still sometimes done today with a non-asbestos equivalent.

An interesting site, which I haven't come across before. Ian Faulkner's a name from my dim and distant past.

 

Bob only knows, but the terms 'Dolgoch', 'fire cement' and 'blastpipe' certainly turned up in the same sentence, in Tom Rolt's 'Railway Adventure' (which narrative ends at the close of the 1952 season). The photo must've been one of the last of Dolgoch in service ahead of withdrawl for (a long overdue) rebuild that year.

 

I have heard of Bagnall saddle tanks operating in Assam in the 70's and 80's with cow dung used as sealant round the smokebox door. Given the effect of said product on the mudguards of tractors on dairy farms, one wonders if it was really a long term solution.
With oil firing prevalent on locomotives in the US, common practice tended to keep a couple of buckets of sand in the cab. Stiff climb, wide open throttle, half a bucket of sand in the firebox- voila

 

That wont have anything to do with a smokebox seal though...

Any soot produced by over-firing on oil tends to be quite sticky and ends up coating the internal surface of the tubes and cutting down the heat transfer. Steaming then goes to hell in a bucket. Adding sand to the firebox to be caught by the draft, scours out the tubes and restores the steaming rate. The difference can be dramatic...

Ask anyone who has fired FR locos during the oil fire era.

M

 

The same practice with sand was used on the oil burning locos in East Africa.

Cheers, Neil

 

I suspect it was pretty universal with oil burners - I've heard it mentioned in a US context as well. Generally accompanied by a big plume of sooty smoke!

Tom

 

My experience was if you used saturated atomising steam it was as described above.

if you used super heated steam the combustion was drier and thus the sticky spot did not form. The deposits where dry and only formed if you over fired the boiler. I went nearly a whole season on the Snowdon engine without having to brush the tubes. Sand was not much more than a bean tin a day.

 

And, apparently, the WHR (+FR?) in oil burning days

Steve B

 

Yes. Normally once you were away from any houses.