Can this loco really be in steam??

Saw this photo on a blog and thought it can't really be in light steam on the back of a lorry in the services on the M27, can it??

 

Looks like it just reflection. As they couldn't keep a steam loco even in light steam on an artic, as the tender with the water and coal in would be on a different trailer.

 

Looks like a little at the top as well, almost at the front, the line has gone fuzzy on a small section if you look carefully. How odd!

 

I missed that under the buffer. As my eye was drawn to the cylinder casing. It is really odd

 

Condensation? Smudge on the lens? Recently had it's fire dropped and hadn't yet cooled?

 

That would be my bet, away and on the low loader before it's properly cooled, no one would be insane enough to leave a fire in.

 

Brave words. In this activity, anything is possible.

 

Theres a video out there on t'internet of a loco driving itself onto the low loader.. I know in my lifetime I've seen an industrial bring itself off a low loader..

 

You can drop the fire and still have residual pressure! I'm just surprised that it was transported full of water as that must add several tons to the load.

 

Not an issue, plenty of steam locomotives on the roads with fires on their grates and in steam. You obviously have no experience of transporting locomotives.

To everyone else, this reminds me of the exodus from the Longmoor Military Railway circa 1970. The preservation scheme failed at Liss due to extreme nimby-ism of the locals, who scuppered any chance of the railway being kept open. Anyway, one of the smaller locos. - a Barclay four-wheeler, I believe - was kept in steam on the low loader; as a mark of defiance, the whistle of the engine was kept open all the way through Liss to, shall we say, wake up the miserable locals!! More fun than enough!!

Cheers

Alan

 

I'm curious then what if the fire needs attending to ?, and with tender loco you have no water supply bar what's already in the boiler, I certainly woulden't want to be driving behind a loco left unattended in such a state!.

Also thinking about it, with all the extra gradients and water sloshing about you get with road movements you woulden't on rail, isn't there a real risk of exposing the firebox crown/fusible plugs by leaving a fire in ?, bit of difference between Longmoor playing with a tank in the 70's and moving a "live" Bulleid in 2014.

 

Its quite easy really, exactly the same principle as leaving an engine that's been disposed or left to die overnight and you don't keep tending to that every five minutes.

And if your loco loses that much water from the boiler between putting it on the low loader and it reaching its destination that it would need topping up, then I respectfully suggest you really shouldn't be sending it away!

 

Plenty of road movements are made with the loco still warm, however it is usual to drop most, if not all of the fire to avoid any problems with fusible plugs. Personally I have driven several railway locos onto low loaders and more than a few steam rollers. No problem as long as sensible precautions are taken, and it makes it easier on a short journey to chuck a fire in whilst the tie down chains are removed and raise enough steam to drive it off at the other end.

 

I saw Pontypool's austerity at the Foxfield gala a few years ago come on shed on the Sunday night, have the fire dropped and tank drained, then put on the low loader. Couldn't have been more than 90 mins after the end of the gala and it was on the road back to Wales!

 

Plenty of good answers to your questions there David, you live and learn, eh? Good ol' internet!!

Also, as per Avonside1563's reference, some steam locomotives are actually traction engines and steam rollers. Get out and about a bit and you'll see these "insane" machines chuffing up and down gradients on the open road - what will they think of next!!

Cheers

Alan

 

True to an extent, but the point I'm still struggling with is the idea of leaving a fire in due to the crown/plugs, in hillier parts the loader would encounter gradients far steeper than you get on a railway, even with plenty of water in the boiler, isn't there still a risk when a steep downhill is encountered and it all surges down the smokebox end ?.

Road loco's were designed for such things, rail loco's (ie Bulleids, not industrials) were not.

 

With no blower on, no exhaust draft and no extra fuel coming in how hot is the fire going to be anyway? If the temperature at the top of the box is below the fusible plug critical value surely it doesn't matter whether its exposed or not?

 

Good question, what's acceptable to one person may be far too hot for another, is it burnt through or is there plenty in there ?, "a fire" isn't a constant.

 

What I am struggling to understand is the implications if say the lorry was involved in a road taffic incident, what the emergency services would make of a pressure vessel full of high (ok it maybe only low) pressure steam?

Also its been mentioned before but if 1lt of water is 1kg how much weight would be added by having a full boiler on a bullied? Its also weight up high which cannot be benificial?