Industrial Loco Updates

I gave them the out of "it's really poor", which I suppose includes "it's really fragile".

Other than that, what else might I be missing?

 

Can anyone help me decide if I'm imagining things?!

I'm sure when Horden at Tanfield Railway was released into traffic after overhaul the other year, some fuss was made about it being in some way unique in preservation... but I cannot remember on what basis that was claimed. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks!

 

I suspect that it was because it did batle with a BR loco (a Q6?) and won?

 

Social media is reporting that fireless Barclay Boots No. 1 has returned to steam at Williton, and will be in action shunting at Minehead during the forthcoming WSR gala.

 

I saw that, and I think it would be very interesting to witness in action. Though I am curious in a heritage railway context where you get your supply of steam from! AIUI, such locos were frequently used at factory complexes that had a steam supply on tap. Perhaps each arriving loco at Minehead will have to do a quick "top up" of the fireless on their run round, to tide it over for its next bout of shunting!

Tom

 

Yes I wondered that too. The operable one in Ayrshire is topped up from a standard four coupled Barclay, the guy at Williton has one of those too so maybe it’ll be the same system?

 

It's been done before in preservation although I forget where. Chasewater rings a bell but could be miles wrong. You use a donor loco to provide the steam, taken from a suitable supply. Because a large supply is unlikely to be available it can take an age to do this but, once charged you should get at leat 4 hours, depending on what you are doing and a second charge is quicker as the water in the fireless is already hot.

 

Quainton have done it in the past as well.

 

I remember us doing this at Quainton.

A separate charging valve was fitted to one of the lifting injectors of NBL24564/39(Coventry No1).

If I recall correctly, the reservoir had to first be ¼ filled with cold water. Once Coventry was up to working pressure, the charging valve was opened and the steam passed through the cold water and condensed so that the reservoir filled with hot water.
I think we had to blow the reservoir down a bit once hot.

This was all done before the public were admitted. And the injectors of Coventry needed to be cooled down to keep them working.

Once charged, the fireless was only worked lightly. After service, we were able to dispose of the steam loco(s) in the yard, and the fireless still had enough charge to push the steam locos back into the shed.

As I say, that was how I remember it. I might not be completely accurate.


EDIT
The connection between the locos was by a flexible armoured hose. The charging supply from Coventry was led through a 2" pipe from the cab to the front of the loco, so that the vulnerable flexible connection was away from the cab.

The charging valve fitted in the cab of Coventry had both a screw-down valve AND a spherical valve which could be rapidly closed by a long handle.

 

Meiningen built 202 such lokomotives 1984-88 where everything disintegrated in eastern Europe

https://www.bwnossen.de/index.php/anfahrt/35-dampfspeicherlok-flc-bauart-meinigen

 

Got a pic of that somewhere.

 

Why do fireless locos typically have the cylinders located beneath the cab, rather than the leading part of the locomotive like conventional engines?

 

There was often vibration-complaints from crew when driving axle was below footplate.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Bayerische_B_X_941_Hamburg_Modell_1.JPG

For the fireless locomotives connection to valve gear and boiler/regulator/ cylinder route simpler

 

Probably convenience. The layout of conventional fired engines has a firebox at the cab end and thus the smokebox and chimney at the other end. This requires the exhaust steam to go through the front end to create a draw on the fire, so the logical place to put the cylinders is at the front. The firebox also often occupies space between the frames which would conflict with the valve gear if the cylinders were under the cab.

With a fireless, you don't have any of those constraints. If you put the cylinders under the cab, you can just have a regulator valve on the top of the "boiler" in the cab, and then a steam exhaust pipe up the back of the cab, which is a very neat and tidy arrangement, hence most are built in this way.

 

Having the cylinders under the cab means it's more efficient, as the heat losses are a lot less as the steam doesn't have far to travel; an important consideration with a finite supply. I was also under the impression that it was to even out weight distribution, due to the lack of weight from a firebox and fuel at the cab end.

 

2006. Exchange yard of the Mondi plant Ulmerfeld-Hausmening, Nieder Österreich. Had been in a museum in Nürnberg, I believe.

I took these in 2003 in Serbia at a closed factory (Viscosa Loznitza).
Nice to have an excuse to get them out there.
Pat