What was the purpose of the steel plates at the front and on the side of some steam locomotives?
Those I saw were used on locomotives pulling freight. Can’t recall seeing any pulling passenger cares, although in some parts of the country they may have.
GGB
its a heat shield
it also helped pu***he smoke away
I have normally heard them called “smoke deflecters”. The name is self explanitory.
Not sure what you mean. Some RR’s added sheet metal smoke deflectors to lift the smoke high over the cabs. On the PRR S2 class they were referred to “elephant ears”. Sheet metal was also added for streamlining.
Those are called smokelifters. The Union Pacific had them on their 4-8-4s and some of their Challenger 4-6-6-4s. Both of these pulled passenger trains a lot. They kept the smoke away from the locomotive and away from the train.
I wonder if it increased the wind resistance?
Not really. If viewed from the front they were pretty straight from an edge on view. the flow of air up over the steps created an updraft to lift smoke over the cab (in theory). But then most railroads frowned on smoke any way so what was the message they were sending?
Smoke deflecters is what I’ve always heard them called.
Railroad crews also referred to them as “Elephant ears”.
IMHO, they really added “character” to the New York Central’s Niagaras. Gave them appearance of “big, serious muscle”…[^]
On the West Coast, two railroads used a form of ‘smoke lifter’, the Western Pacific used modified ‘elephant ears’ on their 4-8-4’s, and Southern Pacific used what they referred to as a ‘Skyline Casing’ on their 4-8-2’s, GS-series 4-8-4’s, their 3900 series 2-8-8-4’s and some of their 4-6-2’s. The purpose of these devices was to lift the smoke above the locomotive and presumably keep the smoke from interfering with the air-conditioning in passenger cars. I understand that since both railroads burned primarily fuel oil rather than coal (except for the 3900’s), and fuel oil was cleaner burning, that these devices proved to be more decorative than practical. It certainly gave the SP steamers a distinctive look.
Western Pacific never seemed to decide on where exactly to place their ‘elephant ears’ on their 4-8-4’s, but it certainly LOOKED interesting, LOL!
Tom
The story I heard was that the SP skyline casing was originated with the GS-2, to make it look pretty. When it proved to be a good smoke lifter, the same basic design was added to a lot of SP steam, including the AC-9 2-8-8-4.
Elephant ears work well as smoke lifters if the loco has a solid plate behind the steps up to the running board.
During the last several decades of steam operation in Japan, elephant ear smoke lifters were pretty much standard on all classes of locos - included in new construction after 1940, and retrofitted to earlier equipment after the end of hostilities in 1945.
Some wartime 2-8-2’s (the flat-end-casing D51’s) were actually built with wooden elephant ears. They must have worked.
Chuck
I think the smoke deflectors make the UP 4-8-4 Northerns (“Overlands” the most visually striking steam engines ever. 8444/844 is my favorite steam locomotive largely due to them, and they give the engine almost a european look… very sophisticated.
The only time the smoke needed to be lifted was when the locomotive was drifting at low throttle.
W/O the steam exhausting under some pressure, the flat boiler front of the engine (when drifting) forced air out and away from the side of the boiler creating a partial vacuum which the drifting exhaust quickly filled obstructing the engineer’s vision. The air conditioning or psgr comfort weren,t factors. The smoke deflectors trapped that air deflected from the smoke box front and redirected it along the side of the boiler changing the partial vacuum to and over-pressure situation which directed the smoke upward.
No, it isn’t. If you don’t know the answer, why post utter nonsense?
Mark.
Even the best of of firemen can’t avoid smoke all the time. When you put a fire on you will always get some smoke, no matter how skilled you are.
Cheers,
Mark.
If you really think you can run a steamer without smoke, you need to look at some old pictures.
I’d disagree. You’ll notice that the locomotives fitted with smoke deflectors are also mainly those that had modern streamlined front ends with multiple orifice blastpipes, and hence relatively low back pressure and a soft exhaust. For many of these locos, smoke trailing was a problem even when working steam, for the reasons that jimrice4449 has rather neatly explained. I once did a trial trip on a BR Standard 9 that had just been overhauled, and was running without deflectors. Even with the regulator wide open and in full foregear the exhaust didn’t lift very much at all, and we looked like coal miners by the end of the run.
All the best,
Mark.
Thank goodness there are many knowlegable people on this forum. Thank you for your input.
GGB