I must admit the title for this thread is horrible. I am interested in the steam locomotive overhauls that took place in the 30-50’s. I am interested because i am modeling a pseudo-prototype (a real railroad with non-prototypical equipment) and i wanted to make some changes to the base class of locomotive that will be powering the railroad (Badlwin 2-8-0 Consolidation). For instance was it unusual for railroads to upgrade things like a single Cross-compund airpump to 2 cross compound airpumps and 2 air tanks (like the N&W did with the C&O 0-8-0 C-16 class switchers it purchased toward the end of steam)? Also, i have noticed some Locomotives with a single sand dome on the boiler going with a larger one for freight service? i suppose increasing the size of the sand dome was more cost effective than trying to add a 2nd dome like USRA 0-8-0’s. I appreciate your toleration of my ignorance in this matter.
Pretty much any modifications you want to make can be justified. Railroads rebuilt 2-8-0’s into 4-8-4’s, 2-8-8-2’s into 2-10-2’s, 2-10-10-2’s into 2-10-0’s, 2-8-0’s into 0-6-0’s, relocated and replaced domes, cabs, sandboxes pumps, etec, etc. Tender swapping was real common.
During that period the size of the tank on a steam engine grew considerably to eliminate water stops. Stokers were added to keep the fires going and train and car length in general kept increasing as did tonnage. Often changes were internal like increasing the length of the piston stroke before cutting off the steam for more power and increasing the size of the steam valve ports for freeer steam supply. Pressures were increased in some engines and superheaters were added as were boosters to some engines.
Railroads customized their steam to fit their own requirements, frequently creating family looks that couldn’t be mistaken for any other company’s. Just a few examples:
The Mississippi Central had two bells on every locomotive - and one rang continuously when the locomotive was in motion.
The Santa Fe added a second high-capacity sandbox to locomotives used in mountain districts.
After they proved useful (as smoke lifters)on the GS-2 class, SP added skyline casings to a lot of passenger locomotives (and specified them on the one class of coal burning ‘cab to the rear’ 2-8-8-4s.)
The Illinois Central traded out the builders’ sand boxes for squared-off sand domes that were unlike any other. (They also changed wheel arrangements with great gusto.)
PRR made a wholesale swap of headlight and turbogenerator locations, and changed a lot of boiler-tube pilots over to cast steel types.
One ATSF 2-8-0, assigned to ballast service, was fitted with two extra cross-compound air pumps on the smokebox front (C&O style) to supply the air cylinders on the side-dump ballast cars. (It retained its original air brake system, including the original compressor.)
My own prototype added Elesco feed water heaters to older locomotives - frequently in odd places (behind the stack, and across the pilot beam overhanging the coupler, for two). Toward the end, many surviving steam locos were fitted with huge anti-blast smoke stack ducts (to keep stack blast from damaging tunnel linings) and additional sand boxes.
Coal burners were often converted to oil burners. The opposite also happened.
The N&W added water-only ‘canteens’ to their road locos, to eliminate water stops.
If you can find a photograph of a specific loco with some peculiar feature, there’s your excuse for modeling it.
A heart felt ‘Thank You’ goes out to all who took the time to respond. I appreciate your time and effort.
For those interested here is what I plan to change on my Pseudo-Prototype 2-8-0 Consolidation (using a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0):
Having 2 Cross Compound air pumps (ala N&W S-1 0-8-0 Switchers) with 2 shorter air tanks on the same side. This included for the same reasons that N&W did so.
Increased size of the sand dome. This is the ‘unusual’ element of the locomotive because I plan to use a large rectangular sand dome similar to the Harriman ‘Alton’ 4-6-2 Pacific’s used for Freight Service (from picture of #5299 at the end of her service life http://www.railarchive.net/gmogallery/alton5299t.htm ) or perhaps one of interesting ones on the ‘Decapod’ series from the WW1 era.
Going with a larger capacity tender to reduce stops and ancillary equipment along the route. A model could be the N&W Tenders used for the S-1 or S-1a 0-8-0 switchers (I know the N&W is a reoccurring theme which I will explain below) or the 12 wheeled Tenders used on the M-2a class 4-8-0’s (once again N&W http://lostengines.railfan.net/history.shtml ).
To prevent the locomotive from looking like a “Pimp my Locomotive” finalist I will stop all the major modifications there. However, I will then simplify other aspects to show a more utilitarian purpose. I will remove the fancier headlight and number boards and replace them with a C&O/Virginian switcher like ‘Miners Helmet’ light. In addition the bell will be moved from a place of prominence on the boiler top to the front box (ala Switcher). Other changes will include increasing the details / castings.
Looking at the Model Railroader “cyclopaedia” on steam locomotives, the lesson would seem to be “any resemblance to its original state is purely coincidental, and should not be assumed to be a precedent”.
Quote for truth. A lot of USRA engines were completely rearrsnged by RRs post WWI, because the stuff on them wasn’t the standard of the line. This was also some of the magic, at least for me, because there’s so many ways to go about a certain arangemment.
Just so you don;t feel out of place, my Mountain Pass line is taking a cue from the SP and will be converting most of our steam fleet to Cab Forwards due to there being a number of tunnels.
Nowhere was that more true than in Japan. The WWI era IGR (later JNR) locos show up in builders photos as lean, clean machines. Over the years they acquired air brakes (replacing the original vacuum brakes,) which meant compressors and air tanks in odd locations, and lots of plumbing running all over. Many also sprouted Elesco feedwater heaters. Toward the end, they were complex and messy - and (9600 class 2-8-0s especially) no two alike.
Anyone looking at a builder’s photo taken around 1920 and comparing it to 49672 working as a local switcher on the Hachiko-sen in 1964 wouldn’t believe it was the same locomotive.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with 3 9600 class 2-8-0s)
Did the railroads often outshop the overhauls to the original builders? I am sure the larger roads overhauled it themselves, however, would the smaller ones send them to the maker or outshop it to one of the larger railroads in the area close to them.
Smaller railroads would contract their major work to the closest Class 1 backshop, especially since all of the major builders were on the East Coast (except for Lima, which was in Ohio - still not very far west.) As a result, some shortlines ended up with locomotives arranged to the standards of their Class 1 connection, even though the shortline had acquired the loco new from the builder.
FWIW, the Sacramento shops of the Southern Pacific built a few locomotives for the Virginia and Truckee. I don’t know if they built any for other California or Nevada railroads.
The Espee Sacramento shops also did major overhauls for independent short-line railroads in the area–for instance they did some major upgrading for the Nevada County Narrow Gauge, giving the NCNG an “Espee” look (locos were loaded onto flat-cars at Colfax and brought down to Sacramento for shopping).
The former SP shops continue to be used for overhauls and rebuilds of locomotives and cars, mostly non-Espee, as part of the museum operation. When I was there some six years ago, Lucius Beebe’s private business car was there for rebuild, among some other stuff. I took some pictures, but will have to scan to show, if anyone is interested … Got to leave now, I have a lunch date in St. Helena.
Off topic: What kind of Flat Car does one use to haul around a loco? Considering clearences, a depressed works but the well is too small, and anything else puts you past even today;s clearences.
Maybe it’s not off-topic, since some guys might like to have this particular situation represented! On at least two occasions, I saw steam locomotives move through the Soo Line yards in Rhinelander, WI, and a friend even got good photos of one such move. Granted, the Soo had no tunnels on this line, which came down from Upper Michigan, through Wisconsin, and into northern Illinois (also west into North Dakota). The small engine (sorry, but my memory is a fleeting thing, so I don’t remember the wheel arrangement; it was 25 years ago) was on one flatcar, the tender on the one right behind it. These were common flatcars–and I’ve seen photos of such movements of NG and small standard gauge locos in various books and magazine articles without ever seeing anything but standard flatcars for such use.
On topic: the NG Thunder Lake RR of the Robbins Lumber Company had third rail tracks to run their engines into the Soo Line roundhouse (again, I don’t remember now, but this roundhouse was once nearly a half-circle of 10-13 stalls!) for repairs and servicing. That’s how the little NG hogs got their electric headlights in 1907. This sort of subcontracting was quite common in the days of steam, as has been pointed out in other replies.
On page 146 of Mallory Hope Farrel’s Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge published in 1982 by Pacific Fast Mail is a picture of one of SP’s narrow-gauge ten-wheelers on a standard-gauge flat car to be taken to the Bakersfield shops. The car has a flat deck, but the car seems heavy-duty (thick side girders, stronger trucks), not the run-of-the-mill sort. The locomotive weighed in the vicinity of 87,000 pounds, and I think that excludes the weight of its tender also on the car. Also pictured is a special loading trestle at Owenyo to bring the narrow-gauge track to the same level as the deck of the standard-gauge flat car. It looks to me that wooden rails were placed on the deck, with slightly higher wooden blocks aside the wheels, and boards perpendicular to and atop the “rails” to prevent rolling/sliding.