Steam Locomotives & Alternative Fuels?

Classic Toy Trains Forum
21

Do not forget the Federal requirement for Steam Locomotives. After 1,472 days of operation, the locomotive must be torn down for the FRA Inspection. Check the boiller and tubing, fire box and stay bolts, safety valves and injectors, etc. And who does it? As I remember, after the Gettysburg boiler explosion, the government had to bring in “experts” from the Strasburg Railroad and Essex’s Valley Railroad to show them how things should be done in today’s limited steam use.

That’s a lot of labor. Also, unless a LARGE number of Steam Locomotives were built, the cost of replacement parts would be “off the wall”, much of the time hand made.

22

And the big problem with water is its quality and how much and how rapidly it builds up scale in the boilers.

Mike

23

This was a real problem for the western rail roads. The Santa Fe had a chemist for each division to keep an eye on the water quality. It would be a real trick to get the railroads to go back to a non-condensing steam engine. Bruce Baker