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Understanding steam details
Hi,
I downloaded the file Understanding Steam Details. Bottom page 67 and 68 The picture of the engine is yellow and you can not see them. But other then that the information is great.
Very good material presented will be very useful, thanks.
Very nice artical Andy , very informative . Now i’m ready to weather my steam locomotive .
Thanks
I also looked at the PDF file. The pictures on the bottom of Pg 67 and top of 68 look as though only the yellow was printed.
Otherwise the information is very useful.
A very useful article as US steam locos are amaze of pipes and fitting whem compared with there British counterparts thank you
A very informative and detail explanation of how a steam loco works and all the different appliances it takes to make it work as it should.
Very good article Andy.
Jim Blanchard
Alabama
Really enjoyed. Love steam engines but they are basically a mass of things I don’t know that well and this helps.
For those having picture problems, perhaps downloading the latest Adobe Reader or discarding preferences and restarting.
Hello Everyone,
The images in the PDF should all now be fixed. Thanks for reading Model Railroader and visiting ModelRailroader.com.
Dana Kawala
Senior editor
I have the Steam Encyclopedia and have spent much time trying (in vain) to figure out some of them. This PDF is the clearest explanation of things I have ever read. Thank you so much!
Great article, but I would have liked to have included a brief explanation of engine startup. All this assumes that you have steam to drive the systems. How did water start pumping to the boiler in a cold engine and how long did it take to start up the 4-8-4? Also, how was the water in the tender kept from icing up in cold weather?
Thanks for a very informative artice, especially the pics. It helps us ‘newbies’ understand a bit more as to the detailing for these mighty machines.
Andy Sperandeo was a great choice to join the MRR team, over the years he has been able to explain many itemsabout railways simply enought o make them understandable even by me. My model Railroading experience has been improved because of his writing. Thanks to all at MRR for the great work. Regards terry from downunder.
Good information, but I’m with John: where’s the starter button on these big things? How much wadded up newspaper did it take to get the fires going?
Finally, a clear, concise summary of how a steam locomotive works, beyond the basic piston/valve operation. What a refined piece of engineering it is!
I’ve been reading railroad related magazines for 50 years and was always uncertain how steam engines worked. This is the clearest explanation, and now I can have it readily available. The pictures are better than in the original magazine article. Thanks.
Excellent article. I’ve learned a lot about steam “appliances.”
A really informative article; the locos seem even more amazing when you realize the ingenuity that was required to make everything work together as one machine. As others have observed, there’s a lot more to a locomotive than just the boiler/wheels/cab/tender we always see. Good article! Thanks, Andy!
I still do not understand the injector boiler feed water system. I understand the venturi, but cannot understand how boiler supply steam at, lets assume 200psi, venturi the water and then reenter the boiler which is at 200psi. My logic just does not compute how 200psi steam can expend work and then still have the pressure to reenter the boiler at 200psi.
As a kid I saw the steam era supplanted by diesel in the sprawling CV/CN Italy Yard and engine shops in St Albans, Vt. This article helps me better understand the complexity of these iron beasts and the importance of the crews who both serviced and operated them. Again, a great article by a great hobby magazine.