April Fools.
Very funny. But remember the curse of Trains Magazine! This is a Kalmbach forum, and might partake of that… [;)]
Thought the 844 was being made into a electric ‘tea pot’.
Thanks a lot! I just sprayed coffee all over the laptop! [:(!]
In the interest of “green,” I heard they were going to stretch catenary and put heating elements in the boiler…
Hmmmm, don’t give them that idea…
It can be interesting to calculate just how much electricity would be required to produce 300psi operation… even with a very large proportion of the electrical ‘losses’ winding up as usable heat in the Rankine cycle.
I took the pledge not to make phony posts over on RyPN and extend that here, but I did work up a fake Dickens-style press release about doing ‘green’ electric standby heating on 844 and 4014 as part of an 8055-style thermal ‘optimization effort’ to keep the steam shop ‘relevant to current UP priorities’. This involves using about 35kW of electric heating elements (as the Swiss did) but in a circulating tank communicating with boiler circulation; that order of magnitude of electric heat should be ample to maintain boiler pressure at a level adequate for standby even in very cold weather. Of course you would lag the hell out of anything that might lose heat, and of course you’d decorate every inch of it with sponsor decals or other marketing opportunities – Kalmbach could use a ‘smart overlay’ to provide streaming ads that pop or zoom continuously as the engine runs or stands…
Ironically enough the natural draft is good enough on 4014 to hold operating pressure high until Ed gets on the whistle. Then they need to crack the blower a bit (or turn up the water heater in my brave new world scenari
… haa - haa …
hmmm
(=J=)
I believe the Swiss had such an engine that drew current to heat the water in the boiler.
You had me there for a minute, BN.
Smart not to try that with the 4014! [:)]
I was thinking about reworking the firebox to put a small BWR core in it… The main boiler shell would be for the ECCS water storage.
Well, Overmod of course just writes ‘8055’ - how many readers know this is not one odd PRR number but the incomplete number of a 52.80 class, way over the Atlantic and into Europe, an ex DR Decapod, unhappily revamped at SLM, Winterthur, Switzerland into a so-called ‘NG’ engine, ‘new Generation’ (the Swiss have the same subservience as the Germans about their own language). As far as I know, the engine has a special small burner in the middle of the firebox for keeping pressure during stand-by. If she had later received that electric heating, it is because it was one of the more successful features of Waller’s, SLM, small cog engines where it made sense because on these tourist railways there is no running over the night but engines should be kept warm. It would be of much lower versatility in an engine in regular traffic, like were the 52.80s on DR in full steam time where there was little more than 1/2 h, maybe h, standing in a shed before the next scheduled run. That was covered even without having to put some coal on the existing fire. Overnight standing in shed was rare and then there was a shed fireman putting on some in periods.
Unhappily revamped: well, just look at some pictures of ‘52 8055 NG, SLM’ - you see a formerly harmonious and well proportioned engine made into something broad and thick and unwieldy.
Juniatha
I can never remember the precise numbering notation or ‘syntax’ for that locomotive, but there is (perhaps mercifully!) only the one so far, and it is, truth to tell, easy enough to find it by just 8055 if anyone has further technical interest.
The information I got was relayed from Andreas Schwander, who could be contacted for more specific technical details of what was actually done. As I recall, part of the ‘idea’ was to permit the locomotive to rest unattended over weekends and other fairly long periods with the boiler ‘hot’ and at some percentage of service pressure, to minimize thermal-cycling stresses on the boiler structure, without being in a temperature-controlled building or even a shed in what might be Swiss winter conditions. Apparently, at least at one time that was thought to be easier using thermostatically-controlled electric heat than a burner arrangement using the locomotive’s main fuel (which as I recall is light gas oil equivalent to #2 diesel here).
Extensive lagging and insulation was provided on this locomotive, which does make it look … well, charitably, remember Ralphie’s kid brother in the Christmas Story movie? The “official” excuse is that this is the look of thermodynamic efficiency, on a locomotive designed for ‘plandampf’ service to make money; with aesthetics or nostalgia comparatively unimportant. There was much the sam