I’ve heard the term Super Power Steam lately. What does it exactly mean? Is there a reason for it? Does a locomotive need certain specifications to be Super Power, or did someone just make up the term? Is it the same as turbocharging a diesel?
just keep asking, just keep listening
Terry…You can get all kinds of answers but just go over to “Google” and enter: Super Power Steam Engines…and you will find plenty to read about them.
See the Al Armitage article in Locomotive Cyclopedia, volume 1.
A good initial discussion of the ‘first’ SuperPower locomotive is here:
http://home.att.net/~barrwp/limaa1.htm
A thread on a parallel forum that discussed this question is here:
http://www.chaski.com/cgi-bin/webbbs_food/webbbs_cfg_rfan.pl?read=8974
A very large collection of SuperPower drawings is at the California State Railroad Museum’s library in Sacramento; their e-mail is given as:
and it’s mentioned that they can make copies of details for you if you have a road number or builder # for a specific locomotive.
The essential elements of a SuperPower locomotive may be somewhat subject to discussion, but one hallmark is an extremely capable boiler system with large grate, feedwater heating, extensive use of superheat. Other features: limited cutoff, lightweight rodwork (to reduce dynamic augment and allow the use of larger cylinders and longer stroke), high-speed boosters for ‘starting trains the increased high-speed horsepower can pull.’ A very notable point was the avoidance of compounding and the use of free exhaust.
A couple of things notably NOT in SuperPower: multiple cylinders and water-tube fireboxes, as seen in Baldwin’s roughly contemporaneous experimental 60000 (preserved at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia).
By extension, some other and later improvements in large locomotives – tandem and roller-bearing rods, poppet valves, open-type feedwater heaters, syphons/arch tube circulators, etc. – came to be referred to as Super-Power features. But the ‘pure’ definition (imho) goes back to Woodard’s design philosophy as embodied originally in the A-1 et al., and then as embraced by the van Sweringen Advisory Mechanical Committee.
check out lima locomotive works then the term berkshire.theres some super power steam.
stay safe
Joe