I’m getting started on consolidating my engine facilities, which I had split into two areas. They include an engine house, a coal tower, cinder loader, sand towers, diesel fueling and water tower. When looking at where to locate everything before starting to modify track, I realized I didn’t know where the water is added to a steam loco (not a saddle back tanker). I wasn’t 100% that it was stored in the tender, with separate sections for water and fuel (coal, oil, etc), but looking at an old book showed the details on some locos confirming that. So I know to locate the water tower where it can add water to tenders, not atop the loco.
A related question…how did the water get from the tender to the loco boiler…gravity or a pump in the tender? How would that be powered? Of course, in HO it must go through one of the little DCC wires!
I’ve been in and out of the hobby since the early '60s. Lots I don’t know!
Water would normally go in the tender, and usually in the rear, behind the fuel load. As for how it get into the boiler, I look forward to learning myself!
Feedwater pumps/Steam Injectors, move the water from the tender to the loco. The rear of the tender normally holds the water. Some RRs had troughs between the tracks that were used to feed under the tender pickups for water refills on the go. A loco can’t go real far without water, so plan on refilling the tender in relations to your ops plan.
Most steam engine have two steam injectors - one for the Fireman and one for the Engineer. The reason is redundancy - If one fails, you can still get water into the boiler and prevent a boiler explosion. The injector has a small steam feed from the boiler and and a ‘jet’ action pulls the water with it when it is used. Basically quite simple.
The big issue with steam injectors is that they are pushing ‘cold’ water into the boiler and this can reduce the steam pressure until that water get heated up. Feed water heaters like Worthington and Elesco(that big round thing at the top of a smoke box) have steam driven pumps that run the cold water through a bundle of pipes immersed in hot boiler water. This ‘pre-heats’ water before it is delivered to the boiler. Even if a locomotive has a feed water heater system, it will have injectors for safety reasons.
since steam locomotives consumed water faster than they did fuel, water was often available from water plugs or stand pipes located some distance from the main engine house service tracks and often quite a ways from the main water tower.
you might google feedwater heater or steam locomotive injector and get more on your other question.
As mentioned before, the water was stored in the tender and was pumped to the boiler. If you ever get a chance to visit a steam locomotive, either on display or a restored one that is operating, take a second and look at all the “stuff” between the tender and the locomotive. Big drawbars to keep them together, water hoses, air lines, signal lines. If the loco burns coal the coal may be hand shovelled to the firebox, but over a certain size that isn’t practical and stokers were used that used a small steam engine to move the coal from the tender to the firebox. If the locomotive burns fuel oil there will be oil lines, plus steam pipes going to the tender to heat the fuel oil so that it will flow. If the loco is used for passenger service there will be steam supply lines running from engine along the tender to provide heat, etc for the passenger cars. Lots of neat stuff under there. Unfortunately because of our realively sharp curves it isn’t practical to add more than a suggestion of those connections between the engine and tender.
The water was delivered to the engines via “water plugs” or “standpipes”. These were often near the coaling facilities, or in “classic” version - right off the water tower. A larger terminal would have the water tower(s) piped to several standpipes around the facility. There might also be standpipes at the passenger stations to add water to a passenger engine without uncoupling it from the train. The water was usually added by the fireman climbing on top of the tender, opening the water hatch on the tender deck, manhandling the pipe into position and opening the valve. You can imagine an unsecured man standing on top of a large piece of machinery, with the possibility of a wet surface would give a stroke to a modern OSHA inspector! Back then it was just part of the job.
Here are a couple of photos showing the major piping for an Elesco feedwater heater…
…and for an injector. If the locomotive has no feedwater heater, there’d be another of these on the fireman’s (opposite) side of the loco. Note that the rods for controlling the injector aren’t modelled:
Thanks for the info, everyone. It reminded me that I have a leather-bound book in a plastic bag in the closet: “Roper’s Handbook of the Locomotive: Including the construction, running and management of locomotive engines and boilers”, published in 1874, by Steven Roper, Engineer. I presume the technical type engineer, not the loco driver. I’ll have to look through it (though it is a bit fragile at this point) with my grandson as we go on our summer train-oriented boondoggle, to include the Baltimore B&O museum, Strasburg & Scranton PA sites. Of course it will not include features added in late 1800s or later.
Water has to be injected into the boiler to a higher pressure than what is in the boiler. If the boiler pop off valves are set at 250 lb then the injectors would push water through the check valve at 275 to 300 lb. The tenders held the cold water and also had steam heat or some hot water from the boiler would be fed back to the tender to keep it from freezing and to warm it some so it would not shock the boiler with cold water.
Tenders were filled many ways. The old fashion water spout on the side of a tank was not around much after the turn of the century except for very small yards. Stand pipes located next to the coaling towers and ash dumps, Sometimes on the inbound yard tracks and also at the end of passenger platforms. Water troughs between the rails where tenders can scoop on the fly. Some roads even had water bridges across the main line where locos can stop and fill the tanks from a spout over head.
Here is a picture of the first K4s Pacific that received the coast to coast tender. It held 25,000 gallons of water and 32 tons of coal. Designed to eliminate some water stops between stations. It ended up being several tons heavier then the loco pulling it. http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr5453.jpg
If Mr. Roper’s book is that old it will probably include crosshead pumps for boiler feed!
In many tenders, the cistern actually wraps around the lower part of the coal bunker. That’s why the front of the tender may have rounded ‘cheeks’ on either side of the coal doors and no visible slope sheet outline in the side rivets.
Since decent-quality coal would turn four times its weight of water to high pressure steam, a railroad needed more water stations than it did coaling facilities.
When passenger trains were steam powered, water penstocks were frequently located at both ends of the platforms, where tenders would stop while the trains were working passengers and baggage. A major through station would have had a line of penstocks at each end.
Locomotives will have two ways of supplying feedwater. Either by two injectors or by one injector and one pump for the feedwater heater.
Despite the myth you keep reading, injectors DO NOT push COLD water into the boiler!!! In fact, it is impossible for the injector to push cold water into the boiler.
The injector works off of steam from the boiler. Read that again! STEAM from the boiler. That steam has the tempurature of saturated steam corresponding to the boiler pressure. Almost 100% of the heat in this steam is transferred into the feedwater. So the feedwater is in no way cold! And although the device is called an injector, it is also a type of feedwater heater.
The fact everyone seems to miss and that keeps this myth going is, the injector is using boiler pressure steam to move the water through the injector and into the boiler. That is where the loss of steam pressure comes from, not from cold water.
The feedwater heater uses a small amount of boiler steam, that needed to run the pumps, to push water into the boiler. Recovered heat from the exhaust steam is used to heat the feedwater and that is where the economic savings comes from.
Wikipedia has a page that tells you more than you need to know about steam injectors. scroll down the page for locomotive specific drawings and pictures.
