I recall steam being used for heat and other utilities on passenger trains into the 1970’s and Amtrak era. I never understood why the conversion to electricity wasn’t made when the diesels took over. Was there something complicated or expensive about doing this that prevented the RR’s from making the change?
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Dieselization did not take place overnight on almost all railroads. A particular car could be behind diesels on day and steam on another.
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Money
Lots of money and time required, complicated by the requirement that all cars in a consist would need to be converted for the approach to work.
Remember that trainlined power for air conditioning, in those days before ‘heat pump’ heat became cost-effective, was often still provided via axle-powered arrangements (to make cars somewhat autonomous of trainline requirements). This was often true for the ‘modern’ fleets of streamlined cars in the '40s and early '50s. You can see a result of this in the graphs in Kiefer’s 1947 report on motive power; the energy that would have been used in trainlined HEP shows up quite clearly in the acceleration graphs as the various cars in a consist ‘cut in’.
Steam heat is also very effective for physical reasons, and electrical resistance heat is recognized as much more expensive for the same degree of heat.
As passenger trains became less and less profitable in the '50s and '60s, some of the nominal advantages of steam generation became very small along with consist size. Didn’t make much sense to maintain coil monotube steam generation for one or two coaches … but made even less sense to contemplate expensive technical conversions when cash flow from operations was already negative.
Well said, RME.[tup]
Most of the passenger car air conditioning was provided by either ice blocks or by steam jets. Both are very reliable.
I had two experiences with the individual car electical supplies.
In February of 1967, I rode from Tampa to St. Pete in the combine on the Silver Meteor, and it was warm in the car. The flagman explained that with the car running just between Wildwood and St. Pete there was not enough time to build the batteries up so there would be enough power to cool the car.
The other experience was my going to sleep in a roomette on the way from Washington to St. Louis in July of 1971. I went to sleep with electricity in the car–and when I woke in the morning, there was no electricity in the car, for the generator had failed. Whenn the train came back from Kansas City the next day, the car had a good generator.
According to the Passenger Equipment Register, only two roads, Southern and Santa Fe used steam-powered air conditioning.
The first long-distance trains with (sort of) conventional equipment that used HEP were C&NW’s bilevel 400s, introduced in 1958. They had the advantage of being in a small, controlled pool. Even that use required converting diners and lounges, which could no longer be used in C&NW’s conventional trains. Cars could be pulled from the commuter pool if necessary to add train capacity. HEP engines were converted E8s or ex-freight F7s with Cummings generator sets. C&NW retained steam heat on other trains, the last being the single-level “Kate Shelley 400” from Chicago to Clinton IA, until April 30, 1971.
PRR’s Keystone train was electrically heated from its own power car. The Keystone cars still had steam lines so additional conventional cars could be added to the train.
Addenda: I believe that the publication was The Railway Pasenger Equipment Register (I am not sure that I have my copies here; it is difficult to look for them). Also, in the sixties, very, very few cars were listed as having ice activated air conditioning. Waukesha or electrical were far, far more common systems.
FM’s Speed Merchants (P12-42, two each for NH and B&M) were equipped for HEP drawn off the main generator in the same manner as F40PH’s many years later.
And the Baldwin RP-210s for “Train X” had auxiliary engines with generators providing 480V HEP. (Note that neither of these types of locomotive were expected to pull anything but their special consists, though, nor were the lightweight trains intended to be hauled by conventional power.)
The LRC trains needed HEP-equipped locomotives to run properly … but a conventional consist that didn’t require steam could be pulled by one of the LRC locomotives, and if it did require steam, the lightweight unit could be MUed with an F-unit…
I should’ve clarified after diesels took over completely. Mainly 1960 forward.
I recall as a child of the 60’s, in a small town where daily, a dining car was removed from a passenger train for the remaining journey. From a railfan perspective this was an event my Father enjoyed watching for whatever reason. A workman would pound away with a hammer on the metal connection to break it loose, with steam flying everywhere. From a kid’s perspective it seemed so archaic with jet airliners flying around and men going into space.
Many years later when electrical power became commonplace, my thought was, what was so hard about implementing this earlier? Thanks for the thoughtful answers.
Steam flying everywhere? On the IC, when a passenger train was to be worked In Jackson, Mississippi, the steam to the cars would be cut off and the valve in the line at the rear of the last car would be opened before the train reached Jackson–thus leaving no pressure in the line so that it would be safe to disconnect whatever cars needed to be disconected. I assisted in the operation at least once, when headend cars were to be added.
Steam heating/cooling was the accepted standard for all passenger equipment constructed during the age of steam and even the age of the GG1’s as they handed their trains off to steam power in some cases and other carriers in other cases. Some of the early Streamliners were steam powered and thus followed the existing standard. When the post war equipment was built it also followed the existing standards. The last NEW train that was purchased and put in service was the Denver Zephyr in about 1956 and it followed the standards. The standards applied to ALL the railroads the provided passenger service and whose cars were used in interchange service amongst the various carriers.
It wasn’t until the creation of Amtrak in 1971 that you had a single organization providing most of the passenger service in the country and thus had the power to change the standards for the cars it would operate.
While I expect steam powered electrical generators could have been developed to allow HEP power from steam engines, the size of electrical equipment in the 20’s to the 60’s was physcially much larger than what we have come to accept as normal today. The diesel locomotives used for passenger service in the 50’s and 60’s didn’t have excess horsepower to oprerate HEP as they only had 2400 HP (E-9’s) or less per unit. (E6 & E7 = 2000 HP; E8 = 2250 HP; FP3 & FP7 1500 HP; FP9 1750 HP) To use HEP before Amtrak would have required the establishment of a HEP standard for all carriers to comply with and considering the declining state of passenger revenues from the late 40’s onward no carriers wanted to increase their investment in passenger equipment by updating their fleet to HEP standards if they had been made and adopted.
I do not know how difference there was between the Waukesha-powered and electrically-powered AC sytems–but the steam-powered system gave repairmen fits when one went bad while on a road that had not used the system (Amtrak liked to move its inheritance around all ove the country). And, after the Southern gave its train to Amtrak, there could have been problems when cars from other roads had troubles while on the Southern. The same situation may have prevailed on the Santa Fe, though I believe that Amtrak continued using former Santa Fe cars on the trains that it operated on the Santa Fe.
I think it was in 1982 when I rode from Birmingham to New Orleans in the spring–and the cooling system had to be cut completely off before everybody in the car was chilled.
And there’s no possibility of residual steam being left in the line, that would be visible in winter, in Illinois?
Because I don’t know - What was the pressure of the steam line on passenger equipment. I know steam engines used between 150 and 350 psi depending upon their design, however I am sure the steam heating line was operated at a much lower pressure - I just don’t know what the pressure is.
White’s book on American RR Pasnger car stated that the steam line was typically run at boiler pressure. The “vapor” system reduce steam pressure to a few ounces per square inch above atmospheric.
As for the original topic, some of the pre-war UP streamliners had head end power for A/C and auxiliary heat along with Vapor-Clarkson boilers for normal steam heat. Interesting upshot was that providing resistance heat from the dedicated HEP engines used less fuel for a given amount of useful heat in the passnger car than steam heat.
The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific used 2400VDC for heating the passenger cars when the electrification was opened, lighting was from a 600V line running off a dynamotor in the locomotive. Ironically, the BA&P went back to coal stove heat for the passenger car on thier mixed trains after they stopped running dedicated passenger trains.