Radiators on the Big Boys and Challengers

[LieLestoSbrat]

I was doing a bit of research for something completely unrelated and happened to come across a site mentioning radiators for the Big Boy and Challenger locos. Big Boy Radiators

My question is simple, what did systems did these radiators cool on these locomotives?

Rob

 

[bendorsey]

Airbrake air perhaps? Compressing air heats it up quite a bit. Don't think brakemen would want to get burned everytime they uncoupled something. Another possibility is lubrication oil.

(and both of these are probably wrong, lol).

Ben

 

[Swordfish]

They seem cooling air as you can see on the above mentioned site:

"They worked a lot more efficiently, cooling a larger volume of air per given block of time"

Regards

Swordfish

 

[BLueNeon]

Airbrake air perhaps? Compressing air heats it up quite a bit. Don't think brakemen would want to get burned everytime they uncoupled something. Another possibility is lubrication oil.

(and both of these are probably wrong, lol).

Ben

Airbrake it is ...

 

[CSX5220]

Just my guess

Could possabliy used for cooling internal mechanics of the cylinders, pistons and rods. Seeing the fact that the radiators are postioned on the pilot, right above them

Regards
Mike S.

 

[Ferrous]

If I had access to my Big Boys book, I could give you a straight answer, but that's at home, unfortunately.

Off the top of my head, I think it's something to do with cooling water (can't imagine what it'd be used for, or that it'd be the water for the boiler, so I'm thinking some sort of heat exchange system).

 

[TheCowboy]

They simply cooled the compressed air for the brake system. Its that simple, nothing else.

 

[LieLestoSbrat]

Looking again at the site I do think its something to do with the air braking systems. Its interesting to note that on UK steam locos that are air braked their is no form of cooling system to cool the air brake system. I can't see it being used for cooling lubricating oil, certainly not for the cylinders as that would most likely be atomized with steam. You wouldn't cool the cylinders as that would lead to condensation of the steam being used in the cylinders and would cause a build up of water in the cylinders. That would then in turn that the cylinder drain cocks would have to be open all the time and would lead to a decrease in loco efficiency. The rods and valve gear shouldn't overheat, if they are then their is a problem with the lubrication and the engine would be taken out of service for that to be rectified. Cooling water is another possibility as the injectors for the boiler won't work if the feed water to the injector is to hot. I I recall correctly feed water heaters on loco work after the water has passed through the injectors. Thanks for your answers chaps.

Edit: Ahh cheers Cowboy.

Rob

 

[AndreaLuigi]

Could possabliy used for cooling internal mechanics of the cylinders, pistons and rods. Seeing the fact that the radiators are postioned on the pilot, right above them

Regards
Mike S.

Sorry to disagree on this. Cylinders, pistons and internal parts should be as warm as possible in order to avoid condense building up inside the cylinders and reducing in this way the efficency of the system. The radiators in front has been used for air braking.

 

[CasyJ]

http://www.trainweb.org/jlsrr/bigboy/information/radiator/radiator.htm

 

[RPearson]

...Cooling water is another possibility as the injectors for the boiler won't work if the feed water to the injector is to hot. I I recall correctly feed water heaters on loco work after the water has passed through the injectors. Thanks for your answers chaps.

Edit: Ahh cheers Cowboy.

Rob

Yes cooling air after it was compressed so it wouldn't cool off so much in the storage container. Most steam locos just used a long length of piping looped back and forth between the compresser and receiver to cool it.

Injectors use steam (they had both live and ehxaust steam injectors) to force the feed water directly into the boiler under pressure and in the process heat it up a bit. Generally feed water heaters were used with high pressure pumps that pumped the water into the boiler. The heaters used exhaust steam to heat the feed water and thus recovered some of the heat energy that otherwise went up the stack.

Bob Pearson