lately i've been wondering why the Union Pacific seems (at least to me) that the UPac has the 3985 and 844 down for repairs all the time. then it hit me; the UP only fires them once a year! steam engines were designed to be kept fired up and hot constantly, or at least hooked to a boiler that had warm steam going through them. they fire these things up only once a year for that rodeo train and them moan and groan when they break down so often! News flash, when an engine sits for that long, they seize up and parts break. then you introduce steam into a cylinder that might have coagulated oil in it and the drain cock explodes off. the Durango and Silverton keeps its engines under steam 24/7, and they haven't had to take one of their K-36's down for repairs until the FRA turned into a bunch of a-holes and tightened restrictions on locomotives. If the UP would take a page from their book, and keep the engines hooked to the shop's central steam plant (that and RUN THEM MORE OFTEN!) they would operate smoothly. but the fact is UP doesn't care about its steam engines, they only want more GEVOs and other worthless glorified boxcars! Long live the steam locomotive!!!
Union Pacific needs to learn about steam (again)
- Thread starter sawyer811
- Start date
what you say is very true when boilers are cold they rust and calcium and lime builds up and that reeks havoc on boilers and steam piping
Therock
<kuid2:37581:420:69>
The fact is that Union Pacific is not directly affiliated with the Steam Team. Just because the steam shops are in Cheyenne and operate around/on Union Pacific rails does not mean that the CEO of Union Pacific is in jurisdiction of what goes on in the shops. The two don't coincide unless Steve Lee plans something out.
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Trainman10
NARM
Yeah the UP844 is running a lot around the Pacific norhtwest(twice a year). lol
bigboy4010
Hardcore Steam Breather
I bet the engines would run more often if environmentalists didn't have have so many federal regulations. They probably give all sorts of crap to railroads with steam engine because of all the "pollution" they give off and make it super expensive to run them. I'm surprised Durango and Silverton has survived groups like the EPA and Earth First.
We had somebody ask if we use "clean coal" at TVRM, which we use some pretty good stuff. Runs real clean and hard not to have a clear stack. I joked around and pointed at the trees and said these are the greenest looking trees in the Greater Chattanooga Area. Our steam engine doesn't take away from the environment, but helps it. Next time anyone is at TVRM's East Chattanooga shops compare the trees to the ones on Lookout Mountain. :hehe:
That problem should be gone or greatly diminished if the proper amount of proper boiler treatment chemicals are used.
That problem should be gone or greatly diminished if the proper amount of proper boiler treatment chemicals are used.
whecsailor
New member
The Roaring camp Railroad's soulution
the Steamers at Roaring camp Ca have a great deal with the state of California. All their steamers were converted to Oil burners and burn all the oil they want , and it is provided by the state of California. It is the automobile oil waste oil from businesses.
On the bad part, you should see how often they have to clean the firebox though of slag and crap from the oil. horrendous mess it is. On a visit there 9 years ago, I managed to sneak over to the engine house for a while before opening. I recall an oldtimer there crawling out of the Shay 6 firebox with some very colorful language after having to crawl all the way into the box (very tiny opening,) to chisel off some slag in the bricks.
the Steamers at Roaring camp Ca have a great deal with the state of California. All their steamers were converted to Oil burners and burn all the oil they want , and it is provided by the state of California. It is the automobile oil waste oil from businesses.
On the bad part, you should see how often they have to clean the firebox though of slag and crap from the oil. horrendous mess it is. On a visit there 9 years ago, I managed to sneak over to the engine house for a while before opening. I recall an oldtimer there crawling out of the Shay 6 firebox with some very colorful language after having to crawl all the way into the box (very tiny opening,) to chisel off some slag in the bricks.
Yeah - an oil burner can probably be made to burn most anything oil related. Just a matter of changing the spray nozzles and adjusting flow rates, etc.
I used to work on jet engines and we ran them on everything from fancy military fuels (with additives for this-n-that) to bunker C (sludge) and even crude right out of the ground. The last two had to be heated just to get them to flow into the engine but it was a just a matter of adjusting the spray rings and engine control and away they went. Did have a whomping big last chance filter in the line to get the pieces of undigested dinosaurs out tho, lol.
Ben
I used to work on jet engines and we ran them on everything from fancy military fuels (with additives for this-n-that) to bunker C (sludge) and even crude right out of the ground. The last two had to be heated just to get them to flow into the engine but it was a just a matter of adjusting the spray rings and engine control and away they went. Did have a whomping big last chance filter in the line to get the pieces of undigested dinosaurs out tho, lol.
Ben
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one thing to say though. to some extent. running steam engines HELPS the enviroment. As plants need CO2 to make their food and produce oxygen. so. In areas like the D&S those trees stay really green in part to the CO2 produced by the steamers. The thing people get up about is greenhouse gasses. and to put it in a way.... a major volcano eruption will make more CO2 then the entire industrial revolution put out. so mother nature can screw up things just as bad as a steam train can.
magickmaker
New member
@bendorsey
The 5AT which is on the designs out in the UK, a modern steam locomotive, is designed to operate using just about any oil that they have on hand. In fact it can run equally well (tests have been done with burn rates and such) with soy and corn based oils, as well as bio diesel and even low grade fuel oil. That's one of the things that makes the 5AT so interesting. Not only is it to be one of the first steam locomotives designed from the ground up in the past 50 years, but it's got the possibility to be very environmentally safe.
The 5AT which is on the designs out in the UK, a modern steam locomotive, is designed to operate using just about any oil that they have on hand. In fact it can run equally well (tests have been done with burn rates and such) with soy and corn based oils, as well as bio diesel and even low grade fuel oil. That's one of the things that makes the 5AT so interesting. Not only is it to be one of the first steam locomotives designed from the ground up in the past 50 years, but it's got the possibility to be very environmentally safe.
They are hardly down for repairs. 99.9% of the time, they are just sitting cold. they are unique, and one of a kind. They are hard and expensive to repair, so leaving them sitting saves the hard labor, allowing them to be operational for many many years to come.
Running all the time would put a lot wear and tear on them.
Running all the time would put a lot wear and tear on them.