My father was a conductor for the Illinois Central and I thus grew up around railroaders from the steam era, but I was a little too late for steam (IC was dieselized across northern Illinois by about 1955) and I have a question on operating practice at small town station stops:
In a "classic" small town with a combination station and a water tank, the tank would often be positioned to allow the locomotive to take on water while the passenger train or combination car (on a mixed train) was stopped in front of the station. On the return trip, however, the locomotive would pass the water tank before getting to the station.
If they need to take on water at this stop, what was the usual protocol? Did they stop and take on water and then pull up to the station stop OR did they proceed to make the station stop first and then back down to the water tank and top off before heading out of town?
Perhaps someone out there lived in a small town on a branch line or other location where this was a daily occurrence with steam power. Thanks.
Bill
Good Morning
The way I recall it being done was as follows: stop, take on water, then make the station stop.
Also recall seeing engine(s) cut off, get water, recouple to the train and then proceed.
Hope this helps.
work safe
The engineer, not fireman, determined when/where they took water. On most passenger runs it was pretty much standard locations. In cold weather water/coal stops would have been more frequent as a lot more steam was required to keep the train warm. It got even more difficult to keep training steam pressure up when snow was blowing around under the train so another engine might be needed.
In freight service there were too many variables, some trains might well have stopped at every water plug.
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