Speaking of Tender Water...

[Anonymous]

Does anybody have any suggestions as to where I can read more about water treatment facilities during the steam era? Actually any information regarding how the railoads treated their water, why, etc would be great!

[gbrewer]

The Grand Canyon Railroad brings in its engine water at the Grand Canyon in tank cars. This is odd, since the canyon water treatement plant was originally set up by the Santa Fe. I'm not sure if the AT&SF used it for engine water or not.

[Anonymous]

and he notes -

The Santa Fe had water treatment plants for most water satops, many of which were sold to the small towns when they quit steam, but they didn't get FT's to avoid water problems.

During World War II, several lines were deemed vital transportation routes by the War Department, Santa Fe being one of them. Due to wartime shortages of copper, diesel production was restricted and only those designated roads could purchase them.

When the the Santa Fe needed more power for moving war materiel, they opted for FT's instead of steam and were approved due to their strattegic status. B&M was another FT buyer for the same purpose, not a water problem.

[passengerfan]

The NP was another road that had water problems especially in western North Dakota and Eastern Montana. The railroad brought water by tank car to the water towers to supply the steam locomotives. When the lines were dieselized and the water towers were removed trains like the North Coast Limited carried a water baggage car to supply water to the train heat boilers. By using the water baggage cars the train was able to traverse the bad water districts without requiring lineside water for the train heat boilers.

[espeefoamer]

That's why ATSF got all those FTs during WWll.

[Anonymous]

The Santa Fe had many problems with this, and in some cases resorted to bringing all of the water in with tank cars.

-Daniel

[Anonymous]

and he notes -

Most big railroads had water treatment facilities, especially western roads where local water has a high alkali content. But smaller roads used town or well water. Either way, boiler water was checked regularly for mineral content as incoming impurities eventually got thicker as steam was produced. Most terminals had blow down areas where the boiler was emptied and flushed.

Some chemicals were added to boiler water to combat foaming, which was a persistant problem, and also to dissolve scale but regular blowdowns were used to keep boiler water within tolerance.

Scale buildup was a problem as it acted as an insulator and reduced efficiency. I witnessed a couple of B&M engines blowing down their boilers at Mystic Terminal in Boston back in the 50's. It was quite a show and the area was covered with white powder.

If you want see an example of what boiler looked like after years of service, peek inside your tea kettle...

[mvlandsw]

In some cases water was treated before being put into the tender and in other cases chemicals were added to the tender.

[CBQ_Guy]

I used to work with boilers at my first job out of high school in the early 1970's as a stationery engineer's helper.

We had to test the water regularly ourselves. Also, they had a more comprehensive test done on occasion by the supplier of our "boiler water treatment". It had something to do with untreated water being very bad for the inside of the boiler vessel and boiler tubes...corrosive and some such. It's been a lot of years...

So didn't something similar need to be done for locomotive boilers? Was the water which was supplied from trackside watering spigots at the terminal pre-treated similarly? What about water from a trackside water tower out in the boonies?