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Feedwater heater

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  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: Wayne County Michigan
  • 678 posts
Feedwater heater
Posted by dale8chevyss on Friday, December 12, 2014 4:58 PM

I'm trying to figure out where the feedwater heater is on this loco. http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?//april99/04-07-99/ns769.jpg

 

it doesn't seem to have the Worthington BL heater, and I can't seem to see if it has a Worthington SA installed.  Could it be that this one that doesn't have a feedwater heater?

 

Thanks!

Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.

 Daniel G.

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • 10,582 posts
Posted by mlehman on Friday, December 12, 2014 6:08 PM

Daniel,

I'm not an expert on this, but IIRC there were some feedwater heaters that were inside the smokebox and not readily apparent like those you cited. Could this be one of those?

Mike Lehman

Urbana, IL

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,367 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Friday, December 12, 2014 6:37 PM

dale8chevyss
Could it be that this one that doesn't have a feedwater heater?

I think this is your best bet!

As Mike points out, some manufacturers of feed water heaters used designs that concealed much of the equipment. The Coffin feed water heater is one of these but you could still see the exhaust steam passages from the steam chest and these are not apparent on this locomotive.

Is this an N&W locomotive? (guessing by the tender cistern) perhaps you could dig up some rosters that would detail how the engines were equipped. It looks like a K-2a Baldwin?

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/mountain/?page=nw

I don't see a specific FWH mentioned but that doesn't say it doesn't have one. You'll have to dig deeper now that you know which engine it is.

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=27622

It looks like there was a Worthington but it may have been added after this photo was taken since that is definitely a Westinghouse cross compound air pump between drivers 2 & 3 which is where the water pump is located in the drawing.

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=12266

Of course, I'm not familiar with N&W steam so I might just be all wet!

Well, now here's a photo of the 130, left side and you can surely see the Worthington water pump just ahead of the air pump!

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=91949

In some cases, like the PRR, when they made a major modification, such as superheater tubes, it would get a new classification I1; I1-s; I1 sa etc.

Over the lifespan of some engines they underwent several modifications. Driver diameter, cylinder bore, boiler pressure (sometimes a whole new, larger boiler) boosters and so on.

Sometimes your best bet is to get some of the older books on the particular railroad you want to research. Some of the Al Stauffer books can be had for under $25. on Ebay.

Hope this helps, Ed

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Friday, December 12, 2014 8:29 PM

There's clearly no fwh on the loco shown in the OP's link:  no tell-tale pipes coming from the smokebox to indicate the presence of a hidden Coffin unit, and the cold water line from the tender is easily traceable from the injector,  below the locomotive's cab, to the top-feed check valve, located immediately ahead of the sandbox.I'm not at all familiar with that particular locomotive, but the tender does have a very N&W flavour, while the loco itself appears quite similar to a USRA design.
Many such locomotives were upgraded in subsequent years with newer applicances (feedwater heaters, boosters, etc.), and in some cases, more than once.  And many of those same locomotives which lasted to the end of steam saw some of those same appliances removed, due to their increased need for maintenance.

Wayne

  • Member since
    August 2013
  • 3,006 posts
Posted by ACY Tom on Friday, December 12, 2014 9:39 PM

N&W received ten USRA heavy 4-8-2's from Brooks in 1919, numbers 116-125, class K2, followed by twelve copies from Baldwin in 1923, numbers 126-137, class K2a.  They were all delivered without feedwater heaters as shown by the photo of 130.  Number 130 shows several N&W-specific features such as the trademark tender and the boiler inspection manhole.  All of the K2's and K2a's were heavy passenger engines, and were given streamlined shrouds in the late 1940's, making them look very much like N&W's J's. 

Tom

  • Member since
    April 2001
  • From: Roanoke, VA
  • 2,019 posts
Posted by BigJim on Saturday, December 13, 2014 6:50 AM

What seems odd about this picture is that the road number looks to be a retouch and would place it as Baldwin built, but, it appears to have a Brooks (ALCO) builder's plate. I see no round Baldwin builders plate. Also, Norfolk and Western should be written in small letters under the number on the cab.



In the OP's link, why does the captioning refer to the engine as #137?

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?//april99/04-07-99/ns769.jpg

.

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