Hi, Chuck
Thanks for the terrific input. Greatly appreciate the information. Since the loco will be running "out west" I'll use the capped venturi for a more americanized look. (Don't ask me how a european loco managed to find its way to a rugged, isolated part of the american west, but I do have a rationale!)
Thanks again for your help.
Hi, Bear
Thanks for the reference. I didn't read every word (yawn), but it sounds like the development of an effective spark arrestor took up a lot of time and energy during the last century, which would be logical since locomotives could be rolling fire starting machines.
Thanks!
Looking at the stacks in the photo:
On the locomotive - 'Shotgun' stack, a simple venturi. Sometimes these had a flanged connection just above the smokebox for easy conversion to a different type. The spark screen is in the smokebox.
The left and center stacks are European design external spark arrester stacks. Many European tram locos burned really low quality fuel - peat - which does throw sparks.
The right stack is a 'capped' stack. Loco builders would install brass caps on venturi stacks on most of their smaller locos if requested by the railway (or slipped across by the salesman - extra-cost accessory equals bigger commission.)
An American woodburner stack could be a rounded 'Cabbage' stack or a 'Diamond' stack. They were much wider than stack #3, but not uniform like stack #2.
Wood was used as fuel in commercial service in Japan (Kiso Forest Railway) until 1960. The stacks in use looked like industrial dust collector 'cyclones.'
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a stuffed and mounted 0-4-2T fitted with a cyclone stack bigger around than its boiler!)
There was another driver for type of stacks besides fuel. Coal did require some trapping of cinders and sparks, especially in the drier West - but not as much as wood. Colorado had coal, which was often more available than wood. But starting fires was a real hazard in Colorado.
About 1890 - I could be off on the dates - the cinder and spark trapping was moved into an enlongated smoke box. This enabled the use of straight stacks without any arrestors. This question came up with the stacks on the Russia iron version of the Blackstone C-19. Checking Locomotive Cyclopedia Vol 1, I found that the longer smoke boxes lasted far longer than I expected - pretty much until about 1920. The lengthening of the smoke box was not nearly as visible after 1910, but it was still there.
just sharing what I found
Fred W
wjstix It can relate to the type of fuel burned. Wood was used up into the 1870's-80's in many areas, and spark arrestors were needed. In the US, large "balloon" stacks were used to hold down sparks. Coal was less of a fire hazard, so as coal became more common, engines changed to having a cylindrical "shotgun" stack.
It can relate to the type of fuel burned. Wood was used up into the 1870's-80's in many areas, and spark arrestors were needed. In the US, large "balloon" stacks were used to hold down sparks. Coal was less of a fire hazard, so as coal became more common, engines changed to having a cylindrical "shotgun" stack.
Good day.
Would the American 4-4-0 wood burner have the balloon stack then?
Thanks
Lee
Gidday, Nice looking loco.
Your extra smokestacks have different type of spark arrestors. Not sure if I can make this accessible but looking at the "Smokestacks and Spark Arrestors" section in "A History of the American Locomotive: Its Development, 1830-1880" by John H. White, Fig 40 shows 42 different styles of spark arrestor devised before 1860, (my underlining), which quite surprised me.
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=1A4iiGAz628C&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=loco+smokestacks+spark+arrestor&source=bl&ots=ps4vxtr3Ps&sig=Nz5R4gK46EvoOwOdzzuv3c0KWsE&hl=en
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Hello, all
As the King of Siam would say, I have a “puzzlement.” I recently bought a HOe Roco loco from Reynauld's (beautiful little loco!), and, interestingly enough, it came with 3 extra smokestacks! I suppose I could use whichever one I was in the mood for on a given day, but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas for the raison d’etre or use for the design of these other stacks, including the one it came with. Here is a photo.
As it happens, this weekend I was reading a back issue of NG&SL Gazette, and in an article about the 30” Crescent Tramway in Park City, UT circa 1886 there was a picture of a Shay with a stack which was almost a spitting image for the one on the far right.
As usual, thanks for any help!