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Steam Locomotives

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  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: NW Central IND.
  • 326 posts
Steam Locomotives
Posted by easyaces on Tuesday, December 18, 2001 9:30 PM
Can anyone tell me what the large panels were for along the sides of some steam locos? They were mounted from the smokebox back along the forward sides of the boilers.
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  • Member since
    April 2003
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, December 19, 2001 2:16 AM
They were a type of air scoop to blow the smoke from the stack higher and over the train, mostly for passenger trains.

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  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Niue
  • 735 posts
Posted by thirdrail1 on Wednesday, December 19, 2001 9:06 AM
What you are referring to are called "smoke lifters" by the technical people and "elephant ears" by railfans and operating guys. Their purpose was to keep the smoke out of the eyes of the engineer and fireman at speed, which is why they were mainly used on passenger locomotives in the USA.
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  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: Canada
  • 509 posts
Posted by cprted on Thursday, December 20, 2001 12:43 AM
As stated above the elephant ears or smoke deflectors help keep the smoke away from the train. These were also widely used europe and england, specificly British Rails.
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