Link to the past

[Anonymous]

A friend sent me a link to some "Remarkable forms of public transport" . Would you believe a steam powered 0-1-2 ? How about a electric steam engine? Then there is the twin steam engine!
[8D]

[espeefoamer]

As to the electric steam engine, the pantograph is probably used to operate the signals and grade crossing protection.The Pacific Electric always coupled an electric loco to any steamer they operated for the same reason.

[Hugh Jampton]

I'd a thought the pantograph was for electric train heating

[Anonymous]

Actually, the PE diesels had trolleys and not pans. Needed them because the track occupancy ckts were tripped via switches up on the wire, a standard practice on interurban and street railways. No trolley, no see ya! PE never used pans.

[M636C]

The pantograph fitted steam locomotive was used in Switzerland during World War II when there was a serious shortage of coal. Electric power fed by hydro electric plants was still available, and this loco was converted with a large immersion heater in the boiler powered directly from the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) 15 kV 16.66Hz overhead line. This generated steam which allowed the locomotive to switch unwired sidings, and it just had to return to the wires and raise the pantograph when the pressure got too low. It was a form of energy storage, and the loco did not have to stay under the wires when working, just to top up the boiler pressure. It was converted back to coal burning in 1946.

Peter

[Anonymous]

Durning WW2, coal was a hard commodity and oil was being reserved for military uses, some railroads attempted to use Electricity to heat the boiler instead of the firebox. they could burn coal in the firebox or use the overhead lines to heat the boiler, so were remarkable attempts for the time.

There were many other examples pre-war and post war in europe for various reasons also employed the Electric-steam system. Most Notably, the fact that after the war, Coal and oil were depleted in Europe, forcing them to rely on other means.

Jay