I have been trying to find some specific information in regards to some odd appliances on the firebox of this locomotive. Half way up the firebox are seven cylindrical object placed horizontally. I assume they have something to do with the drafting characteristics.
I have contacted the NYC Historical site but sadly to no avail.
They're smoke consumers.
The A-2's were Alco's last steam locomotives, the tenders were built by Lima. They were ordered by the parent road even though P&LE management was committed to dieselization and did not want them.
Those are one design of antismoke overfire jets. I don't have my copy of the Polarowitz book on the A-2-A (which is how the P&LE actually referred to them) to tell you exactly what system was used -- some used steam, some used compressed air.
The actual 'gun' was a nozzle in a secondary-air venturi through the water leg space. The large 'cans' visible are mufflers for the shrieking noise when the overfire system was actuated.
Overmod Those are one design of antismoke overfire jets. I don't have my copy of the Polarowitz book on the A-2-A (which is how the P&LE actually referred to them) to tell you exactly what system was used -- some used steam, some used compressed air. The actual 'gun' was a nozzle in a secondary-air venturi through the water leg space. The large 'cans' visible are mufflers for the shrieking noise when the overfire system was actuated.
So these devices use either compressed air or live steam to blow more air into the firebox over the firebed? And this has the effect of burning small soot particles rising from the firebed and resulting from incomplete combustion on the firebed, so these particles don't become visible smoke?
I heard these devices were not particularly effective except at low combustion rates, but because of how laws against smoke by locomotives were enforced in urban areas, it was mainly with the engine standing or moving at slow speeds in terminal areas where smoke was of greatest concern?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Remember that normal conditions in the firebox are both reducing and subatmospheric, so increasing secondary air with the guns 'works' even though the admission greatly reduces heat and spoils the gas flow in the radiant space.
The things are largely a response to political ordinances -- which I'm not going to say are misguided. Donora became a household word right around the time these locomotives came into service ... and even though coal smoke turned out not to be the problem, it was a major concern in the Pittsburgh area in general at that time.
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