TRACK WATER PANS

[rrlineman]

track pans were at Glenoden Pa, Newark Del and I think they had them at Northeast Md on the NY-Wash run. the PRRT&HS had a big issue a couple of years ago on the track pans through out the system and the locations.

[cefinkjr]

Several prior posts mentioned that only passenger locomotives were equipped to scoop water.  I too had thought this to be the case until I read Low Water, Close Call in the Summer 2015 Classic Trains. In that article, author Richard Borsos notes that the freight locomotive he was firing, NYC H-10b 2381, scooped water at the Avery, MI pans.  The way Borsos mentions it, almost casually, I take it that this was normal.

Rail fanning is going to get boring one of these days ... when I quit learning something new all the time.  

[rfpjohn]

PRR equipped their freight power with water scoops. A quick check of "Pennsy Power" showed side views of tenders of 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-10-0, 2-10-2, 2-10-4 and 4-8-2 locomotives with such gear and quite a few action photos of such power scooping water.

[K4sPRR]

ACY

I know I saw a section of track pan in one of the railroad museums.  I think it was in the RR Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, or maybe in the Altoona Railroaders Museum in Altoona.  As I recall, there was a display describing the process and identifying track pan locations on the PRR.

 

Tom

 

The pan display you seen was probably the one at the museum in Strasburg, they came from the pans in Wilmore PA.  Also, in Wilmore a local resident who lives in the area of the pans location found a section left behind and built a nice display in the front yard of his house.  This display includes bricks which he found and some track he aquired to complete his display.  His display is located on Pump Station Road (road south of the now NS mainline) and he welcomes anyone in the area to pay a visit and check it out.

[BaltACD]

B&O only had track pans for passenger.  PRR & NYC may have used it for freight in many locations.  Higher volume operations would create some severe congestion issues with multiple trains stopping for water from penstocks.

[Anonymous]

Semper Vaporo

 

wabash2800

In my reading, IIRC, at least on the NYC, there were lamps (blue or green?) on posts at trackside at the point where the scoop should be lowered and where it should be raised. This was very important, because if a scoop was not raised in time, it could hit a road crossing or other obstruction. An article in the NYCSHS Headlight magazine some years ago was about a mighty 4-8-4 Niagara during WWII that rolled over as a result of that error. The cab was engulfed with soil and ballast. And a nurse on-board the train saved the engineer's life with her quick thinking by reaching into his mouth and throat and removing the debris. IIRC, this incident happened at Lydick, Indiana. We also had another track pan in Indiana on the NYC near Corunna that I know of. One tale that is often told about track pans in the old days is that of finding hobos frozen to death (riding the rods under the cars) encrusted with ice and frozen to the cars after being sprayed by the track pans in very cold weather. In addition to the track pans, the pans had to be heated in cold weather, have a water supply with water tank nearby and be attended--another example of steam locomotive infrastructure that doomed the iron horse. Years ago I met a guy that was the attendant at Corunna, Indiana.(Life was so much simpler, less costly and not so labor intensive with diesels, of course.) Victor A. Baird www.erstwhilepublications.com

 

 

 

It wasn't fear of hitting a road crossing, it was hitting the end of the pan itself.  The scoop had to be lowered several inches below track level to get into the water.  And that pan had sides and ENDS. Some scoops were "removed" due to raising it too late and some were lost due to dropping it too soon.  There had to be markers at both ends so the crew would know when it was safe to drop the scoop and when it HAD TO be raised.  They wanted it in the water as long as possible to get as much as possible into the tender, but lower it too soon or raise it too late and you will be missing a scoop (and maybe a lot more), and it would have saved a lot more time to stop and use an eyedropper to fetch the water..

 

Rule 299 Lunar white Scoop may be lowered at this point

Rule 299a Blue Scoop must be raised at this point

http://www.railroadsignals.us/rulebooks/nyc37/nycsignals10.jpg