Did passenger trains have head end brakemen in the cab? I thought the brakemen/trainmen rode in the coaches.
The fire box door is above the mechanical stoker screw drive what distance? The firebox door needs to be open almost full time to hand fire. How different will the hand firing coal bed look than mechanical? How much draft is lost with fire door open? Does fire stay lifted off grate? How often does fireman have to use poker to modify coal bed?
blue streak 1If fireman knew how to run engine at least partially then Engineer could take his turn? If brakie used how do two firing at same time not get into one another's way.?
You aren't getting ANY engineer that qualified himself up to Engineer from a shovel wielding Fireman to pick the shovel up again.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
If fireman knew how to run engine at least partially then Engineer could take his turn? If brakie used how do two firing at same time not get into one another's way.?
What I recall reading was that, if the stoker failed, the crew would move the train to the nearest location where it could be tied down, and then cut off and run light engine to wherever inspection and repsir could be made.
If that were undesirable, for example with a passenger train, I'd expect operation would involve periodic slowing or stopping for a 'blow-up' of steam pressure. Modern locomotives require accurate placement of the coal, and even an experienced fireman probably won't get 5000#/hr precisely where it needs to go without holes...
There was a story about a Rock Island fireman who had to hand fire a 4-8-4 when the stocker stopped working. It was one of Classic Trains' "The way it was" stories, but no longer seems to be generally available on the website.
As I remember, it was on a passenger special for Thomas Dewey, 1948 presidential candidate.
Jeff
The 2-6-6-0 mallets on the Denver & Salt Lake were hand fired, and before the Moffat tunnel, that was up to 11,600' altitude. When avalanches burried the engine on the high pass, firemen left the digging out of the snow to the rest of the crew.
Edit: Mechanical stokers were added in 1912
An old thread on stokers
https://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/39762.aspx
I was reading today that the Mikado was probably the largest locomotive that could be hand fired for any extended time. A fireman could shovel 5000 lbs of coal per hour..larger locomotives with more voracious appetites required two fireman or a mechanical stoker. Shovelling that much coal per hour on a 12 hour shift.. those guys earned their pay, and they had no need for gym memberships.
He sure did, for a time anyway. Frequently the head-end brakeman had to pitch in but depending on the size of the locomotive it might not have been practical for very long.
I believe when the first articulateds began use here prior to WW1 two firemen were standard crew to keep them hot, again depending on size.
If the mechanical stoker quit did the fireman have to hand fire the locomotive? Was it even possible to hand fire a large locomotive like an articulated?
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