Posted by Spence on Thursday, May 04, 2006 at 8:31PM :
In Reply to: I Got to ask posted by Paul (in NY) on Thursday, May 04, 2006 at 5:25PM :
The spent steam exhaust from the cylinders is exhausted through the front end (smokebox) of the locomotive in front of the flues. There is a nozzle that the exhaust steam passes out of. This creates draft to aid the burning of fuel. The UP 844 is an oil fired locomotive. This tends to produce black smoke. The "puffs" and "chugs" are created by the exhaust rushing out the nozzle and out of the stack. The more steam admitted to the cylinders by the throttle, the louder the "chugs" and the bigger the "puffs".
The Southern Pacific built "Cab Forward" locomotives. These were oil burners as well. The oil used was a heavy oil, "Bunker C". It was so thick it had to be heated to be pumped into the fire box burner. The reason for the Cab Forward design was to prevent the engine crew from getting so much smoke in their lungs when traveling through long tunnels. There were cases crew members became over come with smoke on oil fired engines. Oil was more plentiful on the west coast than coal, thus oil was cheaper and more readily available. The engine crews were provider with air tanks on many routes were ther were lots of tunnels, as the smoke from a previous train might linger in quantity in the tunnels.
Spence (AKA Trainman)
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