Gabby Blows His Stack

[Tom Macrery]

Not satisfied with what nature gave him, Gabby decided to improve the draft for the firelight of the 15F. If a short stack is good, then maybe a tall stack is better. First he had to find a suitable drum, then convince Steve to help with the alterations, then hoist the improvement up and fix it in place, all the while blinded by his own smoke. It worked, or so he says, and the tall stack is now available for any future firelights. Necessity is the Mother of invention. (It was necessary that the fire should light ..... today!)

[Luca Lategan]

Don't you have a compressor that you can use with a ring magafter to enhance the draft while fire-lighting?

[Gabor Kovacs]

Luca

At FotR, we do indeed have the use of a compressor, however, it is not good practice to use compressed air to assist with drafting a locomotives’ boiler from cold. We are only allowed to use compressed air for drafting, in exceptional circumstance, and only when the boiler has been thoroughly heated through, and most of the longitudinal expansion has already been taken up!

Last year, on several occasions, once with me as well, 3117’s boiler failed to raise steam within the approximate allotted time of 8 hours, and almost had disastrous effects on the running of our trains, and of course, left some of us having to eat “humble pie” in embarrassment!

This past weekend, I decided to be pro-active and prevent any further fiascos with regards to the fire-lighting of 3117, as in the past, and thus the decision to add over 1,2metre extra to the height of 3117’s chimney.

It seems to have worked, as after 8 hours of fire-lighting, 3117’s showed a healthy 250Kpa head of steam on her main pressure gauge.

We will certainly run this experiment next time again when 3117 is required for service.
With regards to 2650 and 3664, due to their chimneys being longer than 3117, these two locos have hardly ever given any trouble with steaming up to pressure from light-up!
Tom, thank you for the pics. Your new handset works well . . .

[Stefan Andrzejewski]

That's amazing Gabor. I would never have thought that it would be a problem to light a fire and get going. What was the normal standard when these 15F's were in full service? Did you have such problems there? What about the other big Loco's like the 25's , 16E's and 15E's?

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Gives the engine a slightly elegant (and eccentric) appearance!

[Brendon Anderson]

At USR, using compressed air to raise steam is also not allowed. Indiscriminant use of an air line can cause major problems to a locomotive boiler. Having to clean and polish the cab again after raising steam is a small price to pay for a longer boiler life.

The drum on top the chimney does work well. USR's one 19D 2637, was a notoriously bad at raising steam and at one time had two drums welded together to make an even extra long chimney!

[M. Hardy-Randall]

I think that somebody has been rather remiss with that stack. Everybody should know that it ought to be finished with a copper rim!

[LIESEL HAGEN]

I think the red looks quite grand! Matches the red and gold on the side.

[Luca Lategan]

Thanks for the detail, Gabby, very interesting.

I have seen pics from SAR days when air was also used, even with the red devil with two rings in her smokebox. What about that?