67newport
Old Man with a Hat
The sleek Tat 230 800 in Paris Saint-Lazare, 1937.
Heavy Metal
- Thread starter amazinblue82
- Start date
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
42 foot Boring and Turning Mill
designed by Jimmy Rivers
designed by Jimmy Rivers
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
The breech end of a 15 inch gun barrel under construction in the Coventry Ordnance Works. September 1917.
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
67newport
Old Man with a Hat
This pic is very interesting. Cant inspect it as it seems to be connected to an excessively spammy, prohibited, or otherwise threatening site that my browser/VPN refuses to access.
Anyway, the middle piece of machinery appears to be a tall profile, nautical vessel (ocean-going passenger and/or cargo ship, early submarine, etc.), six cylinder engine, following another machine that appears to be a device that may assist in loading/installing the engine (as if at a shipyard), all of it pushed by a small "yard" steam locomotive -- all of it on rails.
Maybe one of you all have a better explanation/find a less spammy site than I found.
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This might be here just not identified by name. source: M-497 Black Beetle - Wikipedia
"The M-497 (nicknamed Black Beetle by the press,, was an experimental jet-powered railcar test bed of the New York Central Railroad, developed and tested in 1966 in the United States.
Two second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, originally used as boosters [JATO's] for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker intercontinental bomber, were mounted atop an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car, an RDC-3 of coach and baggage-mail configuration which had received a streamlined front cowling.
The construct was then successfully sent on test runs over the existing tracks between Butler, Indiana, and Stryker, Ohio. The line had been chosen for its arrow-straight layout and good condition, but otherwise unmodified track.
On July 23, 1966, the car reached a speed of 183.68 mph (295.6 km/h), an American rail speed record that still stands today."
Seven minute vid tell the whole story below. Last ditch effort, one of one made, of RR's to compete with cars and planes in the mid 1960's. High speed rail (relatively speaking, over 100 but under 200 mph) became a reality worldwide.
Anyway, mini deep dive into THIS train below, Again, only seven minutes long.
"The M-497 (nicknamed Black Beetle by the press,, was an experimental jet-powered railcar test bed of the New York Central Railroad, developed and tested in 1966 in the United States.
Two second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines, originally used as boosters [JATO's] for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker intercontinental bomber, were mounted atop an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car, an RDC-3 of coach and baggage-mail configuration which had received a streamlined front cowling.
The construct was then successfully sent on test runs over the existing tracks between Butler, Indiana, and Stryker, Ohio. The line had been chosen for its arrow-straight layout and good condition, but otherwise unmodified track.
On July 23, 1966, the car reached a speed of 183.68 mph (295.6 km/h), an American rail speed record that still stands today."
Seven minute vid tell the whole story below. Last ditch effort, one of one made, of RR's to compete with cars and planes in the mid 1960's. High speed rail (relatively speaking, over 100 but under 200 mph) became a reality worldwide.
Anyway, mini deep dive into THIS train below, Again, only seven minutes long.
Lombard Steam Logging Tractor, ca. 1905.
Source: Logging Locomotives
Below, Maine, ca. 1905.
Nine minutes below of background and operating characteristcs of this steam tractor.
You dont see it running until about the 8 minute mark, the rest is a technical review of this 120 year old technology, It could drag a connected sleds weighted with 300 tons of logs.
Source: Logging Locomotives
Below, Maine, ca. 1905.
Nine minutes below of background and operating characteristcs of this steam tractor.
You dont see it running until about the 8 minute mark, the rest is a technical review of this 120 year old technology, It could drag a connected sleds weighted with 300 tons of logs.
Second, for me, I was fascinated with Titanic since late 1960's in grade school book report on shipwrecks.
Third, Ballard finds it in 1985, and one of the first thing he sees is a boiler. Then all kinda stuff, including its engines -- still standing upright three miles underwater.
I knew a lot about Titanic. I thought . Not really, as the coolest stuff it seems in the "drive train".
My point.
This video is like 35 minutes long and I learned at least 50 things I didnt know.
Just how marvelous this ship was technically .. just its propulsion engineering and design were mind boggling. Over 100 years ago and still today, what those folks did, and what it took to run it, astounds.
And all the "heavy metal" parts to make it all work ...each part 10 to 100's of tons, giant metal castings, etc. Stunning.
Pictures of these parts -- shafts, props, engines, boilers, condensers, evaporators, pumps, stacks -- without context if their design/use, is like "cake without icing" -- tasty but rather bland.
.If that nerdy, engineering stuff doesnt interest you, this video probably aint worth 35 mins of your time.
IF THAT stuff is interesting, the opposite could be true. Ya might learn a thing or two. Wow!!!
Boilers from sister ship Olympic.
Physical arrangement a bit different than on Titanic, but essentially the same proportions.
At full speed, Titanic's boilers consumed 600 TONS of coal a day, and to 180 men, working 24 hours a day, to stoke.
Lower middle of pic a guy is standing for scale
Below, reciprocating steam engines from from Brittannic, the other sister ship, three stories tall, two of them on Titanic, 720 TONS each. Before installantion atthe shipyard.
sources: Did you know... Titanic's Reciprocating engines are still upright on the ocean floor? - Titanic Connections,
1985 - Bob Ballard finds Titanic wreck site.
Immediately below, a "boiler" -- the first thing that sorta confimed Ballard was close {recall, Ballard started seeing non-descript debris field on ocean floor, then more, than pieces that indicated "shipwreck") to the wreck itself.
Sitting on one end, upright on the ocean floor. Each boiler was about 16 ft tall, and 92 tons each, Titanic had 29 of these boilers.
Below, the reciprocating steam engines, one the ocean floor, still mounted to the keel, sitting upright. As Ballard found them and as they still sit 110 years later.
video, 35 minutes. on Titanic's engine/propulsion system, 46,000 horsepower.
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3175375
Senior Member
3175375
Senior Member
This may have been the last flight of an F-100 Super Saber:
Look at this post on Facebook Warbird Digest
Look at this post on Facebook Warbird Digest
Hey @3175375
Stop by and tell the folks at Ellsworth to stop losing (nobody hurt thankfully) B-1's - we only have 60 left of the 100 we built.
source: B-1 bomber crashes while trying to land at its base in South Dakota, Air Force says
Stop by and tell the folks at Ellsworth to stop losing (nobody hurt thankfully) B-1's - we only have 60 left of the 100 we built.
source: B-1 bomber crashes while trying to land at its base in South Dakota, Air Force says
3175375
Senior Member
B-21s are coming to Ellsworth AFB…Hey @3175375
Stop by and tell the folks at Ellsworth to stop losing (nobody hurt thankfully) B-1's - we only have 60 left of the 100 we built.
View attachment 636846
source: B-1 bomber crashes while trying to land at its base in South Dakota, Air Force says
B-21's -- at like $800M a copy - is the baddest plane (bomber) in the world. I read it of course replaces B-1, B-2, and even venerable B-52's.
source: Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider - Wikipedia
Heavy Metal
source: Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider - Wikipedia
Heavy Metal
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Back to #2,189
When the Black Beetle was retired, the JATOs would up in a snow blower. not the first ever, but idea never really caught on (noisy, destroyed the track substrate, expensive to operate, etc.).
Some may be still around though.
When the Black Beetle was retired, the JATOs would up in a snow blower. not the first ever, but idea never really caught on (noisy, destroyed the track substrate, expensive to operate, etc.).
Some may be still around though.
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This one is kinda nerdy, or more nicely for anyone who knows how steam locomotives operate. See the red below.
"Big Boy (#4014)" is here in this thread maybe 10 times. It was the biggest steam locomotive -- ever. With tender, weighed well over 1M lbs, and was almost 140ft. long.
#4014 went into service in 1941 and was retired in 1961. Of the 25 built in this class, all exclusively for UP, only 8 are left (in museum/various static displays) and only this one is still running.
Preserved and refurbished by Union Pacific in late 2010's, it's still going strong.
This 25 minute video, the May 2019 trip of Big Boy from Cheyenne WY, to Ogden UT , documents its first trip over the Wasatch since it was refurbished by UP.
Cinematically breathtaking scenery (e.g., the "Red Desert", "Castle Rock", etc.,) you get the sights/sounds of Big Boy in operation.
Anyway, the nerd part. Can anyone explain the "blow down" (IF that is what is going on) process for a steam locomotive?
I excerpted pics from three sections, about five total minutes, of the video showing what I am trying to understand.
Why all the steam releases (especially down low, laterally, near the track bed)? Why white smoke from stacks instead of sometimes black smoke?
I know ambient conditions, grades, speed, etc., are likely determinants, but seems like a fundamental steam locomotive operating process, irrespective of particular propulsion design, is going on?
I am surmising 'blow down" -- pressure management, maintaining internal system cleanliness, etc. -- is mostly what's going on.
Anyone interested/knows more, please chime in.
. 2:30 to 3:45 mins
. 5:30 to 7:30 mins
. 12:30 to 15:00 mins
"2,014,767 views Mar 29, 2022
Follow Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 and the 844 on a special double-header between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah.
The event coincided with Union Pacific's Spike 150 Celebration commemorating the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869.
This is the 4014's first excursion run after being restored to operating condition.
Scenes along Sherman Hill and the Wasatch Mountains show Big Boy working over the mountain grades it was originally designed for. "
"Big Boy (#4014)" is here in this thread maybe 10 times. It was the biggest steam locomotive -- ever. With tender, weighed well over 1M lbs, and was almost 140ft. long.
#4014 went into service in 1941 and was retired in 1961. Of the 25 built in this class, all exclusively for UP, only 8 are left (in museum/various static displays) and only this one is still running.
Preserved and refurbished by Union Pacific in late 2010's, it's still going strong.
This 25 minute video, the May 2019 trip of Big Boy from Cheyenne WY, to Ogden UT , documents its first trip over the Wasatch since it was refurbished by UP.
Cinematically breathtaking scenery (e.g., the "Red Desert", "Castle Rock", etc.,) you get the sights/sounds of Big Boy in operation.
Anyway, the nerd part. Can anyone explain the "blow down" (IF that is what is going on) process for a steam locomotive?
I excerpted pics from three sections, about five total minutes, of the video showing what I am trying to understand.
Why all the steam releases (especially down low, laterally, near the track bed)? Why white smoke from stacks instead of sometimes black smoke?
I know ambient conditions, grades, speed, etc., are likely determinants, but seems like a fundamental steam locomotive operating process, irrespective of particular propulsion design, is going on?
I am surmising 'blow down" -- pressure management, maintaining internal system cleanliness, etc. -- is mostly what's going on.
Anyone interested/knows more, please chime in.
. 2:30 to 3:45 mins
. 5:30 to 7:30 mins
. 12:30 to 15:00 mins
"2,014,767 views Mar 29, 2022
Follow Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 and the 844 on a special double-header between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah.
The event coincided with Union Pacific's Spike 150 Celebration commemorating the driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869.
This is the 4014's first excursion run after being restored to operating condition.
Scenes along Sherman Hill and the Wasatch Mountains show Big Boy working over the mountain grades it was originally designed for. "
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LocuMob
Fluid Technician with a hat
Taken from the web.
Boiler blowdown is the removal of water from a boiler. Its purpose is to control boiler water parameters within prescribed limits to minimize scale, corrosion, carryover, and other specific problems. Blowdown is also used to remove suspended solids present in the system.
They do this twice a day at my work with our boilers.
I know 4014 is an oil burner, and they try to run it as optimally as possible, when I saw it leave Boone Iowa, it emitted almost no smoke at all, I was hoping for a big cloud like in the picture you posted.
Seeing it in person is very impressive.
St. Paul MN July 2019
D Cluley
Active Member
What you see coming out of the stack on top is a mix of the actual smoke from whatever they are burning and the steam after it exits the cylinders. Smoke will be gray or black, and the steam will be clear, but when it hits the relatively cool atmosphere starts condensing back into water and forms the white cloud. My bet is the shots with the huge fluffy white clouds were taken on a rather cold day. In most cases if the engine is being fired & run efficiently there will be little to no smoke, especially with an oil burner like the 4014. At slow speeds the steam exiting the stack will come in visible pulses that match the exhaust strokes, this is where the chug a chug sound comes from.
These days if you see a lot of dark smoke from a steam engine it is likely
a. they are doing it on purpose to make a show
b. sub optimal fuel
c. inexperienced crew.
d. they have poured some sand into the firebox to scour crud out of the boiler flues (kind of like putting seafoam down your carburetor)
Boiler blow down is definitely a thing, and while I'm not 100% sure about the Big Boy, that typically comes out down near track level towards the rear of the engine (under the firebox or cab)
What you are seeing at 13:30 (and other times) is the cylinder cocks open. You can spot this, because it will be big plumes of steam coming out sideways from near the front. Usually alternating from side to side and usually only when the engine is starting up after sitting a while. If the engine sits, the steam between the boiler and the cylinders starts to cool and condense back to liquid water. The enigineer will open the cylinder cocks for a few power strokes to clear that out. Hydrolocking a steam locomotive isn't any better than doing it to your car engine, and the broken parts are a lot bigger and heavier.
Other places you may see steam coming out:
The exhaust from the air compressors (trains have air brakes) often a small plume or puffs near the stacks, but this can vary. Different engines had the compressors located all over the place.
The whistle. Usually top of the boiler somewhere. The steam only comes out when the whistle is sounding. Cool science experiment, at a distance, you can see the plume well before you can hear it, because light travels faster than sound.
Turbogenerator. This will be a small but steady stream on top of the boiler, usually back towards the cab. Just a small steam turbine driving a generator to provide the power for the lights (and these days radios & other hi tech equipment)
Safety valves. These are on top of the boiler about halfway between the cab and the stack. If I remember correctly there are 3 or 4, each of which opens at a slightly higher pressure. The first one is set to go just over the normal max operating pressure, so it not uncommon for it to go off if the fireman has things ready to go, but the train isn't moving. You'll definitely notice this as it will make a healthy plume straight up and a loud roar.
General leaks anywhere there is a worn gasket or slightly loose fitting. Moden steam ran at 2-300 psi of steam pressure, so it doesn't take much.
Near Kenosha WI - July 26 2019.
Do NOT put your head or other body parts this close to a moving train. I started the video recording a couple of minutes in advance, propped the phone against a pole and was much farther away when the train passed.
These days if you see a lot of dark smoke from a steam engine it is likely
a. they are doing it on purpose to make a show
b. sub optimal fuel
c. inexperienced crew.
d. they have poured some sand into the firebox to scour crud out of the boiler flues (kind of like putting seafoam down your carburetor)
Boiler blow down is definitely a thing, and while I'm not 100% sure about the Big Boy, that typically comes out down near track level towards the rear of the engine (under the firebox or cab)
What you are seeing at 13:30 (and other times) is the cylinder cocks open. You can spot this, because it will be big plumes of steam coming out sideways from near the front. Usually alternating from side to side and usually only when the engine is starting up after sitting a while. If the engine sits, the steam between the boiler and the cylinders starts to cool and condense back to liquid water. The enigineer will open the cylinder cocks for a few power strokes to clear that out. Hydrolocking a steam locomotive isn't any better than doing it to your car engine, and the broken parts are a lot bigger and heavier.
Other places you may see steam coming out:
The exhaust from the air compressors (trains have air brakes) often a small plume or puffs near the stacks, but this can vary. Different engines had the compressors located all over the place.
The whistle. Usually top of the boiler somewhere. The steam only comes out when the whistle is sounding. Cool science experiment, at a distance, you can see the plume well before you can hear it, because light travels faster than sound.
Turbogenerator. This will be a small but steady stream on top of the boiler, usually back towards the cab. Just a small steam turbine driving a generator to provide the power for the lights (and these days radios & other hi tech equipment)
Safety valves. These are on top of the boiler about halfway between the cab and the stack. If I remember correctly there are 3 or 4, each of which opens at a slightly higher pressure. The first one is set to go just over the normal max operating pressure, so it not uncommon for it to go off if the fireman has things ready to go, but the train isn't moving. You'll definitely notice this as it will make a healthy plume straight up and a loud roar.
General leaks anywhere there is a worn gasket or slightly loose fitting. Moden steam ran at 2-300 psi of steam pressure, so it doesn't take much.
Near Kenosha WI - July 26 2019.
Do NOT put your head or other body parts this close to a moving train. I started the video recording a couple of minutes in advance, propped the phone against a pole and was much farther away when the train passed.
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LocuMob
Fluid Technician with a hat
That's a nice photo.
