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Post by nickf on Mar 24, 2011 9:03:20 GMT
I've been wondering how the steam heating of carriages works. There must be a through flow of steam so presumably there is a valve that controls this on each carriage, but also there must be an arrangement to eject the water that will have condensed in the pipes...maybe the same valve that controls the flow of steam? Can anyone explain how it all works, please?
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Post by phillw48 on Mar 24, 2011 9:40:18 GMT
Steam from the locomotive boiler or sometimes the exhaust steam is distributed through the train by a pipe similar to the vacuum or air brake. There was a limiter on the locomotive to restrict the pressure and the flexible steam pipes between coaches plugged into each other. There was two steam pipes on the train the other was the return pipe. The heating elements were radiators fitted beneath the seats that were sometimes adjustable for individual compartments. It was often the case that the flexible pipes leaked and steam could be seen escaping between coaches or at the end of the train.
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Post by Tomcakes on Mar 24, 2011 10:03:09 GMT
I also understand that, because of obvious heat loss, it was a very uneven system - the front coach could be stiflingly hot whilst the rear was freezing!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2011 19:19:38 GMT
Took a lot of maintenance also - and shunters had to be mindfull of hot water leaks when splitting etc - H&S nightmare.
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roythebus
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Post by roythebus on Mar 30, 2011 8:44:05 GMT
PhilW, not quite right. There is a valve on the loco to send steam down the train, usually about 45psi, depending how hot you want the train. there is only one steam pipe running along the train.
Front coaches can be hotter than the rear. On each coach is a self-drain valve to let out any water in the pipe.
You cannot use exhaust steam for heating. By then it would be mixed with exhaust smoke from the fire!
And yes, shunters and firemen have to be careful when uncoupling, which is why steam heat is usually turned off 10 minutes from the terminus.
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metman
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Post by metman on Apr 1, 2011 16:07:37 GMT
It was for these reasons and that stabled trains were cold during the day that electric heaters started to be installed on the Metropolitan Steam stock.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2011 22:56:49 GMT
I also understand that, because of obvious heat loss, it was a very uneven system - the front coach could be stiflingly hot whilst the rear was freezing! Looking back to the mid 80's and the last days of SH on BR, this was very much the case Front coach behind the loco was always the sauna You'd sometimes get a decent rake where all coaches were evenly heated, but the heat would often drop off as you went towards the back of the train with the rear coach occasionally a no go zone early morning/in the winter with icicles on the windows ! that said, the stock was 25-30 years old by this point and SH only had a year or 2 to live! post edit - the Mk I's were 25-30 years old, steam heat MK II PV's probably more like 20 (ish) years old, but were starting to get withdrawn so I imagine maintence was at the lower end of the spectrum even with these! |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2011 23:15:49 GMT
For the record my last SH haulages on BR were in July/August 86, hence 2 early morning trips stand out ...
37262 on the 4.50 Inverness - Aberdeen and 47003 a few days later on the morning Aberdeen - Inverurie
Also had a few 27's that week (from the 'by then' seemingly sectorised 049-055 pool), but largely day time journeys, so no specific SH memories!
happy days !!!
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Post by Hutch on Apr 8, 2011 19:37:13 GMT
With a steam engine, steam heat is very much a byproduct of the locomotive process; but the last steam engine left BR in 1968. However, steam heating (as reported above) lasted until 1986, some eighteen years after the demise of locomotive steam.
It is not often appreciated that diesel locomotives had separate diesel heated boilers to produce heating steam. In the later days of mainline steam - when water troughs, etc. were routinely provided - diesel locomotives also had water scoops - worked by the second-man - to uplift water for the steam-heating boiler!
In later years, the disused boiler space was often used for an additional fuel tank.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2011 12:19:47 GMT
With a steam engine, steam heat is very much a byproduct of the locomotive process; but the last steam engine left BR in 1968. However, steam heating (as reported above) lasted until 1986, some eighteen years after the demise of locomotive steam. It is not often appreciated that diesel locomotives had separate diesel heated boilers to produce heating steam. In the later days of mainline steam - when water troughs, etc. were routinely provided - diesel locomotives also had water scoops - worked by the second-man - to uplift water for the steam-heating boiler! In later years, the disused boiler space was often used for an additional fuel tank. Whilst 1986 was the last booked year for steam heat on BR some adhoc workings occured into the spring of 1987 The last doccumented of these were on the weeked of 21st March 1987 when a number of class 47's 'steamed' on some FOOTEX's in Scotland, 47209 amongst them. |
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Post by jacko1 on Apr 22, 2011 10:09:55 GMT
when i was a secondman at stratford,the steam was always shut down around gidea park on a up norwich -lv street train. you still had to be carefull though at lv st as you often still had steam/hot water in the pipe.burnt myself many times!
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Post by nickf on Apr 26, 2011 20:00:35 GMT
Apologies for having been away so long and not acknowledging the informed replies. I've been walked round a steam heated carriage by a C&W savvy chap on the Mid Hants Railway so I now have a somewhat wider appreciation of what went on. At the end of each carriage there was of course an isolation valve, but as well as this, there is on the actual joint where the two flexible pipes come together a push valve, so that if you have to split the pipes you can push in this valve with a bit of ballast (wear good gloves!) to remove the steam pressure still in the pipes even when both Iso valves have been turned off. As to how the heaters worked, there was one steam main, working at reduced pressure from the loco as described above. The radiators were each fed in parallel from this and exhausted separately. Also as described above there was a valve on each carriage to let out condensed water.
A quick off-topic: I'm taking my signalman's assessment on the 26th May...please keep your fingers crossed for me!
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