My virtual vacation in Abilene, Texas continues. Abilene is 1700 miles away from here as the Google drives, and the temperature easily tops 100 degrees F on many days during the summer. While we've only been reaching 88 degrees F here this week, our heat pump is working harder than normal in sympathy with its distant Lennox cousins.
In my previous piece on the Texas & Pacific Railway, I presented what I could find here in the way of photos, maps, published schedules and an employee timetable. This was done to depict some of the history of the railroad which gave birth to the city of Abilene in its first iteration as a railroad shipping centre for cattle.
That piece was atrociously long because I found so much material. This is an attempt to supplement the wordiness of the first piece with illustrations ... and still ... more words to interpret the images.
These images are presented in roughly the same order as the subjects appear in the previous Texas & Pacific piece.
Abilene, Texas - The Texas & Pacific Railway
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| from: Railroad & Photo Annual; 1953; Trains & Travel; Kalmbach. |
Texas & Pacific locomotive 706 was built by Baldwin in 1919. It's Pacific-type - used in passenger service.
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Elesco Feedwater Heater
These were often used to maximize efficiency on later Texas & Pacific freight locomotives.
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| from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company. |
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| from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company. |
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| from: Locomotive Boiler-Feeding Devices; JW Harding; 1937; International Textbook Company. |
Elesco (and other brands of) feedwater heaters provided greater thermal efficiency - particularly for cold-climate railroads. But there was a lot of equipment needed beyond the heat exchanging tank at the front of the locomotive (13).
At (8) you'll notice a powerful 2-phase, steam powered pump to run water through the whole system and to force the warmed feedwater into the boiler through the pipe at (11).
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A Conceptual Steam Locomotive Diagram
This diagram represents an 'intermediate' locomotive design ... when considering the full sweep of steam locomotive technology.
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| from: The Steam Locomotive, Part 1; JW Harding; 1934; International Textbook Company. |
Fire and Smoke
Unlike many Texas & Pacific steam locomotives, this engine is burning coal, which sits on 'shakeable' grates, which allow the ashes to fall below for later disposal.
Air for combustion enters the firebox (a) by coming up through the grates ... and it can also enter through the firebox door at the left.
A brick arch over (a) causes the combustion gases to swirl, thus ensuring more complete combustion within the firebox. The 'roof' of the firebox is the crown sheet. Covering the crown sheet is a layer of water, with steam above that.
Bituminous coal burns at 1200-1600 degrees Fahrenheit, so the crown sheet must always be covered by water to avoid metal failure and a boiler explosion.
The hot combustion gases pass through the flue pipes (b) and (i). I'm using simplified terminology throughout this piece.
At the extreme right, the smoke from the flues enters the smokebox, where it is forced out through the stack (c) by the discharge of exhaust steam coming from the piston (q). This force also does a good job of providing a draft for the fire.
Water and Steam
The boiler is a sealed vessel so it can accumulate energy up to a certain limit. As it heats up, and water is boiled into steam, the pressure inside it builds. At a design limit of 200 pounds per square inch, water boils at about 388 degrees Fahrenheit.
A safety valve system (not shown) is designed to automatically vent excess pressure. When the main safety valve opens, the sound of escaping steam is thunderous and deafening.
When the engineer opens the throttle lever (d), the throttle valve (e) opens and the resulting movement of steam will (with the correct setting of the reverser - not shown) cause the locomotive to turn its wheels.
Steam ... contrasted with condensed steam or water vapour ... is an invisible gas. It passes from (g) as saturated steam, goes back into the boiler area, and exits at (j) as superheated steam. This whole assembly is called a superheater. It will generally increase the temperature of the resulting dry steam by at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit, but the pressure will remain about the same.
So now our steam has reached a temperature of over 600 degrees Fahrenheit ... or higher if we want to brag about it. This dry superheated steam contains an awful lot of extra energy. This is excellent news because it saves us from repeating the energy-intensive work of taking cold water from the tender ... heating it up to the boiling point ... and adding the latent heat needed to turn it into saturated steam.
Our superheated steam has tremendous expansive power, so only a small quantity needs to be used in the cylinder to keep a train moving.
It seems counter-intuitive that one superheats the steam, but its pressure stays the same. The explanation for this requires discussion of molecular structure, and how it relates a substance's vapour pressure/temperature curve. But we're just here for the pictures!
The superheated steam travels down the branch pipe (k) to the cylinder valve (l) which is connected by driving rods and links to the piston inside the cylinder (q)
As the cylinder valve oscillates, it admits steam to one side of the piston, then the other. This provides power for both directions of piston travel. When you add the 'both directions' from the other side of the locomotive, you end up with four, alternating power strokes for every single turn of the driving wheels.
Without a reverser, our engine as shown will only travel forward. A reverser is an important tool of steam economy because it allows the engineer to taper the steam cutoff.
For example: Steam would be admitted for the full travel of the piston when starting a heavy train. In contrast, if a light passenger train was travelling fast, only a short tick of steam would be needed to maintain momentum. (Short tick is not a legitimate mechanical engineering term.)
Finally, through the helpful work of the cylinder valve (l), the exhaust steam and smokebox smoke is pushed out through the stack (c).
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The feedwater heater and the superheater were two of the most important refinements made to improve the fuel efficiency of steam locomotives.
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A coat of paint, and it'll be as good as new!
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| from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books. |
Above and below. I have guessed that these photos are from around 1920. An older Union Pacific 2-8-0 type Compound experienced a boiler explosion in Wyoming.
Above: The engine is rolled over on its right side for shipment. The hole at the front lower-left of the wreck is where the smokestack was. The big pipe you see is the branch pipe which would have carried steam down to the top of the right-side cylinder - the cylinder end of that open pipe is by that person's right hand. Just in front of the intact locomotive, the black perforated plate which appears out of the bottom of the firebox is probably the failed crown sheet. The author commented that most boiler failures were caused by a sudden flow of cold water onto an overheated crown sheet. Being of an older design, we are probably correct in noting that there are no superheater units or large-diameter superheater flues on this engine.
Below: That is the relatively intact running gear of the same locomotive.
It seems very unlikely that anyone in the cab survived the explosion. An exploding boiler was often propelled hundreds of feet because most of the potential energy of tons of boiler water suddenly flashed into steam.
In looking for historical boiler references, I found a 'boiler insurance' company's periodical preserved at archive.org . They published monthly listings of all of the railroad and stationary boiler explosions all over the US. Between problems with metallurgy, problems with rivets and staybolts, problems with keeping the crown sheet covered, and lack of preventative maintenance ... boilers were always blowing up all over the place!
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| from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books. |
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| from: History of Railroads in America; Oliver Jensen; 1975; American Heritage. |
A map showing the status of the network at the end of the first major phase of railroad building in the US.
The strategic position of the Texas & Pacific line through Abilene is visible.
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Link and Pin Couplers
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| from: Yonder Comes the Train; Lance Phillips; 1965; AC Barnes & Co. |
With a locomotive tender at our left and a freight car at our right, the brakeman is working to couple the locomotive to a car using the link and pin system. The locomotive pocket can accommodate rolling stock with three different coupler heights. The link was previously inserted into the locomotive pocket and the pin has been dropped to secure it ... so half of the coupling has been done.
The brakeman has signalled the engineer to back up so he can complete the coupling. The engineer must guess about when to stop and the brakeman must be quick and skillful to avoid injury or death if something goes wrong.
Imagine the brakeman coupling under more difficult conditions: Ten cars from the headend ... at night ... in the rain.
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Janney-style Couplers
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| from: Advertisement; American Association of Railroads; June 1948; Trains. |
Apparently, Janney was inspired by the human hand when he came up with this major improvement in safety. The left coupler is 'open' with the knuckle rotating on a heavy pin (seen with an 'A' on its top).
A brakeman simply opens the knuckle and gets out of the way before the cars come together. With just one coupler open, when the cars come together, the knuckle will close and lock automatically.
To open a coupler (see the one at the right) a brakeman stands at the car's side, actuates the cut lever (that rod), and the attached pin is lifted, allowing the knuckle to open.
Coupler knuckles are designed to be the weakest link in a train to prevent costly damage to car underframes. If there is bad slack action in a train, the 80 lb knuckle part will break and a brakeman would be assigned the job of replacing it.
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Why they were called brakemen ...
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| from: A Locomotive Engineer's Album; George B Abdill; 1965; Bonanza Books. |
Upon hearing the whistle signal from the engineer to 'down brakes' ... brakemen from the engine and caboose would run along the roofwalks and turn the brake wheels to set mechanical brakes on each car.
In this undated photo on the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, you can see the engine has a link and pin coupling rod lying in the centre of its pointed cowcatcher (pilot). The locomotive was built in 1868.
The author reports this is a 10-car train - the caboose didn't quite make it into the book. In addition to the two brakeman, the conductor is standing on the roadbed, the fireman is standing in the gangway and the engineer is sitting in the cab with his arm on the window ledge.
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| from: The Central Pacific & Southern Pacific Railroads; Lucius Beebe; 1963; Howell-North Books. |
This photo was taken on the Central Pacific in the Sierra Nevada in 1865. There are not many photos showing brakemen serving as the primary method of train control.
When a train was running too fast down a grade, the handbrakes would have little likelihood of bringing the train under control. If a train broke in two, it was up to the brakemen to try to stop the cars separated from the engine.
The train is posed for the photo. You can see a brake wheel rising above the roof of each car. The brake shoes can be seen pressing on the treads of the wheels.
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Corporations are often resistant to regulatory changes to improve safety.
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| from: Statistics of Railways in the United States; 1909; Interstate Commerce Commission. |
After the invention of knuckle couplers and automatic train air brakes (a break in the train air line applies the brakes in 'emergency' on every car) it took decades for the railroads to settle on standards and to implement the changes. Other statistics in this book include deaths and injuries and how they occurred.
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Breaking the Ice
Refrigerator Cars
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| from: Right-hand Man in the Cab, article; Howard W Bull; May 1948; Trains, Kalmbach. |
This photo shows an intermediate icing station at Roseville, California in the 1940s.
These cars were probably carrying fresh produce from southern California terminals. There, sophisticated mechanical equipment would have been used because every car would need to be loaded with ice. Money would be saved if cars could be loaded as quickly as possible with produce and ice during a peak harvesting rush at a busy terminal.
This location was where a steam helper locomotive (for mountain grades) was added to the train consist, so it was a convenient point to top up cars designated for checking and re-icing. The worker at the right with the fork is 'optimizing' the block of ice to provide an increased ice surface area.
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| from: Yonder Comes the Train; Lance Phillips; 1965; AC Barnes & Co. |
Gustavus Franklin Swift (1839-1903) was a Massachusetts-born butcher who saw the business potential of changing consumers' meat-buying habits in the eastern US. There, people were accustomed to freshly-butchered local meat.
Swift developed the idea of locating his business at the meat-packing centre of Chicago and transporting dressed meat by rail. The invention of the refrigerator car came from his efforts to develop the most effective way to provide refrigeration for a journey halfway across the country.
The image above is a depiction of a typical ice refrigerator car. It has ice bunkers at each end, and it is designed so cold air can circulate throughout the car, including under the floor on which the shipment was placed.
You'll also notice that the car features air brakes and Janney-type couplers!
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Freight House
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| from: PE's Bustling Freight, article; no author; photo from: Pacific Electric Magazine; Trains June 1948; Kalmbach. |
A mention was made in the previous piece about a freight house - a railroad facility used by the many shippers whose business did not require their own siding. Draft-horse-drawn wagons or trucks would be used for transportation between a shipper's facility and the freight house.
An interesting technique which is shown here is the aligning of multiple 40-foot boxcar doors with a single freight house door. Multiple boxcars could be loaded or unloaded at once. As many of the interior surfaces of boxcars were 'nailable' ... gaps between the boxcars could be spanned safely using metal plates nailed to the door thresholds.
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The Considerations Behind Block Signaling in ABS and CTC
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| from: The Railroad - What It Is, What It Does; John H Armstrong; 1978; Simmons-Boardman. At the time of publishing: Medium Speed was 30 mph and Limited Speed was 45 mph. |
Telegraphs were first used by railroads in the mid-1800s to make temporary modifications to the paper timetables used by employees ... to deal with unforeseen traffic circumstances on a given day. Since that time, railroads have divided their busiest lines into 'blocks'. Typically, these blocks were several miles in length.
On single track railroads, before electric signals, a key safety feature of train separation rules was that trains must enter sidings ... to clear for opposing or following trains ... respecting a rules-specified time interval.
Similarly, a train following another from a particular point on the line must wait for a prescribed amount of time before departing.
... To give you some idea ... depending on the railroad ... this time interval might be 10 or 20 minutes. In the event of a train breakdown, this period of time gave the tailend brakeman time to run back with a flagging kit ... to protect the back of his train. One could argue this was probably the most important reason why cabooses were invented in the first place - to have someone back there, ready to protect the train.
As railroad technology improved, and trains became faster and heavier, it became even more important to ensure trains had adequate warning when it was time to slow down and/or stop. Steel wheels on steel rails are nearly frictionless.
In the previous piece, looking at the Texas & Pacific employee timetable from 1974, I referred to ABS (automatic block signal) and CTC (centralized traffic control) systems.
The nice, clear diagram above, shows how automatic block signals are used to protect trains.
Above, at the left side, the signal indications are shown from most restrictive (stop) to least restrictive (clear).
To the right are shown sample sections of track which are divided into blocks ... each block having its own electrically-isolated track circuit. The track circuits are connected to trackside signals. For very basic protection, a railroad could use just three indications (i.e. green, yellow, red). If a train was stopped, its entire block would be protected because a red signal would prevent a following train (or an opposing train) from entering into its block without proper authority.
For high traffic lines where maximum capacity must be provided along with maximum safety, more signal indications (combinations of more lights of changeable colours on the same signal mast) need to be used.
He was present when the CTC system was implemented at Schreiber, Ontario on the Canadian Pacific Railway and Rolly Martin told me a few times that CTC on single track could safely carry the same traffic load as non-CTC double track.
Imagine a single track line which enables a Dispatcher (Rail Traffic Controller) to use electric switches and signals to remotely control every train's movements ... while train separation is automatically taken care of in all cases by the block signals.
In setting up a CTC traffic control system, the civil and electrical engineers of the system vendor would work together with the railroad's own professional engineers to plan the optimal placement of signals and the design of the logic to operate the track switches and coloured light signals.
They'd consider typical train tonnage, train speeds, significant grades on the track profile, typical stopping distances at different points, signal visibility from the locomotive - any variable which should be considered to run trains as safely as possible ... while also running them as close to each other as reasonably possible.
While the Four-Block, Five Indication system at the bottom of the diagram will be more expensive to install, it is designed to maximize the capacity of the railroad line.
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| from: Popular Mechanics Railroad Album; John O'Connell; 1954; Popular Mechanics. |
In doing the research to find Texas & Pacific items, I found this curiosity. It was probably tested near large population centres - where it could be near to rescue locomotives (it has standard couplers). I've included this in case ardent fans of the Texas & Pacific find the reference interesting, or in case they collect mentions of this unusual trainset.
The locomotive section also includes a mail hook for picking up mailbags 'on the fly' (first door) and a baggage and express section (second larger door).
Early self-propelled railcars had problems with dependably getting from Point A to Point B. Passengers often received a rough, jarring ride at high speed on fast streamlined trainset prototypes.
At least in this experimental vehicle, they enjoyed rubber-tired comfort!
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| from: Photo Section, Rail Photo Service; May 1948; Trains, Kalmbach. |
In this undated photo, the Sunshine Special is leaving Dallas.
Of course, this train's history is recorded at Wikipedia.
It operated south from St Louis, beginning in 1915.
It is shown as Train 1 and Train 2 (along with its routing and equipment) in the 1916 Official Guide section of my previous piece on the Texas & Pacific.
Abilene, Texas - The Texas & Pacific Railway