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Industrial Locomotive identification

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Alicatt

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Mvann

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Yes it's a fireless loco. Places like power stations had them where there was steam that could be fed into the boiler from the main steam generating source on site. I think either east Germany or Poland built some as late as the 1980s.
 
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Ploughman

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Looks like a "Fireless" as you surmised.
Charged with high pressure steam from points within the works when it needed recharging.
Normally used in areas of high fire risk.
I would think that BASF being a chemicals firm then fire risk would be considerable.


There are a number of similar locos preserved in UK do not know if any are working though.
 

ilkestonian

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Yes it's a fireless loco. Places like power stations had them where there was steam that could be fed into the boiler from the main steam generating source on site.

And on sites where fires would be dangerous, e.g. refineries.
 
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theageofthetra

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I also agree that its a fireless- still a few operating in parts of Eastern Europe I believe. What is unusual with this one is that it would appear to have inside cylinders. All the fireless I have seen have outside cylinders located under the cab (no need for a blastpipe as no fire!). I saw one working a few years ago at running day at the railway museum just outside Berlin. At these sort of events in Germany you get people wandering all over the tracks with far less H & S and supervision than in the UK. The fireless was really quite dangerous as the one I saw was almost completely silent when running and it almost clouted some old men taking pictures of another loco.

I think there is one in the UK at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley which presumably made use of the copious amounts of free steam from the paper production plant. I would imagine that a few were used at munitions plants- Woolwich Arsenal etc? Where sparks from a conventional loco could have catastrophic results!
 

341o2

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I also agree that its a fireless- still a few operating in parts of Eastern Europe I believe. What is unusual with this one is that it would appear to have inside cylinders. All the fireless I have seen have outside cylinders located under the cab (no need for a blastpipe as no fire!). I saw one working a few years ago at running day at the railway museum just outside Berlin. At these sort of events in Germany you get people wandering all over the tracks with far less H & S and supervision than in the UK. The fireless was really quite dangerous as the one I saw was almost completely silent when running and it almost clouted some old men taking pictures of another loco.

I think there is one in the UK at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley which presumably made use of the copious amounts of free steam from the paper production plant. I would imagine that a few were used at munitions plants- Woolwich Arsenal etc? Where sparks from a conventional loco could have catastrophic results!

on reading this I immediately thought of the S&K Unique.Manufactured by Bagnalls,Stafford, no less than six of the fourteen fireless locomotives survive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagnall_fireless_locomotives_%28preserved%29
 

AndrewE

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I came across this locomotive in a "museum" about mining at As (Asch) near Genk in Belgium, there was no one there to ask about it and you were just left free to wander the disused sidings.

http://i.imgur.com/m7fTQii.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yUFpwKh.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EKhoOv8.jpg

I think it was filled with high pressure steam and that then used to drive it, either that or compressed air.

I read something recently that pointed out that the "boiler" (i.e. the reservoir) was/is filled with high pressure steam which condenses during filling , so the thing is actually filled up mostly with water at 110, 120 deg C, or whatever it is.
The steam above the water is then used to drive the engine, whereupon the drop in pressure above the water generates more steam from the water which is still over 100 deg C.
It's mentioned briefly here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireless_locomotive
which says
reservoir is charged with superheated water under pressure from a stationary boiler. The engine works like a conventional steam engine using the high pressure steam above the water in the accumulator. As the steam is used and pressure drops, the superheated water boils, replacing the used steam.
I'm sure I found more detail somewhere else...
The main point is that it has got a far longer life between fillings than a simple compressed air reservoir.
 

Alicatt

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Thanks for the replies and they tally with my thoughts too.

Reading the pressure gauge in the cab, it is red lined at 12 kg/cm or about 170psi,

Now trying to put terms I can understand to the numbers on the back of the loco...
On the back of the loco:
INV-N: V03.0006 =Inventory Number?
BOUW-N: 3541/16 =Build Number
GEW-D: 36.5Mp = Mega pascal? or Mega pond? which ever the numbers are sky high!
REM-GEW 25.8Mp
TREKKRACHT 6.0Mp = Megapond = 13,227lbs force Trek = pull Kracht = force/power
HOOFDONDERZ 1-10-72 hoofd = head, onderzoek = inspection

I'm going to go back in the summer and see if there is anyone there as it does look to be still maintained.

There are a few more images of this and other items around the area here https://imgur.com/a/oCgCw
 

AndrewE

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170 psi / 12 bar: boiling point 189 deg C... I am amazed!
I wonder if it was filled with steam from above the feed boiler water line or with water from below it? Or maybe at that pressure there is no distinction if it is flowing down a pressure gradient, as it will immediately flash to steam when the pressure drops anyway...
Must have been a pretty scary job charging it up!
 

30907

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GEW-D: 36.5Mp = Mega pascal? or Mega pond? which ever the numbers are sky high!
REM-GEW 25.8Mp

REM-GEW is literally brak(ing) weight. Not sure how this relates to the UK term brake force if that is still used.
 
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