Getting Water into a Cold Boiler?

[Diplodicus]

Steam engine boilers have a water feed provided by a steam injector. How do you get the water into a cold empty boiler?

 

[contrex]

Remove a washout plug and stick a hose in?

 

[Taunton]

Some locos, particularly GWR, as well as an injector had crosshead pumps, connected to the cylinder motion. You can thus propel them up and down the yard with another locomotive to activate the pump and get water in.

 

[Pigeon]

Hose into the injector overflow would do it if the boiler was cold, or indeed if it was not cold but also not hot enough for the pressure to exceed that of the water mains. I have heard of hose connector fittings being permanently mounted on the ends of injector overflow pipes to facilitate this method.

 

[tiptoptaff]

Some locos, particularly GWR, as well as an injector had crosshead pumps, connected to the cylinder motion. You can thus propel them up and down the yard with another locomotive to activate the pump and get water in.

None of the GWR locos I worked on had such a pump. It was all done by backfilling with a hose.

The only pump connected to the motion on GWR locos was the vacuum pump

 

[dazzler]

My father fills his steamroller boiler through the manhole cover ( an inspection hatch on the side of the boiler, above boiler tube level) with a hose pipe.