Steam trains - keeping boilers alight overnight

[Rambler2978]

Just wondered if they attempted to keep boilers alight during the night to avoid having to heat up from cold the next day.

 

[John Webb]

Yes, the North Yorkshire Moors Railway has advertised from time to time for staff to work nights/early mornings to maintain fires overnight and to get the fires stirred up for the first trains in the morning.

 

[Ken H]

Campfires can be kept going by covering the fire with dampened turf. Open it up in the morning and bung on some dry stuff and you soo have a decent fire. Maybe damping down a steam loco would work the same?

 

[randyrippley]

from what I've read it appears to have been standard procedure, with the fire only being allowed to die when the boiler needed a washdown, or the firegrate had to be cleared of clinker

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Engines were kept an eye on overnight by "shedmen or cleaners" - after all it took something like 8 hours to properly warm an engine , so it made sense to keep locos warm and in light steam.

 

[6Gman]

A light fire in the firebox, and adequate water in the boiler was surely the way to do it?

 

[zwk500]

Engines were kept an eye on overnight by "shedmen or cleaners" - after all it took something like 8 hours to properly warm an engine , so it made sense to keep locos warm and in light steam.

It also took a long time to cool them down, so if it was only overnight even without much effort it wouldn't have been stone cold in the morning. There's a BTF film about washing out a boiler on YouTube that shows just how long the things took to cool down or warm up.

 

[6Gman]

We also shouldn't get too hung up with it being "overnight" - it was very much a 24hr railway.

 

[Gloster]

On many branch lines the loco might be in the shed from mid-evening until morning, possibly nine or ten hours. For many years there was a night cleaner, but in the 1930s the companies saved money by getting rid of him if possible. A typical result was that the early-turn firemen booked on at an unearthly hour to get steam up and the late one only booked off after the pubs had closed. The practice was for the late-turn to leave the fire well banked-up, so that there was still warmth in the loco and no problems about getting steam up. Of course, if there was no Sunday service, the loco would be stone cold on Monday.

 

[30907]

The practice was for the late-turn to leave the fire well banked-up, so that there was still warmth in the loco and no problems about getting steam up.

Which is basically what people used to do in cold weather- with their coal fires at home - or at least my Dad did.

 

[Sm5]

Locos might cool down overnight but not that fast.
i remember the fire being taken down on a loco on a sunday night at a preserved railway, the metal was still warm on tuesday night.

 

[ac6000cw]

AFAIK another reason for keeping a fire in overnight is to reduce the stresses on the boiler i.e. keep it at reasonably constant temperature and avoid cycles of expansion and contraction.

Which is basically what people used to do in cold weather- with their coal fires at home - or at least my Dad did.

So did mine - 'bank it up' at the end of the evening with slow-burning 'slack' (small bits of coal) etc.

 

[E27007]

New build A1 Tornado spent several months at Hither Green 73C. When booked to work, the preparation took 3 days to raise working pressure, it may have been an extreme precaution, Tornado had issues with fiebox stays ( now cured I believe), so the Trust may have been very gentle on the boiler and firebox.
Contrast USA practice, the USA would force a cold boiler into steam after a boiler washout, filling the boiler from a pre-heated supply

 

[david_g]

Even with a small boiler on a narrow gauge locomotive with the fire knocked out it isn't uncommon to find the pressure gauge "off the pin" ie. 5-10lbs on the clock the following morning. The boiler will be filled with the water into the top nut of the gauge glass as part of the disposal procedure. The boiler will still be very warm and getting one's head and arms in the firebox to clean the remainder of the ash/clinker off the firebars can be very hot work. Lighting up a small loco in this sort of scenario it's possible to get it in a moveable condition (50lbs on the clock) within 20-30 minutes of lighting up.
Of course the cleaning takes a great deal longer....

As others have said, cycling the boiler cold-hot-cold etc. isn't ideal; if I'm lighting up from cold I try to put a warming fire in the afternoon before with the idea of gently warming the boiler to the point where it's just about making steam, then leave it overnight and the boiler will still be warm in the morning.

On a large loco used daily you can drop the fire except for a lit heap under the doors, put a bit more coal on late evening and find the loco with 150lbs on the clock at 9am the following morning. Spread the the fire forward, bale some coal on top and away you go.

 

[Taunton]

From Taunton shed, there was longstanding periodic flooding of the Yeovil line at Langport, maybe several feet. Train would still plough through, sometimes to the extent that floodwater sloshed up through the ashpan and firebars, and put the fire out. Never mind, quite sufficient steam in hand to make the remaining stops, get to Taunton (or Yeovil), go on shed and have the fire relit, oiled all round, on you go.