Does 1361 have thermic syphons?

wilkinsd · **Posted:** Mon Jan 03, 2022 7:23 pm

Dave wrote:

Chattahoochie Valley 201 was retrofitted with syphons - now the welds joining the syphons to the crown and throat have cracked, but she hasn't run in decades..... anyhow, verbal history from some now dead people was that they couldn't keep her cold when the syphons had been installed. no matter how lightly they tried to fire her. Probably a combustion system originally designed and built with syphons would have worked even better and more efficiently. Somebody probably did some quantified testing at some point back in the day, if it could only be found.

Sales literature of the era from Nicholson proposed putting one syphon in an older, smaller locomotive. In those cases, there could not have been much room in the firebox to get a person in for maintenance. Reportedly, Western Maryland 202 also received them when it was converted to oil late in it's career. The inside of the firebox is similarly tight.

The British have built new Nicholson style syphons. Several groups pooled resourses to build all-new fireboxes for the Bulleid designed 4-6-2s that ran on the Southern Railway (UK). While smaller than their American counterparts, the process to build these is quite involved, as noted in the Strasburg post.

EJ Berry · **Posted:** Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:44 am

If you want to see a thermic syphon, go to "The Latest From the Strasburg Rail Road Shops" thread near this one.

The third photo from the top shows the three new syphons Strasburg built for Steamtown's B&M 3713. Erich Armpriester of SRC's shop also explained how difficult it was to make them.

Phil Mulligan

Faller? · **Joined:** Fri Dec 27, 2019 5:57 pm **Posts:** 106

EJ Berry wrote:

If you want to see a thermic syphon, go to "The Latest From the Strasburg Rail Road Shops" thread near this one.

The third photo from the top shows the three new syphons Strasburg built for Steamtown's B&M 3713. Erich Armpriester of SRC's shop also explained how difficult it was to make them.

Phil Mulligan

The "Stays" have yet to be added; will Strasburg do that or the customer?