There's been a couple times I've read about steam locomotives being used as sationary boilers. These never seemed to go into much detail (most likely due to it being off topic). I had a few questions that I was hoping somebody could answer or send a helpful link. Hopefully these questions are in decent chronological order, but feel free to anwser them however you'd like.


1. How did the concept work? I know boiling water creates steam, but how did they get that steam into the building?

2. Was there a designated fireman or another operator taking care of things or was it drop by every twenty minutes or so? Also, what tasks did they have to perform?

3. Was there any need for the throttle and such? It's not going anywhere (hopefully!), is there a need for it and some of the other controls?

4. Obviously they can't just yank something out of the deadline, and a 0-4-0 tank engine won't do much. What were the requirements for a steam locomotive to be a candidate for stationary boiler service and did size matter?

5. What modifications were nessecary for stationary boiler service?

6. This final one is more opinion based. Would it be a good idea (as a learning tool and feasibly) to have an exhibit (even if it's only temporary) dedicated towards this using a cosmetically restored engine?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these, it's greatly appreciated!

1. Pipe.
2. Depends on the installation and its policies.
3. Most had such things removed and used industrial valves in the steam piping.
4. Most were locomotives recently removed from service in good condition due to dieselization rather than being used up. A buyer would get a size that worked for their needs. Stourbridge Lion was a supply unit for a laundry..... and N&W 1218 served an industrial plant. Hard to get further apart in size than those.
5. Depends on the fueling and ash removal if coal fired. Also, some form of draft control was sometimes required.
6. There are boilers available that won't require disassembling a locomotive if you want to do this. Of course, using steam hose an operating locomotive can be the power supply for anything reasonable....

In working with Northern Pacific Railway Locomotive records, and AFEs, I have seen several instances of locomotive boilers removed from service being converted for use as stationary boilers.

A condemned 180 psi locomotive boiler will last a long, long time as a 15 psi heating boiler.

-Hudson

I think that when jettrainfan posted this thread, he was thinking about TEMPORARY stationary boilers. But I believe that some retired locomotives were used as PERMANENT boilers. Offhand I can think of a boiler used by the Duluth & Northeastern in its locomotive shop in Cloquet, Minnesota (I'm assuming this one is no longer there, although I don't know that for sure). I am sure there were others.

Also, it would be interesting to know how many locomotives that were used as temporary boilers were eventually preserved whereas if this had not been the case, they most likely would have ended up as scrap. I believe one example would be N&W Class A #1218.


Les

There were five broken down 2-8-0s used as a stationary boiler plant at Hanford, WA when the were building the bomb in the early 1940s. After the war two went on to be stationary boilers at Camp Adair, OR.

Around 1959, two Reading T-1 engines were sent under their own steam to Portland, Pa. They were used to blow out steam lines for a new power plant under construction. They were there for some weeks and then returned to Reading under their own power.

In 1960, Reading 2102 was set up for stationary boiler service and rented to Carpenter Steel Co. in Reading while their boiler was under repair. A Reading employee was with the engine at all times. Photos show a bunch of pipes around the front end, but I don't know the details of where they tapped into the boiler.

The boiler which is in the process of being installed on Climax CN 1551 at Cass, West Virginia was built in the 1940's for a 70 ton Climax which was scrapped circa 1950. The boiler was used in a green house to provide steam heat about 25 years, was acquired by the Cass Scenic Railroad and was rebuilt a couple of years ago.

Strassburg inspected the boiler and told the Mt. State Railroad & Logging Historical Assn. that the boiler (except for the FRA Rules on boilers) that it could have been used as received.

Of course, that boiler was used on a Climax for only a few years and then used inside at low pressure for 25 years.

CB&Q 5614, an oil burning 4-8-4, was used at a Kansas City plant around 1960 while a new boiler house was being built. The process that needed 250# steam was installed before the boiler house was finished. The 5614 is in a park in St. Joseph, MO.
5620 and a UP 4-8-2 were also used. I don't believe they were actually used at the same time. I heard that they had a lot of staybolt leaks, so maybe that is why they used three engines by the time new boilers were on line.

Tom

we have the Western Pacific #334 Mikado at the Western Railway Museum. It supplied steam to a canning plant after it left the rails; but before it was finally retired.

It seems this kind of work is hard for a locomotive as the fire tubes get clogged up from lack of draft, I think.

I have not seen what pressure they used in this application. Perhaps as low as 15 pounds?

Another sort of use as shown above was to just use the boiler; rather than the whole locomotive. Any number of Maine saw mills had used boilers to power the saws and steam for the dryers.

Ted Miles, Western Railway Museum Archives

The engine house at Chama, New Mexico, on the former D&RGW (now on the Curbress & Toltec) has two (or three) former narrow gauge boilers in its boiler room. I don't think that these have been used for decades; but I may be wrong. There have been discussions about these boilers on the Narrow Gauge Discussion Forum.

The Southern Pacific used locomotives as a stationary supply at several engine terminals. Two or three retired narrow gauge locomotives from its Owens Valley operation were used as stationary boilers in the post WWII years at standard gauge terminals. The engines were complete and the connection was made from the steam done to the terminal steam piping.

I think Cass Shay #5 was used as a stationary boiler for the Mower mill in 1958.

The reason that stationary service was hard on Western Pacific 334 is that the steam was taken off the steam dome. This left the super heater tubes dry with nothing to cool them.

New Hope & Ivyland RR (McHugh Bros. Line) 0-6-0 No. 9, formerly Virginia Blue Ridge and U.S. Army, was rented to the U.S. Steel Fairless, Pa. Works to supply steam to the employees' wash house in the early 1980s. It ran to and from the site over ConRail under its own power. NH&I firemen were used to shovel the coal. It's now at SMS Rail Services in Pureland, N.J. getting restored again.

Longview, Portland & Northern RR #803 (Alco 2-8-2T) was used as a stationary boiler at Longview, WA for several years in the late 50s. The super heater units were removed, a tall stack added and a 6" hole was cut in the steam dome to receive a pipe. This locomotive is now at Yacolt, WA.

The last operable B&O steam locomotive, Q-4 MIke #421, spent at least a couple of months supplying house steam to the B&O W. 3rd St. roundhouse in Cleveland after the famous last passenger excursion in May of 1958. There are photos of it during that time moving under it's own power from the roundhouse down to the ash pit and coal dock for servicing, so the last B&O steam moves were actually later than May '58.