B&O Museum to Acquire Smithsonian's Fireless Heisler

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:34 am

A press release I got from the B&O Museum indicates that they are acquiring from the Smithsonian Institution's storage facility a 1938-built Heisler fireless 0-4-0T:

Quote:

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate in
Baltimore, Maryland is pleased to announce that the Smithsonian's
National Museum of American History will donate a vintage 1938
fireless steam locomotive to its collection. The locomotive will be
rigged and moved by flatbed truck from the Smithsonian's storage
facility in Silver Hill, Maryland* to the B&O Railroad Museum on
August 17-18, 2009, where it will be prepared for display in the Fall of 2009.

B&O Railroad Museum Executive Director, Courtney Wilson said, "This
locomotive is a scarce type of railroad motive power not represented
in our unparalleled collection of 19th and 20th century steam
locomotives. It fills an important gap and we are extremely pleased
to accept this gift from the Smithsonian."

<snip>

Founded in the late 19th century, Pepco provides power to the
District of Columbia and parts of Maryland. From 1938 until 1974 the
Pepco locomotive operated at the Buzzard Point Power Station in
Washington, D.C. hauling coal. From 1974 to 1978 it was used at the
Potomac River Power Station in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1979 Pepco
restored and donated the locomotive to the National Museum of
American History's Work and Industry collection.

Interesting to note that the press release also calls it an "early example of green technology"............

tomgears · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:36 am

Interesting news, thanks for posting. Its interesting how late many of these fireless locomotives operated into the diesel era. I imagine it might be operable. I wonder how many fireless locomotives have been operated for demonstration by museums?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:39 am

tomgears wrote:

I wonder how many fireless locomotives have been operated for demonstration by museums?

The problem is having a ready source of high-pressure steam/hot water from which to charge. You can't do much just trying to fill a fireless from an adjacent steam locomotive; I remember the starting boiler charge rate of the fireless at my home-area power plant being something like 450 PSI, with the superheated water flashing to steam as the pressure was relieved........

tomgears · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:01 pm

Some has told me that Steamtown (Vermont) demonstrated one during a railfan weekend during the Don Ball era.

David H. Hamley · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 3:07 pm **Posts:** 705

One practical way to "demonstrate" a fireless would be to have it tow around a flatcar upon which is mounted a serious size air compressor. If you could hear it over the roar of the compressor, it would make some of the right kind of noises.

Potomac Power, BTW, also owned what I'll contend was the last "real" steam loco built in the USA. That would be their Davenport (Porter design) 0-4-0F delivered in August 1954. By "real" I mean a commercially built loco of ordinary design, not a replica, and not having any historical connotation. While PP's Porter and Heisler fireless locos both still exist, I believe the Davenport met the torch. Perhaps someone could confirm that.

I'm not aware of any fireless loco still in commercial use in the USA.

JR May · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 5:11 pm

> One practical way to "demonstrate" a fireless would be to have it tow around

There are two 3' gauge Porter fireless engines running today (both Apache Powder) that I am aware of. Both run on air rather than steam by charging the tank with air. Having run both I can say it works quite nicely on runs of upwards of 2000 feet. Even the largest fireless can be charged with a 200 cfm air compressor in a fairly short period of time.

I thought there was a Heisler fireless in PA which was running recently and was on youtube.

For demonstration purposes, say in a station area back and forth, it would work very well. Unless a very long run was required, there is no need to have a noisy towed compressor, although a small one for air brakes might be useful.

J.R May
Porter 7197

survivingworldsteam · **Posted:** Thu Aug 13, 2009 6:04 pm

Kellogg Elevator Co. in Carson City, MI; operated a Heisler fireless late into the diesel era. Anyone know what happened to it?

Also the above article was talking about about Potomac Electric Power #1 from the Potomac River Generating Station. Anyone know what happened to PEPCO #2, a Porter fireless from 1949 (#8201) that also used to work at that same location? Steamlocomotive.info lists it stored at the station site; my understanding is it is no longer there.

tomgears · **Posted:** Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:58 am

Found this on youtube from 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZNlvDFzTa8

1702 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:34 am

survivingworldsteam wrote:

Kellogg Elevator Co. in Carson City, MI; operated a Heisler fireless late into the diesel era. Anyone know what happened to it?

According to this site http://www.merrittscharnweber.com/TurkeyTrailPage3.html this locomotive was purchased by the Kelloggs in 1987 and was later sold to a restaurant/ice cream parlor in Caro, MI, which should now be Rachel's Depot, 1781 Rails End Blvd., Caro, MI 48723, (989) 673-3035. The loco is listed on steamlocomotive.com and steamlocomotive.info.

Jim Tatum.

B&O Museum to Acquire Smithsonian's Fireless Heisler

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