Hi,

TVRM is searching for an Ashton quadruplex stoker gauge for the stoker it is installing on 4501. The only one I've seen is on the C&O 1308, a 2-6-6-2 on display in Huntington West Virginia. If anyone knows of one for sale, swap, or donation, please contact me at steamwhistles@bellsouth.net Our new stoker is a Standard HT model.

Any leads or suggestions will be appreciated.

Tim Gautreaux

I was down in there this last spring and was talking to them about that guage as well. How close are they to have all the fabrication work done on that engine? Also, would someone be able to make a working replica of these guages if they found one intact?

Joe

Could someone comment on what an Ashton quadruplex stoker gauge does? What does it gauge? It would be interesting to know. How tough is it to find this part and what happens if you don't?

It's a pressure gage, measuring 4 different pressures in one gage housing. Popular form the 1930s on, they are rectangular in shape, have a brass case (some with integral light housing), and four 1/4 MPT connections at the bottom. Essentially two duplex gages in one case with two dial faces and four "hands", they were also made to measure air brake pressures-- brake pipe and equalizing reservoir, and main res and brake cylinder.

The stoker gage measures stoker engine steam pressure and 3 different jet pressures for blowing the coal off the distributor plate.

The quad gages can easily be duplicated by using two duplex gages (still currently available commercially), but the quad gages are much more cool.

Howard P.

I don't really have anything to add to this information session, but I just felt compelled to get in on the "Fifty Ways To Spell This Word" compilation this has become with regards to the word "gaege".

Seriously, folks. The word is "gauge." Whether it's the dial on the back of the locomotive or the space between the rails.

LOTS of confusion about GAGE vs GAUGE. The Oxford English Dictionary allows "GAGE" as an alternate spelling of "GAUGE", especially in American usage. The word "GAGE" is really archaic and refers to a promise or a challenge. I have never seen the word used in that context, however. That said, the usual correct spelling of the instrument that measures something is "GAUGE".

I must confess that I've never seen the word spelled that way, or for that matter as 'gage' with an umlaut...



But, on the other hand, not when referring to the NMRA RP-2 clearance plate, or for that matter in many discussions of what the AAR 'clearance plates' determine -- loading gage. Most people I know use 'strain gage' (and not 'strain gauge'). I look at this as being similar to the issue with 'disk' vs 'disc' -- it is ALWAYS 'disc brake', and ALWAYS 'hard disk' or 'floppy disk' (or whatever). When it becomes an accepted technical term, and is used as such, it's not a semantic 'error' (yes, even for the OED googlers)

Part of the issue with 'gage' goes back to the various 'simplified spelling' attempts in the Progressive Era (anyone remember the message that Root sent Roosevelt to stop some of that silliness?) One of the words that got simplified in some railroad publications in that era was 'gauge', referring (correctly, as Mr. Mitchell indicated) to any device that measures relative magnitude of something. So many people became familiar with the simplified spelling, 'gage', and adopted it instead of the 'right' spelling. (This might certainly be how 'loading gage' became accepted, too, of course).

"Guage", of course, is just flat wrong wherever you find it, and its use should be deprecated without mercy.

One of you with the appropriate... er, inclination... might ask Marina over at hotforwords.com to give a full etymology of these words. That might be enjoyable, and not just for the sake of semantic precision...

Here's what we're searching for.

I've defaulted to "GAGE" so I don't have to buy more vowels.

dave

Thanx, Mr. Gautreaux, for providing the foto.

At the FRA, gage refers to the distance being measured, and gauge refers to the device used to measure the gage. Check out Chapter 49, Code of Federal Regulations.

Examples:

§ 229.3 Applicability.
(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this section, this part applies to all standard gage railroads.

§ 229.25 Tests: Every periodic inspection.
Each periodic inspection shall include the following:

(a) All mechanical gauges used by the engineer to aid in the control or braking of the train or locomotive. . .


Steve

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Could a standard air brake quadraplex gauge be made into the type you need? It's not that hard to have new reproduction faces made.

Mark