I bought a used DVD on the 614 and was wondering about a part on the engine. On the fireman's side, in the front of the rear truck, there is a thing that looks like a hose reel. What would this part be for? This piece doesn't show in the C&O book by Stauffer.

Thank You

I was also interested in it when I went to the VMT in April, 2011. I took a (blurry) photo of the wheel. If I recall correctly, it is a retractable airline...a neat concept, at least to me.

Looks like either a water or air hose reel.

Ross will have to chime in wa-for, but looks like to me a couple of things, give the engine a minor spray washdown, or flush out the cinders. Probably very handy since we don't have regular steam locomotive district shops for an end run servicing.

I believe is a lube filling line. Can't remember for the life of me if it was for the siderods or otherwise. Hagerstown in 1986 is too many years ago. I could be wrong. Hopefully Ross or a few others will jog my memory.

I'm pretty sure it's a lube hose. The locomotive originally had an odd-ball Hancock (?) feedwater heater that was mounted on that bracket. IIRC, the C&O replaced the feedwater heater with a second injector when the locomotive was pulled out of storage for coal train service in the mid-50's. (Problems with these heaters? Parts availability?) I guess someone figured it was a shame to let a ready-made mounting bracket go to waste and came up with idea of mounting the grease lube reel there.

Yes, the retractable reel was for lubricating the side rod roller bearings. The feed line for it passed between the engine and tender as well as the tender to the auxillary tender. Quick disconnect fittings were used between the each piece. The 55 gallon oil drum was located in the 'oil room' of the auxillary.

The oil drum had an air operated pump that kept the entire lube line pressurized that
kicked on once the lubing of the rods started. This system was very handy during servicing stops.

TimS.

As Tim described it made the oiling of the side rod rollers a whole lot quicker and easier and reduced the time we needed at a service stop materially. The oil room in the 614A aux. tender is also steam heated so that the barrels were kept nice and warm even if the ambient temp was below zero.

The system works very well and got a real test during the month long coal train tests in 1985 when on some days the wind chill was minus 45. On one day 614 was the only engine to get over the division as the diesels all had fuel freeze up issues.

Ross Rowland

I recall a picture of a steam train crawling thru some flood waters, a diesel would never do that.
Well, if the diesel makers get smart they will have fuel heaters to solve that.
otherwise steam 1 Diesel 0

time to bring back the ole steamer.

I realize that dinwitty was actually writing about two things with his reply above; fuel pre-heaters have been available for years, but not every railroad uses them. Perhaps CSX felt that they weren't in a cold enough climate. I do know that the Canadians use them, as did LTV Steel and the D&H, at least on the PA-4s. Not all that uncommon-

As far as steam and flood waters, not really a recommended practice. I recall reading in Vernon Smith's book a story about using steam in a flood. They got through the flood OK, but the big end ran red hot; water is not a very effective lubricant.

On a typical diesel, does excess fuel not injected go back to the tank or just back to the input? If the former, it would probably add a little bit of warmth though not enough to compensate for seriously cold temps.

Steve

The main reason that the diesels froze up that day was that it was early in the CSX mergers and they had brought a number of locos up from the deep south end ( SCL) of the rr and these units were not equipped with fuel line warmers and when the temp got to minus 30 the fuel jelled in the lines and they were dead in the water.

They learned their lesson and sent the " southern" engines back south and brought the warmer equipped ones back north.

The AP picked up the story of the day 614 was the only one to make it across the division ( Huntington-Hinton W. Va.) and it was a proud moment ( albeit brief) for steam.

Ross Rowland

Funny story, there. I worked for a newspaper in production from 1988 to 1993 and sometimes the newsroom editors would come up and ask me questions on subjects I knew well, and RR questions always got referred to me in that pre-'everything is on the internet' era.
One day, there was a news story about a cold snap in the south and diesels having problems. That same AP story got references and the editors somehow found that news story about 614. I'll never forget one of the editors running up to me in the composing room, out of breath, asking, "Hey, I found this story about a steam engine running freight not too long ago and being the only engine that could run in such cold weather. You ever heard of that?" I replied that yes, I was familiar with that, having read all about it at the time. I explained why 614 was out there and indeed, a steam engine can run in almost any kind of cold where a diesel might not if it lacks certain things. I then had to explain the whole ACE concept. The editor, not a train fan at all, said, "Man, that would be cool if they started building those again!" and ran back to his desk to finish off that story...

Another "dog leg" to the side, about forty years ago, when MAD Magazine was still funny, they were offering simple solutions to complex problems. For the dying passenger trains, the cartoonist suggested American railroads go back to steam power. Everybody loves steam locomotive rides in museums and often you have to stand in lines to get aboard.
Not too mad, eh?

Do you recall what issue of MAD?