If having steam available is so handy don't any of the existing IRM diesels have boilers that could be made to run?

I'd love to see some steam ejector A/C made to run.

IRM diesels with boilers:
GTW RS1 1951, loco is non operational
Milw FP7 104C & F7B 96B, locos are non operational, boilers removed by RR, boilers replaced by IRM, plumbing and wiring never completed
CNW GP7 1518, loco is under restoration, boiler removed by RR, boiler replaced by IRM, plumbing and wiring incomplete
ATSF H12-44TS 543, loco is non operational
CB&Q E5A 9911A, Locomotive is operable, boiler held pressure when cold (25+ years ago), ignition spark system worked, fuel atomizing system worked, no official hydro test has been performed. Last time it made steam it was still on the Q (pre 1969)

The only other steam generator equipped piece in the IRM collection is the power car on the Nebraska Zephyr, and both of those boilers are in unknown (and VERY questionable) condition.

Jeff

More info on the GN steam generators:

GN #5:

Built in 1929 under AFE 38894 from diner #1001 (built in 1905 by Pullman as #7101).

Equipped with a 150 psi center-mounted boiler, measuring 72" internal diameter, boiler height is not listed, with 356 2" tubes, tube length is not listed, the heating surface of the firebox was 36 sq. feet, the heating surface of the tubes was 901 sq. feet. Water was held in 3 corner-mounted tanks connected with 6" piping, each measuring 9' x 6' x 3', for a capacity of 3,570 gallons. The 2 Safety pop valves measured 1.5", with an Ashcroft steam gauge, a Reliance JR low water alarm, a Warren water pump measuring 4.5" x 2.75" x 4", a Fisher feed pump governor, and a Hancock #25 inspirator. Fuel oil was held in the fourth corner-mounted tank measuring 9' x 5'6" x 3' for a capacity of 1,100 gallons, with a Warren oil pump measuring 3" x 2" x 3", and a Fisher oil pump governor. The type of dynamo is not listed, the battery was an exide MVAH-17.

Total car length was 45'6" over framing, and the inside length was 44'10.75". The #5 rode on metal-faced 3 axle trucks with 36" rolled steel wheels, with a truck wheelbase of 10'6", and a center wheelbase of 28'6". The car width over framing was 9'8", and the inside width was 8'10.125". Total height from the top of the rail to the top of the boiler stack was 16'0.6875". The total weight of #5 was 175,000 lbs.

In 1945, GN rebuilt and re-equipped #5, recorded in AFE 71167:

The original boiler was replaced by 2 Vapor Clarkson steam generators. A motor-generator replaced the original dynamo, with Philco 25XSTVB batteries. The air compressor was a Westinghouse Type S-16. The total light weight was 136,445 lbs. and the weight when filled was 175,000 lbs.

The original trucks were replaced by 2 axle cast steel trucks with 36" rolled steel wheels, with a truck wheelbase of 8', and a center wheelbase of 30'6".

The #5 was also rebuilt to a Streamlined appearance, with the height from the top of the rail to the top of the Streamlined roof (not the vent covers) listed as 12'10.6875". The length over buffers was listed as 51'5.3125" and the length over framing was listed as 47'9.75". The width over framing was listed as 9'11" and the width over crown molding was listed as 10'. The original vestibule was replaced by a single 5'6.5" baggage-type rolling door.

Further changes were made under AFE 89526, with the 2 steam generators afterwards listed as Vapor CFK-4225, steam generation capacity was afterwards listed as 4,500 lbs. per hour. The air compressor was afterwards listed as a DeVilbiss Model 130-552. The batteries were afterwards listed as 64 volt Philcos. The weight when filled was reduced from 175,000 lbs. to 174,000 lbs.

hamster,

Could you please provide some info about the small package steam boiler MCRM installed in the GN heater car? I'm guessing this is some sort of commercial, non-railroad item (meaning it probably is less expensive than a new 4625 would be).

Thanks,

Howard P.

Howard,

The boiler that is installed inside the GN Power Car at Mid-Continent is a former City of Pewaukee, WI mobile horizontal return fire tube boiler that steamed out frozen ditches for the highway department. It burns diesel, and runs off of a generator from another car in the consist. It is not automated and requires a crew of two while the train requires steam heat, which is usually 24 hours a day during the February Snow Train.

First off, Thanks to Chris for posting some photos of our fun. There is one slight detail I'll offer for correction - the boiler was donated by the City of Platteville, WI. I'll forgive you since I don't believe you're a Wisconsin native.

The rest is quite correct. It is a 25 boiler horsepower culvert steamer built by the Reliance Boiler company of Milwaukee, Wi. It is a return flue type (modified Scotch Marine) 2 pass and is rated at about 800 lbs/hr and the current fuel nozzle consumes about 8 gal/hr of fuel oil.

The original burner was a real challenge as it was run by a small Briggs & Stratton gasoline engine (lawn mower size) and to light off you had to shove a burning swab down the lighting tube before pulling the rope on the Briggs. Hopefully you didn't snuff out the swab and it didn't get blown out before the fuel pump started atomizing. There were also 2 nozzles for 2 stages of firing so you had to watch the color of the stack to adjust the incoming air damper for proper combustion. Too much air gave a clear stack and little heat if it didn't blow the fire out. Too little air was a cloud of black smoke which would quickly soot up the tubes and cover them with enough insulation that you'd very soon get very little heat into the water. Either way made for miserable firing so just like an oil-burning loco you kept a light gray haze in the stack.

After a couple of years wrestling with the Briggs we put in a different burner with an electric motor, electric ignition & semi-automatic damper. That eliminated the need for gasoline on the car and cut the worries down to keeping water in the boiler and are they going to leave the doors open on the coaches again which will suck the boiler inside out due to demand.

The first time I got in the car I was helping clean out the raccoon droppings with an eye to using the Vapor steam generators. It had a Catepillar diesel engine to run the 64Vdc generator and air compressor but the air compressor had been removed some time before. The real monkey wrench was that the air compressor had been mounted on the generator frame using the field coil mounting bolts. This was done so the air compressor could be driven off a tail shaft on the end of the generator. The bolts were long gone so not only did we have no air but the field coils were loose which made us not want to try turning over the Cat.

The Vapors were in very bad shape. There were 3 sets of coils of pipe in each unit but even between the 2 units there was not a complete set of good coils. They all had hard water problems (freezing) and the intermediate pipes were plugged with scale.

A few interesting notes about the controls - The air dampers (and I think fuel valves) were electric control over hydraulic and the hydraulic power was supplied by the fuel pump. Yes, it used fuel oil in the controls. There were (I think) 5 stepped levels of firing, not the continuously variable firing of the later designs. Since everything was DC, the AC to run the ignition coils came from genemotors. This is a DC motor driving an AC alternator all within a single case. The AC could then be stepped up by the ignition transformers.

When we started seriously working on the car we contacted Vapor and they tried very hard to help us once they got past "You've got WHAT???". It turns out the units we had were one or two generations older than they had anywhere in their existing archives. We got some great information on later units but the stepped controls coupled with the ruined steam coils pushed us over the edge. That was when one of our volunteers heard about the boiler in Platteville and started working with the city to get their generous donation.

MLD
(editied to add signature)

Any updates on the status of 15444?
It was still in Tate, Georgia on the GNRR as of last month.