I most certainly do not speak for Illinois Railway Museum but I seem to recall a few sitting around rusting away so you might want to get in touch. The photo is from July 2000.

4625 is a relatively small unit. Those look more like 4740s.

What steam generator would an RS-1 have, typically, such as one of the Washington Terminal engines? And what do they weight, roughly? I suspect one would need a crane to remove one.

I have moved one of the big Vapor Clarksons with a 6000 lb forklift.

The 150 lbs guy tried to do the same and the back wheels lifted off the ground.

-Hudson

Why are you looking for a steam generator? There are better ways to heat passenger cars that are not as troublesome...if you want to make up the weight in the short hood, some scrap steel such as rail sections or concrete would do the trick.

I am only an associate member there so I don't think that qualifies me as "from IRM" but I can assure you that the photo I posted was taken by me there on July 4, 2000. Next time I visit I will look to see if they are still there. (Would have gone today but the weather was iffy.) Why not simply contact them and ask if they have any they'd be willing to part with?

In the meantime here is the full view of the same image.

I know that some railroad museums in the new england aria have RS-3 or multiple and may not need or want the steam generators but I don't speak for any of them so you might have to ask them yourself.

Contact the DL Railroad in Scranton. They have a junk RS3 in the deadline with a SG in it.


Rich

Cameron, not to dissuade you from your quest for a Steam Generator, but there are a few things you should know;

1) The "heart" of the steam gen is a set of coils made from steel pipe, all of the existing units I have inspected had rotted coils which leak profusely when filled with water.

2) The coils are very difficult to fabricate without specialized equipment, I would venture that attempting to recreate a good set of coils by "hand" is nearly impossible, I looked into it and decided it was beyond my pretty ample capabilities. They take 20 foot lengths of steel pipe and feed them into a specialized hydraulic coil making machine. The pipe starts as (I believe) about 2 inch schedule 80, then the pipe coils get smaller as the water turns to steam. There is about 50-100 feet of coils inside. This is not something you can make with a simple tubing bender, it is pipe, not tubing.

3) You could possibly obtain a new set of coils from the manufacturer (they where still available 15 years ago) but I bet you are looking at several multiples of 10 thousand dollars, maybe even 50k for a full replacement set of coils.

4) The coil assembly is "potted" inside the firepot with furnace cement, given the age of any existing units this potting cement likely contains asbestos. Removing it to make the steam gen asbestos free pretty much involves destroying the coils and the fire pot, you have to cut out the heart of the machine. The furnace cement sets up like extra hard concrete, not something you can easily chip away at in your spare time.

Can you restore one to operation ? Sure, with enough dollars, probably $50k minimum, maybe up to $250k. Maybe there is a better way, like electric heat and a diesel generator someplace in your train ?

Just my two cents worth, I looked into restoring a steam gen owned by a museum (it was still inside an RS loco) but decided to just walk away.

Maybe you will have better luck, I hope so. Cheers, Kevin.

Cameron, if you have found a truly "serviceable" unit(s) I tip my hat to you.

Static display is a great idea, just be sure to remove/wrap all the loose asbestos around the exterior piping.

I would not accept a unit as "serviceable" without a full pressure test and interior inspection for leaks before I exchanged any dollars for said unit.

There is a big difference between "serviceable" today and "it does not leak much" in a few years.

And, if it is indeed serviceable today, you need to take great care of it going forward, purging all moisture from inside the coils and the firepot when it is stored unused is a necessity if you want to be able to fire it up in the future. Filling the coils with a good protective antifreeze when OOS will help.

All of these units have forty or fifty year old coils inside, none of them used stainless steel. I would consider them all to be "on their last legs", unless proven otherwise.

Sounds like you have a pretty full understanding of the details, I hope I did not offend you, I was just trying to help as someone that "went down that path before".

Cheers, KevinK.

Something to bear in mind about steam generators-- the Canadian National maintenance specifications for them called for full overhaul (i.e. coil replacement plus all other items to be repaired/replaced) at no longer than 36 month intervals. Any SG-equipped loco in for shop repairs with a SG having 24 months in the loco, was to have it removed and a freshly-overhauled SG installed before the loco was released from the shop.

It was clear that the things had a life span of "nasty, brutish and short".

The old-time factory-approved method for seasonal lay-up of a SG was to pump the coils (about 600 feet of piping) full of fuel oil to prevent corrosion. When the SG was started up for service, guess where that fuel oil went? Not into the fuel tank.......

New Vapor-Clarkson OK-4625 SGs are available; they run about $75,000, as I recall.

The only museum/excursion user that I know of is Monticello Railway Museum. They have a CN steam gen car in operable condition. You might want to discuss the care and feeding of a SG with them.

Howard P.

The Whitewater Valley in Connersville, Indiana has used a steam generator car for at least 18-20 years. They have replaced coils a couple of times over the years the most recent being last year. It was done at that time for less than 25k. You might consider contacting them for more info.

I'll concur with the folks at Whitewater Valley. At Monticello we replaced an inner coil two years ago, and if memory serves, just a new inner coil was in the neighborhood of $2400, with a several week lead time. (there are four different coils in most 4625's) We lay ours up with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze/water. The liquid capacity of all those coils is only about 25 gal., so it doesn't take that much to protect the system.

Howard is correct about the new ones as well. I was given an off-the-cuff quote of about 75K for an entire new boiler/control back when we purchased the new coil. (while the new boiler proper appears very similar, if not the same as the old ones, the control system sounds vastly improved... at least I hope it is.) :-)

http://www.vaporpower.com/products/stea ... enerators/

Kent

I have one available, but have previously let this young man know that he isn't going to remove it from an RS-1 without a crane, and that it isn't going to fit nicely in the back of a pickup truck. Just saying-