I saw a photo in a 1928 brochure about Southern Pacific locomotive development which showed a sprinkler pipe underneath the tender for a passenger locomotive. The caption suggested that water was sprayed on the roadbed to keep dust down. How common was this?

> I saw a photo in a 1928 brochure about
> Southern Pacific locomotive development
> which showed a sprinkler pipe underneath the
> tender for a passenger locomotive. The
> caption suggested that water was sprayed on
> the roadbed to keep dust down. How common
> was this?

This was fairly common on logging railroads, but the primary focus was to moisten the roadbed and surrounding vegetation to prevent the train from starting fires and to wash sand from the rails to cut down on resitance. First time I've heard of it being used for dust control...

jamoore@elko.net

UP used a similar thing on thier Big Boys to wet down the first two or three cars due to the hot cinders that would issue from the stack. This was a pipe/nozzle device at the rear of the top tender deck at an inclined angle.

SP tie sprinkler

SP road power operating over Donner Pass had pneumatically-actuated tender sprinklers installed to wet down the ties against hot brakeshoe sparks, especially in the snowsheds. 4-6-2 SP 2467 came out of service with the whole sprinkler in place (on its former 4-8-2 tender), and 4-6-2 SP 2472 has the bulbuous bronze pneumatic valve (but no sprinkler spreader bar) still on its tender (originally built for 4-8-2 SP 4326). See Bob Church's excellent book "The 4300s" for more info.

- Doug Debs doug.w.debs@fcimg.com

We have applied simple tender sprinklers used to wet down wooden trestles and occasionally the underbrush if fire danger is high and the brush encroaches on the tie area, on down grades where heavy brake applications are needed (most coaches, however, have been converted to composition shoes which are less hazardous to use under these conditions.

One locomotive with a big tender also has a pneumatic relay valve which directs water on top of the rail behind the back drivers and in front of the trailing truck. We find that this water stream is very effective at lubricating the rail in curves, frequently eliminating the need for track grease (18 degree mainline curve max., 26 degree turning loop at one end of the run).

The pneumatic valve is also tied into the front sander air line and automatically washes the sand from the rails behind the locomotive, preventing getting grit on the entire train and eliminating the additional drag created by running the train over the grit. It can be cut-out for double-heading. The valve contains an adjustable time delay for shutting the water off so when the sander is turned off the water continues to flow until the "trail" of sand ceases. The valve is for 1/2" pipe and was not terribly expensive.

The limited water supply of our tank Mikado has prevented a similar application there.

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad

steamrr@mashell.com