What a great discussion. Thanks guys, you have answered several of my questions too. Ned

.

It amazes me seeing all the piping ect. on steam locomotives and it must have been a nightmare fixing or replacing parts! It also amazes me how the rebuilds of steam locomotives that have sat outdoors in the elements for years in parks having parts stripped and stolen from them over the years can even get rebuilt. Kudos to all that toil and do the labor intensive work on them to get them going again and knowing what is missing and what goes where? Its no wonder these restorations can be so costly. I'll be honest and say I have No knowledge of steam era loco stuff like this. Another thing that has me curious and wondering. If both NYC loco's #1453 and #1490 both previously had feedwater heater tanks mounted high on the boiler fronts prior to when the photos of both were taken in 1955 and 1956 then why and what would have been the purpose of removing them? Gee wiz, and I thought all the new technology was getting complicated on the newer NS engines I run now. I'll take a good old SD40-2 any day but they sure aren't as appealing as a steam locomotive!

Those wouldn't have been 'feedwater tanks'; they were the actual heat exchangers in the Elesco 'closed' system.

It is possible that these engines were retrofitted with open-type FWH such as Worthingtons, which carry their exchangers behind the smokebox front (or, to be more complete, someplace other than externally on the 'brow') It would have meant more work, and make 'class' parts less common for exchange, to remake the smokebox front and door not to have the mounting point for the bundle heater on some engines.

On the other hand, toward the end of steam some roads, particularly those with relatively 'cut-rate' or complicated FWH systems, simply took them off as representing too much complexity for the thermodynamic and maintenance gains over 'a couple of injectors'. Poster child for this is probably C&O 614, which has run her entire restored service life with no FWH at all (the platform where it resided is the site of a rather large hose reel!). When you read some of the accounts of the fun PRR had keeping feedwater heater pumps running, you won't be surprised to find that just 'taking them off' engines that were essentially running out a few more cheap miles would be an option.

Suspect NYCSHS will have much more detailed answers for this question. I'd like to see what they say.

Wow, I never thought about the "scalded to death by the steam" factor. All of Cedar Point's locomotives have the turret and injectors inside the cab, as well as the electric turbine (under the fireman's seat). Of course they operate at no more than 10 mph.

Our Swedish engines with their all weather cabs have an emergency cord across the ceiling. Pull the cord and a spring loaded stop valve closes on the turret, just for this contingency.