If you can't borrow one from a display engine somewhere, carve one out of styrofoam, pack it in green sand and pour it full of molten iron or steel. I don't think the auger itself had much machining done to it apart from where it connected to other sections, unless the only examples I have seen were just pretty well used in service and rough.

That's not "bent"--that's part of a multi-part articulated screw with universal joints sagging at one of the joints after the forward section of the stoker auger fractured.

Any possible fix that doesn’t require a new screw?

A tag team taking turns shovelling like hell?

This is a classic case of "you can have it cheap, fast, or good; pick a maximum of two."

If both parts of the screw are nominally intact, welding MIGHT be an option--break out the "JB Weld" jokes. OR they could weld them together just enough for a casting pattern?

Or, install an oil tank and run lines through the stoker tubes? Then she'll be ready for tour through the drought-stricken Southwest? </SARCASM>

If it were me (and no, nobody asked), I'd have hand fired it. Wouldn't have been ideal, but since the engine won't be running under its own power, steam consumption would be minimal and it'd be easier to keep up with a less intense fire. Keep in mind with only the auger out of action, you wouldn't even have throw the coal, just drop it right inside the door and let the steam jets do the rest. Of course it would become an awfully long walk from the coal gate to the firedoor and back a few thousand times on that engine.

That being said, it's not my chooch and I agree it wasn't a bad call to postpone.

It's too bad it wasn't going somewhere with mechanical staff on hand capable of repairing that sort of thing on short notice, they wouldn't have needed to cancel.

That’s what I don’t understand here. From a safety standpoint, did this prevent movement? Strasburg surely has the capability to repair something like this.

That's making the assumption that Strasburg would have room in their shop's schedule between their own locomotive's scheduled maintenance, and the contract work to take on the out of blue broken stoker auger project. Not to mention that the 611 would take up valuable track space. It makes more sense to me for 611 to stay down in Spencer where her support crew tends to be based and she has a roof over her most of the year.

Hi
The N&W # 611 can be repaired by shops in Spencer, NC, or be repaired by the Norfolk Southern Railroad shops.
Yes, I do agree with the posts about moving the locomotive to Strasburg, but that would require, a lot of coal shoveling by the crew. And trying to keep the locomotive hot, by hand shoveling, is a complete another matter.
But the locomotive would still have a broken auger screw and still have to be repaired. All the coal has to be removed from the tender in order to get access to the screw.
For those of you, I am attaching what a Stoker screw and auger look like. This photo might not be the same type of stoker that is in the N&W 611 but will give you a basic idea of what it looks like.
Yes, it is a setback, but it can fixed.

Hand firing 611 to Strasburg wouldn't be that difficult given it will be towed by diesel anyway. As mentioned earlier you only have to get the coal inside the door and the jets can still do the distributing. All that aside, we have no idea what the repair strategy is. For whatever the reason they decided to stay in Spencer and cancel a weekend of runs. I'm sure they have a game plan and this is what made the most sense. The 611 crew is a who's who of mainline steam. They've put in a combined 10's of thousands of miles on 611 as some are from the old NS steam crew. I'm sure they know what they are doing and don't need any armchair quarterbacking.

Yeah, but the internet always thinks it knows best!

Is the auger on 1218 the same or something different? If its the same type perhaps they could pull it out and use it while 611's is repaired, replaced or fabricated. I thought 1218 might have a similar set up.

Ok did a little looking....1218 has a modified Standard BS type stoker and 611 has a Standard type HT. Unless the auger is the same for both types i guess they aren't interchangeable.

A question from the back of the classroom in Stoker 101.

How is the stoker powered? Steam, air, low voltage motor from the dynamo?

Thank you.

Wesley

Usually it's a horizontal inline 2-cylinder steam engine that turns a shaft which is geared to turn the auger.

If you look at the picture in Pay Fahey's submission above, the engine is on the left at the far end of the auger. The engine is usually under the cab on the fireman's side (on a Reading T-1 you can see the cylinder heads there; Pat's submission pretty much puts the stoker engine under the cab). PRR and N&W sometimes put the stoker engine in the tender.

Phil Mulligan