Erich,

One additional question, good looking end fittings on the superheaters!

Are they steel castings?……curious how they are made.

Thanks.

Randy

That's certainly an impressive and varied list of completed projects. I'm sure that all customers will be pleased.

Just an inquiry from my end, would you be able to say just how the Pacific Lbr. 2-8-2T number 37 is doing? I know that it is on a time available basis, but I have an interest in her. Thank you.

Randy,

The sides of the siphons are 3/8" SA 285 C steel plate as designed and will have stays laid out and installed by the customer at a later time.

The return bends are an investment casting. These bends were supplied by the customer and were sourced in Europe. These units are for a Chinese SY locomotive and as built were made in metric sizes slightly smaller than the typical 1.5" diameter of most US type A units, thus the need to source overseas. We offer similar style return bends for both type A and type E units made using the same investment casting methods and of ASME code certified material.

Tom,

Thank you for your compliment.

On your question:

She remains dormant and in storage for now, but certainly not forgotten about. There is the possibility that work may start up on her again in the foreseeable future given some current discussions; we'll see. Stay tuned.

Erich Armpriester
Strasburg Rail Road Mechanical Services

Brendan,

Thank you for the explanations.

Sincerely,

Randy

Thanks Erich, for the answer regarding the Alco 2-8-2T.

She was the last of 4 built for the Sugar Pine Lbr. Co. and
was given slightly greater water and/or oil capacity. Because
of this, she gained more weight on the drivers and should have
been a better puller than her sisters.

As always, some real nice work. Always enjoy taking a tour of the shops when I have the opportunity to visit your RR. Thanks for taking the time to provide a virtual tour.

Were these thermic syphons fabricated based on original B&M and/or Lima blueprints or were they reverse engineered from the original firebox and syphons that were pulled out of 3713 what, 15 years ago? How do these thermic syphons differ in construction and/or design from the first set of replacement syphons?

Scranton Yard,

On your questions:

We created a 3D CAD model of the firebox when constructing the new interior firebox for this engine a few years ago. Combining the measurements on this drawing with dimensions from original syphon blueprints, we were able to construct new syphons that met original overall form and cross section, but would also mate properly with the new firebox.

We obtained measurements of the original syphons from the customer, and also had the original syphons on our shop floor for reference, to ensure nothing was overlooked.

I cannot speak to the first set of replacement syphons as anything to do with them was outside our scope of work.

-Erich Armpriester
Strasburg Rail Road Mechanical Services

Erich Armpriester - Thank you for the prompt reply and for getting to the root of my question. I appreciate your confirmation that the new syphons had been modified to accommodate the new interior firebox SRR had constructed, which in my memory was necessarily different from the pre-restoration firebox that had been reworked in the first several years of this project. Was the syphon fabrication process used here by SRR similar to how they would have been fabricated originally by Lima?

Scranton Yard,

My understanding is that the original method of syphon manufacture was suited to high production, stamping or forming the syphon out of one or two very large pieces of steel, requiring lots of specialized tooling and machinery. As such, we devised our own method of manufacture that would work with the machinery we have available in our shop.

This whole concept is analogous to flanged firebox sheets being stamped out by the hundreds on four-post presses with specialized dies years ago, versus today's preservation world where these sheets are carefully hot flanged with handheld tools, given the one or two sheets of a particular type that are needed at any one time.

-Erich Armpriester
Strasburg Rail Road Mechanical Services

Syphons were not typically made by the builders in house, but purchased from The Locomotive Firebox Company, who in turn subcontracted out their manufacture to fabrication shops. The patent file shows a method to fabricate syphons in 1945.

It's filed in 1945. And the patent was approved in 1949. A better way to make better buggy whips! Wonder how many syphons were made after 1950?

Howard P.

Mike - Thanks for posting this Thermic Siphon patent and for the background regarding how they were sourced by the steam loco builders.