From SPCRR - Railroad Museum at Ardenwood
Fremont, California

Very Exciting News…Historic narrow gauge steam locomotive Argent #5 arrived this weekend at its new home at Ardenwood Historic Farm! This 26-ton, 2-6-2 (Prairie) steam locomotive was built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1910 for the Williamson & Brown Land and Lumber Company. It was sold in 1916 to the Argent Lumber Company Railroad, Hardeville, South Carolina where it operated until 1956. Since 2013 the locomotive has been on loan to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum. The locomotive has now been purchased by two individuals and they have leased Argent #5 to SPCRR where it will eventually be operated at Ardenwood.Argent #5 is already close to being operational, but several tasks need to be done first. We need to convert it from burning wood to using oil (burning wood is a fire danger especially since our track runs through a eucalyptus grove); it needs a new tender, and the boiler needs to have lagging and a jacket installed. We expect this work to take about 1-2 years.You can see the locomotive later this year at SPCRR’s annual Rail Fair over the Labor Day weekend, September 3-5, 2022. More information on Rail Fair and how to purchase advanced tickets will be posted on our Facebook page and on our website http://www.spcrr.org.

I’m glad to see this one is going to run again. A narrow gauge Lima rod engine must be a pretty rare beast.

Argent Lumber was an interesting operation; they logged the swamps adjacent to the Savannah River. Every one of the 7 steam locomotives on its property when it closed in 1960 (?) has been preserved.

One crazy factoid about their steam: NONE of the locomotives had a sight glass, they relied solely on the triple cocks to maintain the boiler water level. Yikes.

No sight glasses? I take it that because of where the lumber company was and the regulations covering it didn't require it?

Dylan-if the lack of sight glasses sounds iffy, consider the location/era:
1. Backwoods location ("exceptionally well-hidden", in the words of one person);
2. Narrow gauge;
3. Logging operation;
4. Circa 1950s.

Argent was not a common carrier, and thus not under the jurisdiction of the ICC, who enforced the Safety Appliance Act and the Locomotive Inspection Act in those heady pre-FRA days.

I did a quick scan of the book : “Argent Lumber: the Last of the Swamp Rats” this morning. The railroad and sawmill were closed in 1956 when the minimum wage was raised to $1 an hour (about $10.63 an hour in 2022 dollars). The owners determined the operation couldn’t turn a profit paying those wages. Nearly 400 people were out of work as a result.

Which would have put it under the jurisdiction of state boiler code, IF South Carolina even had a boiler code in those days.

Look at it this way... if one of those less-than-one-dollar-an-hour employees were to break the water glass, they would have to dock his pay for a loooong time to pay for it.

So how would you monitor water level? Seems like looking for the crown sheet to start buckling before you put water in could be considered a tad bit counterproductive. I assume they had valves to open, if remembered, to check the level? Uh oh - boom.

Argent # 5 did have a sight glass when it ran at the Northern Queen Hotel in Nevada City (after it's boiler was repaired); so at some point one was put back on it. I doubt Lima would have built it without one. Farrell's book mentions that Argent 2-6-0 # 6 blew up in the 1950's, probably due to the lack of one. So much for the good old days being so good, at least in some places ! Yikes !

Be assurred that it will have a sight glass at Ardenwood along with any and all other safety devices needed for safe operation of a pressure vessel and locomotive.

As I mentioned, they would have used the three valves mounted on the backhead known as triple cocks. On most boilers, they serve as sort of a last resort/emergency method of reading the water level. They’re notoriously difficult to use accurately, as the difference in water or steam blowing out is not so easy to discern. Unlike a sight glass, they can only be used intermittently, so you don’t have a continuous indication of water level.

Historically, the cog locomotives on the Manitou and Pikes Peak Ry. in Colorado were not equipped with any water glasses. Various gauge cocks on both sides and the backhead were used by both the engineer and fireman to determine water level. And this was on very steep grades!

It was common practice to have both sight glasses and try cocks fitted to the backhead. If the there was a failure of the sightglass, you could keep track of your water level until you got someplace where it could be taken care of

You crack open your try cocks one at a time to determine your starting water level. Under steam is is extremely easy to tell the difference between the higher pitched, dry hiss of only steam and the lower pitched slobbery gurgle of the water. A trained ear can pick it up in a matter of seconds even with the rest of the noise in a cab. As a fireman instructor it has been my experience that it normally takes from 30 seconds to 3 minutes to turn an untrained ear into a trained ear.

Your bottom try cock is supposed to be at the same level as the bottom of your water glass and according to 49CFR Part 230 that is a minimum of 3 inches above the highest point of your crown sheet (water side of the crown and on level track).

If you wanted to run with what would correspond to a half glass of water you'd barely open the gauge cock that corresponds to that level and keep feeding water in at least until you get water there. I would then leave that valve open and if it came to steam then add more water. I would also be occasionally checking the gauge cock above it to make sure I'm not getting too much in the boiler.

I've seen some very old texts that admonish the crew to "keep at least 2 gauges of water" which would mean water at the bottom two try cocks. My understanding is this was because the gauge cocks were developed before the gauge glass.

The FRA also expects the gauge cocks to be as functional as the gauge glasses as noted here in 49CFR 230.54:



As an added bit of fun, most but not all boilers have 3 gauge cocks so the term tri-cock is not really accurate. Search both terms sometime...........mld

Also, gauge or “tri” cocks are no longer required now that 2 water glasses are.

It is true that try cocks are not required but if they exist they must work, the lowest reading shall not be less than 3 inches above the highest part of the crown sheet and must be tested each day the locomotive is used.

I'll let you argue with the FRA inspector for your jurisdiction as to whether or not they should be on the boiler. Besides, I was merely answering the man's question as to how one would monitor water level with try cocks............mld