[Margaret (SP fan)
Give me nice clouds of white water vapor on a cool day, or just a slight brownish haze above the stack - the SP's requirement for a properly-fired steam locomotive![/quote]

Like this?

The train at Grefsen station in Norway the 23 oktober 2004

30a 271 and 63a 2770 after the trip.


And.. its Herons steam ball - not Hero.

regards Ragnar, Norway

According to my copy of Babcock and Wilcox's massive book Steam - It's Generation and Use, it's Hero of Alexandria. See also the web pages below:

http://www.nmt.edu/~fridgfxr/old1.htm
http://home.mesh.net/warlocke/rant/attitude.htm
http://www.chatabouthistory.com/Possibl ... 473-a.html

However, according to the following, both are acceptable spelling:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PDF/0310039.pdf
http://www.mathwright.com/library2/heronx1.html
http://asweknowit.ca/evcult/Tech/FIGURES.shtml

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

Yes - you are absolutely right. I read through the WWW-places you mentioned and to me it seems to be a language thing. In a norwegian encycleopedia from a to z (a to Ã…) I found only Heron to be the person with the steamball ( that strange name of the steamball also referred to) - living about 250 after year 0. A check on the word Hero (in the same books) says that Hero was a greek goodess in greek mytholigie. In daily speaking a hero is somthing different - eh? More typical somone saving another persons life is said to be a hero? So I agree that what you found in your books and www.s must point to the same person.

But back to the issue about black smoke: over here I do my very best in teaching the new firemen to fire without black smoke, no safety popvalves blowing of - and so on. Teaching them can be a challenge itself cince the railroad we run trains on are a bit special: first part of 30 Km ( about 18 miles) ar to be called flat - it lifts from sealevel to about 70 meters. The next 34 km ( 21,5 miles) up to the last station lifts 20 meter pr 1 km. That means the fireman has some work to do for about 40 minutes whith nearly continuesly feeding the fire with four and four scoops of coal and regulate the injectors so the boiler get the right amount of water. This type of handfiring whithout smoke is a real sport - sadly enough it isnt on the olymics list of sports!

Stokers are for....! ( o - you know the word for those?)

Best regards from Ragnar ( do you want more picturelinks? There isnt much comments to any european steampictures so it may not bee of any interest?)

Yes Ragner, that's right. "Hero", as used in ordinary English, is different from Hero of Alexandria, the inventor of the steam ball.

My hat is off to you for your mastery of English!



I for one am enjoying your pictures very much, and welcome more. I have some European steam news to share as well; I just need to pull my details together.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

Yes, "RaA" - YES! :)
(Now if the weather just cooperates....
if it does not, just do without the black
smoke.)

Forgot one thing (edited to add this):
I think one big reason people in the past really
wanted a steam locomotive to smoke it up was
because a plume of black smoke showed that the
train was moving. This was back when taking moving
pictures was much too expensive for the average person
to afford - 40 0r 50 years ago, or more.

"Onder" is right:

"Remember the plaques on some steamers that said
"Make no black smoke". Remember that O Winston Link
was told pix with black smoke did not portray the railroad
in a positive way. By the later 1930's, municipalities would
fine railroads for smoke. I think the images we see of
factories belching smoke are really a 19th C rather than
a 20th C image. Today, I'm afraid black smoke is
unacceptable. Lots of fellows like it when an Alco spools up
but it is the same problem. Bad engineering and bad publicity
for the historical train movement."

Margaret (SP fan)

IGNORANT and RAILFANS; two more words which, when coupled together, we do not need to see on RyPN. I would hope that comments like this are deleted from what otherwise is a very interesting thread.

Les

Pictures do not make the railroads run, properly working equipment and enough coal makes the trains go around. Excess smoke is, as mentioned, fuel wasted, makes firing harder with all the clinkers and does not gain anything. Over firing usually causes the safety to lift, another waste of steam which is a waste of money and the mark of a careless fireman.