Steam chest pressure.

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David Powell
Posts: 523
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 10:38 pm
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada.

Re: Steam chest pressure.

Post by David Powell »

Unfortunately we had FAR too much fun to bother being" Scientific"!!! A neighbour who builds go carts and E bikes joined Eric and myself this morning and we took turns driving and being the load in the semi trailer. Once off my driveway we ran in top gear all the time, adding the semi trailer seemed to make little difference to the performance, the steam chest pressure gauge reaching a steady 40 lbs going up an estimated 1 in 20 grade from 20 lbs with tractor unit only and a slightly louder exhaust note were the only differences. maximum speed seems to be about 8 mph, but that is only an estimate from those running ( Briefly !) behind.
I have another fellow coming tomorrow and we will steam up again, perhaps we will get " Scientific".
Regards David Powell.
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johnpenn74
Posts: 404
Joined: Tue May 04, 2010 12:54 pm
Location: Waiting for next assignment!

Re: Steam chest pressure.

Post by johnpenn74 »

When I ran Locomotives in Poland we had a Boiler Pressure Gauge and a Chest Gauge. We typically ran at .5mpa (about 70 or so lbs). Boiler was 1.5 mpa (217 lbs). What I did notice is having the chest gauge you see every subtle change in grade or speed. As the loco goes faster you cycle the cylinders faster and the chest pressure falls off. So you rachet up the reverser. The engineers seemed to be hung up on always running at the same Chest pressure and adjusting the reverser to get the right speed. A little odd since we tend to jockey the throttle more in US practice. I suspect its more efficient , but it gave me the feel of tring to drive a car in 5th gear with out touching the throttle.
Attachments
Boiler Pressure
Boiler Pressure
Chest Pressure Gauge , note mark
Chest Pressure Gauge , note mark
John Pennington

Logging meets that actually move logs

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Allen 4-4-0 Narrow Gauge Conversion
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USRA 0-6-0
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N&W 4-8-2
ICM 2-10-2
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David Powell
Posts: 523
Joined: Thu Mar 13, 2003 10:38 pm
Location: Pickering Ontario Canada.

Re: Steam chest pressure.

Post by David Powell »

Watching the steam gauges, especially the steam chest pressure one, driving the wagon, steering, watching water level and being the fireman really requires a two man crew, Theres only room for one on the drivers seat of the model, Add in trying to point the laser thermometer at the appropriate superheater headers and , to anyone watching from a distance I must look as if I have been overcome by some major nervous twitching disease!!!!
Improved performance has been followed by some transmission failures, now hopefully all cured, and I hope soon to get my reliable helper here and get you some more definitive figures. Just saying it goes better and more efficiently( Or less inefficiently) does not help deciding what further improvements are needed or possible.
Regards to all David Powell.
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