feedwater heaters

[LEW]

The Question asked by fitz.
Which NYC engines were equipped with injectors and feedwater heaters
It seems all had feedwater heaters
of some brand or other. Did any have
two injectors besides the feedwater
heaters?

I am going to start out explaining
two things for those that may not be
familiar with locomotives.
We have superheaters,and feedwater
heaters.
Superheaters were u shaped steam
pipes that run back into the big
or, upper flues to heat the steam
above the temperature it was coming
from in the boiler.This made a hotter and drier steam into the cylinders.
Feedwater heaters were used to heat
the water between the tank and the
boiler.
To answer the first question.Most
H-5 did not have feedwater heaters.
The H-5v made for the IHB did but
some were given to the B4 and they were taken off.
The H-7 was not equipped until about the # 1989.It was still a hit
and miss on which engines had them
above this number until the H-10.
Also the H-6,we called them government engines, were not equipped.From the H-10 on up they
had feedwater heaters.A few yard
engines were equipped but most were
not.
Did any have two injectors besides
the feedwater heaters? No.
The government required two methods
to supply the boiler.Two injectors,
or a water pump and injector.They
must both be working leaving the
enginehouse.We had a 1hr.delay on
a yard engine because of a leaking
boiler check valve.The check valve
was letting steam blow back into the
injector and it would not work.The
engineer would not leave until it
was repaired.After they fussed for
45 min. it only took 10 min. to grind in the boiler check valve.
If you are viewing from the firemans side you will see a water
pump and not an injector when the
engine has a feedwater heater.An
injector would not supply enough
water to supply the demand of a seperate feedwater heater.
That said,they did have an Elesco
exhaust steam injector and it was
a feedwater heater and again I don't
think it was as efficient.I never
operated one so this is a little
guess work.
On the engineers side was the injector.Most were non lifting but
not all.Non lifting was below the
water in the tank and the lifting
was above the water level in the
tank,the lifting injector located on the
boiler, inside or outside the cab.
So all engines from about 1906
were superheated, but not all had
feedwater heaters. LEW

[fitz]

Lew thanks for that information and answers to my question. smile.gif

[LEW]

My son told me today that he saw a model of an H-6 189? that was equipped with a feedwater heater.
There were pictures of the real life
engine equipped and one after it was removed.I don't have any other details.We do know they were not equipped when built.NYC must have
been testing. LEW

[fitz]

LEW, It seems like NYC was always testing something. Do you have experience/opinions about the relative merits of the different feedwater heaters? Seems like the Hudsons had Elesco to begin with, then Worthington, and maybe even Coffin at times. I remember learning some had contact with steam directly where others were physically isolated water from steam. I forgot the terms used for those two variants. :confused:

[LEW]

From the firemans point of view the
feedwater heaters merits did not
play a part of his work.His cocern
was could the pump supply the boiler
All of the different types of feed-
water heater pumps did this except
one and under one condition.
The 2900s had the Elesco feedwater
heater with the reciprocating pump.
If you were having trouble keeping
steam,as the steam pressure dropped
the steam pressure to the pump also
dropped.If the engineer could not
ease up on the throttle it then turned into a case of trading water
for steam.If your fire defect could
be corrected by trading water for
steam a couple of times,ok but if the steam did not pick up after that
could get in serious trouble.These
engines used more water than the
other 4-8-2s.
I personally think the Worthington
had the best pump.
I think the terms you are thinking of are open and closed.
With the Elesco the water run through tubes and the exhaust steam
flowed around them.On the Worthing-
ton which is open it is like a com-
mode tank.As the water supply goes
down the float drops and lets exhaust steam and water fill the
tank again to the proper level. The
steam heating the water as it comes
in. LEW

[fitz]

Open vs. Closed. Thanks for reminding me. That situation of having to choose water vs. steam is one I hadn't thought about much. Kind of like a catch-22? I think I'd rather sacrifice the fire than risk letting the crown sheet get dry. smile.gif

[Hytec]

LEW, Thanks very much for that explanation of feedwater heaters and injectors. I had never understood their mechanics before.

[Johnny Trains]

Feedwater heaters were added later on to Berks weren't they?

[LEW]

The Berks came from the factory
with feedwater heaters.These engines
were a part of the super power locos
that came from the 2-8-2 H-10.The
early Berks had Elesco feedwater
heaters and I think from the C series they were equipped with Coffin feedwater heaters. LEW

[fitz]

Yeah, who could mistake that Elesco heater tank on the smokebox front of the 1400 Berkshires. Often referred to as "heavy-browed." From what I was able to learn, you are right, LEW, the A-1C's had Coffin, as did the last 9400's for P&LE. Too bad they're all gone. :(