Re: Steam Locomotive cinders - Containment vs Blow Out

In the case of 315, the Master Mechanic system does not seem to work very well, if at all. This is good for passengers, as 315 does not blast out cinders like other engines. However after every of 64 miles on the C&TS (sometimes after a 128 mile roundtrip), the smoke box has a couple of wheelbarrow loads of cinders in it, and the lower flues are plugged with cinders. So this requires frequent opening of the smoke box and fairly awkward cinder removal because the steam pipes block easy access to the area between the pipes and the lower set of flues. It would be interesting to know how the Rio Grande handled this situation : Option 1 --- let the cinders build up until a steady-state load is reached and live with it, or Option 2---clean out the smoke box frequently. Unfortunately the smoke box door is designed for infrequent use. Where European smoke box doors had a simple central closure, no gasket, and a few swing-away dogs, 315 has a delicate rope gasket and lots of dogs that are secured by studs and nuts. Caution is needed to secure the door as it is a casting and could be cracked by uneven torqueing of the nuts securing the dogs. So far
315 has had plenty of volunteer labor available and frequent cleanout is the option of choice. The main problem has been plugged flues that surely have some effect on steaming, and that have to be rodded out when the engine is cold.

Here, for comparison, is the simple door mechanism on one of the 2ft 6in gauge Baldwin 2-6-2Ts on the Puffing Billy RR near Melbourne, Australia.

Opening the door over the ash pit



Raking the ash out of the smoke box on to an apron



Closing the door after cleanout. One lever orients the locking bar for positioning in the central closure. The other lever tightens the smoke box door after the locking bar is in position





The whole operation only took a few minutes, the only thing left to do is give the headlight a bit of a cleanup before heading back to the return train