Re: Steam Dome Location

It all comes down to design preferences and boiler theory at any given time in the history of Steam Locomotives.

The early Wagon Top Boilers had the steam dome over the Crown Sheet to collect the hotest steam possible and to a lesser extent dryer steam from a saturated boiler.

The down side to having the dome in that position was that for both Crown Bar and Raidally Stayed Boilers , you had to have some of the braceing goin up into the dome which made getting into the boiler a real lesson in contortionism.

When Super Heat comes into play , the dome can be pretty much anywhere you want it since the wet steam is going to be dried out by the heater elements. In addition to that , by having the dome forward it gave you a uniform length to the stays all the way around the firebox.