Re: Real boiler pressure and its impact on t.e. and operations

Real world stats:

A 480 pops at 195. I kept it at 190 all the way up the hill. With practice and diligence, you can keep it with in 3 lbs. of that all the way up the hill. That requires firing 2-3 scoops at a time on a regular basis. If you want to be a bit lazier and do 5 scoops at a time you can keep it within a 5 lbs.

The injector is run constantly. The great thing about those Hancock non-lifting Inspirators is that you can cut them back to a trickle. Going up Cumbres you start out with the gun cut back about halfway, by the time you are much beyond Lobato, the injector is wide open and keeps the water up all the way to the top.

There are very few sags the hill that effect the firing rate. Lobato, State Line Curves, and Coxo are about it. After going around Windy Point, you put one last good fire in her, get the deck hose out and clean up the cab. Coming up to the water plug, the steam is starting drop. When stopped, you are down to 185 or so.

With a full tonnage train, dropping back to 185 makes a quite noticeable difference in power. If you lose ground to 175, you are in trouble. It is very hard to get back up to full pressure, the boiler is creating it's maximum output to simply maintain status quo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2017 12:10PM by Earl.