Re: Pop a Top Again

When I worked for a well known steam RR back east, an engine whose original Ashcroft safety valve wore out. The rest of the RR's power had modern Kunkle valves which were OK, but were erratic in the amount of pressure they would blow down. Sometimes they would drop 5lbs, sometimes 15lbs. You never knew what you would get. The engineer assigned to said engine threw a fit when the shop came out with a new Kunkle valve for his engine. He insisted something else be installed. So, they spent sizable coin to have Strasburg supply them with one of their nice replicas of a Consolidated Safety Valve.

A year or so later, I show up, and get told by the some engineer that we needed to rebuild or replace the new safety valve because it leaked all the time. I shipped it off to the 'Burg who returned it with the note that they could not understand how the seats were so worn after such a short term of service. After installing the valve, firing the engine up, setting the valve "just right". I found out why. First off the blowdown ring was set to drop the pressure only a couple of pounds. Secondly it was their practice to keep the engines fired up sitting at maximum pressure all the time (it was "better for the boiler"). One afternoon in my office I listened to this engine pop off 15 times in one hour. When inquiring about this, I was told it standard procedure. I could only shake my head and walk away.

The same operation trained their fireman to keep the stack black and the pops roaring way. When asked why they wasted so much effort, my fireman said "that's how we were trained...."

"Well we need to fix that. Today, I want full steam pressure, lots of water, and don't pop it off". He scowled at me. Backing down to the depot to load the first thing he did was put about 10 scoops of coal in for the downhill drift. "What are you doing? We are going to be on spot for 30 minutes..." He stared at me with an evil look. Yes we sat there right in front of the station with the engine popping off every 5 minutes, the public was not pleased. I gave him equally evil stares.

It was pointless. Nobody really knew the fine art of firing to keep the engine against the pops without lifting them. Who knows how much water fuel was and is still wasted there. When I went to the upstairs bosses about doing something about it, I was told not to worry about it. It would just make them mad. If they got mad they would burn the place down.

Once again I could only shake my head and walk away.