Re: Hated diamond stacks

Kelly Anderson Wrote:
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> guymonmd Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why were (and are) the diamond stacks that the
> > D&RGW put on the k-28's so hated?
>
> The best comparison I have heard is that the
> diamond stacks are equivalent to trying to back
> date a classic Mustang by hanging brass headlights
> and a brass radiator on it from a 1910 Model T.

They are part of history. You can't change history. Get over it....

If one a choice of a diamond stack K-28 or nothing at all - which was a definite possibility in the early 1960's, the choice would be obvious. They looked dorky, but they went to Silverton every day. That was the important point.

By accident, they were pretty efficient as spark arrestors. The screen was sealed around the diamond shroud, all the trapped cinders went down the outside of the original stack, collected on the top of the smokebox, then rolled down the side and out through small hole in the bottom of the diamond shroud.

Now, we STILL haven't figured out what the pipe did running up to 476's spark screen in the early 1960's. The detail shots show a pipe union in the line. My guess it was hooked into the boiler feed pipe near the boiler check and squirted water into the exhaust stream - like today's "halos" do.

476 seemed to be the guinea pig for such devices. Greg Scholl sent me some footage of the 1966 RMRRC trip to Silverton with an experimental exhaust splitter on 476's stack which deflected the exhaust to each side, like an SP locomotive assigned to Donner Pass. My understanding was it lasted one trip and that was the end of it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2018 10:07AM by Earl.