Re: 488’s First Revenue Trip of 2022

When I look at the photos of K36 and other locomotive's smokebox internals, I can't help but wonder if there isn't a considerable amount of drafting capability just left on the table. The exhaust nozzle and base of stack are merely a steam-air ejector pump where a jet of steam entrains the hot smokebox gasses to pull a draft.

In the 1950s and 1960s, NACA/NASA funded a lot of research into studying the design and performance of ejector pumps - largely for thrust augmentation and noise reduction on jet engines (in aviation, we also use them as fuel transfer and circulation pumps). However, all of that research and knowledge is directly applicable to any other ejector design...and all of it was gained after anyone cared to put calories towards steam locomotive development and optimization.

My own experience with designing ejectors for aircraft systems leads me to think that some tweaks and changes to the current setup in the K36s may yield noticeably better drafting. But maybe I'm naive and am missing something. Or maybe it's not needed or value added. Anyhow, just the curious musings of an engineer in a different industry.