Re: Uintah 50

One has to wonder why the URY 51 was built with the original boiler design, and had to be modified by the URY after delivery. The flaws in the boiler's crownsheet/steamdome location must have become obvious quite soon after delivery (like on the first trip over Baxter Pass!). One would have thought BLW would have taken care of the problem before the 51 was built a couple years later.
BTW there are other engines around that share the same problems of a high crownsheet and a far-ahead steam dome. 463 has this anomally. It can be worked heading upgrade with the water way out the top of the sightglass without it pulling through the throttle, but when heading downgrade the water has to be less than 1/3 a glass or it will come out the whistle.
El Coke and I had the displeasure of backing the 463 up the 4% from Dalton to Cumbres to rescue an ailing 487 at Osier last July. If the water showed more than 1/4 of a glass, 463 would suck it up through the throttle - and that was with a light engine. If we had a train behind us, I'd have had to keep it right in the bottom the glass, a somewhat nervous situation.
497, although it doesn't have a high crownsheet, has a rather far ahead steam dome. Backing it up the hill with a work train once required the water to be about 1/2" from the bottom.
I once asked Jim Pearce (former DRGW road foreman who fired on the Monarch Switchback) where the water was in the glass when backing up the switchback. He smiled and said "nowhere that I could see"...... hmm.