Erratic Water level and Foaming Boiler Water

Boiler water was treated, back in the steam days. In fact, virtually ever railroad had a department called Water Service Dept., which was part of the Mechanical Dept.. The Water Service employees were responsible for maintaining the various chemical treatment levels at all water supply locations, especially those PRR, B&O, and NYC track pans. 

 

On branch line operations, there was usually a 100lb bag of "Nalco Balls" up on the tender, behind the coal slope sheet. Whenever water was taken on, the Fireman threw a few "Nalco Balls" into the water in the tender. Experience and written procedures told Engine Crew how many "Nalco Balls" to throw in depending on the location on that branch line.

What "info" are you referring to?

Everywhere we go with the 765, one of the first things we do is test the water. Since we are always moving around to different sources of water, the chemicals we use are not always the same. The amount of each chemical used depends on what the water analysis reveals.

 

The chemicals used are a real "witches brew" of stuff, all dangerous to handle. We have to control the "ph" of the water, use an anti-scaling chemical (keeps the solids in suspension), oxygen scavengers (prevents oxygen pitting of the steel) and an anti-foaming agent.

 

"Foaming" is a very rare occurrence and is very dangerous. I cannot recall that we have ever had a foaming incident with the 765.

 

What is much more common is what is known as "priming" or "carrying water." This is a situation where water is carried into the dry pipe and the engine begins to "work water." If it is really bad, even the whistle will pull water, rendering it mute or at the very least, sounding awful! Backing off the throttle a little and opening the cylinder cocks will usually stop this, however it is an indication that the TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water are too high.

 

We take water samples from the boiler several times during the day, to keep an eye on the TDS levels. In order to keep the TDS down, the boiler has to be blown down often, especially if the water analysis reveals that the TDS is rising as the day moves on. Blowing down the boiler is the action of opening a valve positioned very low in the water legs of the boiler. The blast of escaping water carries with it the sediment that has accumulated at the bottom of the water legs around the firebox. This must be done often or you end up with a boiler that is plugged with scale and mud, like the recent photos of the 844's boiler revealed. All that scale and mud reduces the heat transfer capabilities of the boiler, rendering it very inefficient and potentially dangerous.

 

Water management in the field is a critically important part of operating a steam locomotive.

I beg to differ.
Most every time I've been around the 765 when it was hot, there were lots foaming foamers and rivet counters hanging around.

smd4 the prewar loco info I referred to, was some personal paper work that we found at my home, in family long ago packed stuff that my stepfather had made back in what I can tell from water stained paper work, was 1937. He was a fireman on the Southern Railway from D.C. thru North Carolina, and got his engineers license on the 1401 that in the Smith. He was quite a note maker, lots and lots of notes, firing, as well as running notes. he would have had a ball with a computer! Well maybe not!

I know there are many,many stories the steam engine guys can tell, good as well as some, not so good. Thank you guys for adding to the post, and answering some questions. Thus sharing your vast experiences with us again.

 

Hot Water, we used "Nalco Balls" at the Louisville Refinery where I learned Water tube boiler firing, back in 1969. In the 70's along came the "Snake Oil Peddlers" thus taking the chemical business to a who new level. We went from a scoop of this, that or the other, mixing it up in a chemical injection tank with hot BFW as the diluent. Then it migrated to continuous analyzers, Total dissolved solids on stream analyzer, O2 sensors, and a myriad of other things used to make steam efficiently, while protecting the equipment....................................brandy!

P.S. Hot, how do you acquire "Nalco Balls", do you trap them, or hunt em with dogs!.....................Ha,Ha,Ha

 

Actually it is no different than "shooting golf".   It is a real pain to clean them, however.

Actually, I remember hearing about an incident that was described as "foaming". It involved a Reading T-1 on a fan trip in the 1980's, if memory serves. It seems the trip organizers had arranged for a local fire department to fill the tender for the trip home, which they did. Unfortunately, what the crew did NOT know, was that the fire department used a surfactant  (think soap) in the water, which helps the pump maintain its gpm rating for getting water on the fire. The soap got into the boiler where it did exactly what it was supposed to do: Make bubbles- lots of bubbles. The T-1 turned into a very hot, slow rolling bubble bath, as the crew could not get dry steam to the pistons. The train came to a halt, and diesels were eventually called. It was many hours and well after midnight (more like 4:00AM) before the train finally returned to the starting point. Needless to say, the passengers were more than a little put out. And Conrail was not happy either! Everyone learned a valuable lesson that day: Friendly fire departments and steam locomotives do not always work well together!

 

Chris

LVHR

Rich, does the FWRHS send someone out to get water supply samples BEFORE an excursion to be prepared ahead of time, or is the water simply tested when its put in the tender?

NALCO, or the National Aluminate Company is still a water treatment company that supplies chemicals for the industrial trade.

Art Young, 1st Grade Stationary Engineer

That trip where 2102 got bad  water was a Reading to Jim Thorpe excursion via Allentown. She got that load of water in Jim Thorpe. That was just the capper on an absolutely atrocious day.

We take a sample from the hydrant just before we put it in the tender. We can determine how many gallons of which chemicals to put into the tender based upon the water analysis and how many gallons of water we are going to take at that stop. We have not found it necessary to get a sample of the water in advance.

 

However, we are going to a couple of places next year that have given other steam locomotive operators a few water-related problems, so I may gather some samples when I go to those locations to do the advance work next year.