I have never seen a steam locomotive do this. It looks like most of the fire is going up the stack! I'd like to see what kind of coal they are burning. This is a coal train pulled by JS steam locomotive from BaErZhan to KengKouZhan in SanDaoLing, China, at night. There are a couple of pretty good slips in this, too.
You can see why coal burners are not very welcome out west, where things are often hot and dry!
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Well the cat's out of the bag now. That's the new Vision Line feature for 2015. An operating fire department set will also be offered. 
That's insane!
How about a spark arrestor?
Can't see the terrain, but 1 trip = 1 major forest / brush fire?
George
That's really something. Pretty scary! Wonder if they set any of their coal load on fire? Sure wouldn't want to be hauling a lumber or fireworks train with that thing! They definitely need the real version of the operating fire department set Notch 6 mentioned above.
Jeez, guess they're not too concerned about accidental fires in China. I can't see if they're around any sort of trees or brush in the video but the engineer may as well hang a flamethrower out his window...
Rich,
I understand that they are burning some sort of Lignite Coal, that obviously continues burning all the way thru the flues/tubes, into the smokebox and out the stack! Obviously nothing grows along THAT right of way!
Also sort of reminds me of that creepy locomotive on that one Stephen King book. Curious which one they Photoshopped for the cover.
I can't imagine how that locomotive steams well enough to keep moving, let alone haul a train.
The fireworks stop after the locomotive passes the camera. Could the fireman be feeding some powder (or wood chips or pulverized coal) into the firebox?
Sometimes a show like this is staged with a steam traction engine. Wheels are blocked so it can't move. One guy holds the smokebox door open at just the right angle for some draft. A fireman feeds straw or kindling into the firebox. Sparks roar skyward.
In the video, sparks fly through the tubes, exhaust nozzle and the stack while the locomotive is working hard. Surely there is the possibility of internal damage.
One strange parallel is staged in the movie Back to the Future III. To boost Sierra 4-6-0 No. 3 to 88 mph and push the time-traveling DeLorean into the future (present day), the "Prof" puts anthracite logs into the firebox. They "blow" at 3 different times and put on quite a show, bursting No. 3's stack. Even there, the spark show is nothing like this.
That is insane, like they are burning newspaper. Could be the coal is so small it's getting sucked through. I've seen ash embers come though like that, but nothing anywhere near that quantity.
Here is the same location in daylight. Obviously nothing there to catch fire.
Engineer had his hands full on this shove. Nice clean stack, though!
Nothing to equal that display, but back in the day we managed to see sparks shooting from IRM's Shay stack once or twice when perfoming evening switching.
Rusty
It really does look like they have added paper or wood to the fire. Since it wouldn't provide much caloric benefit, they could be doing it just to dispose of garbage they otherwise don't want to deal with. it's sort of the same concept as we did in 'Nam: I know some of our military bases mixed sewage with the diesel fuel they burned for power generation just to get rid of it - this is more spectacular to look at and probably doesn't have quite that unique smell . . .
Ah yes the need for a good spark arrestor... I wondered when I was a kid why early wood burning steam locomotives has balloon shaped stacks.
Then an update to technology with coal and better spark arrestors...
Can you image the poor sap that had to clean these out... I'm hacking just thinking about it...
I have never seen a steam locomotive do this. It looks like most of the fire is going up the stack! I'd like to see what kind of coal they are burning. This is a coal train pulled by JS steam locomotive from BaErZhan to KengKouZhan in SanDaoLing, China, at night. There are a couple of pretty good slips in this, too.
Good thing the wind didn't shift when the video was being taken. More than just the ground would have been hot!
I guess they really aren't concerned about the environment between the pollution in Beijing & these sparks flying.
"Houston, we have a problem". I cannot help but think that that is just one sick locomotive. Ignoring the stack, there was fire coming out of that beast way forward of the fire box.
Gilly
It really does look like they have added paper or wood to the fire. Since it wouldn't provide much caloric benefit, they could be doing it just to dispose of garbage they otherwise don't want to deal with.
Somehow, I can't believe those poor Firemen have the space nor the time to haul & burn paper/garbage while hand shoveling that Lignite crap into the firebox.
Can you image the poor sap that had to clean these out... I'm hacking just thinking about it...
Any locomotive smokebox will need to be cleaned out at some point. Where I work, we scoop the worst of the cinders out of the smokeboxes every morning the locomotive runs. We do a more thorough job with a vacuum when they come in for a boiler wash every month.
So yes, I can imagine the poor sap, because that guy would be me (along with all the other locomotive crews)
I'd like to see what kind of coal they are burning.
If it's anything like the coal I have seen engines in China burn when I was there, it's more dust than anything else. Very poor quality stuff.
Very cool video, by the way!
Kevin
It's funny, when you get down to discussing the actual dirty and labor-intensive realities of maintaining steam locomotives, you start to realize why diesels won that war pretty easily...
That's one IMPRESSIVE fireworks display, it's a real good thing there was nothing to catch on fire! I don't think efficient is a word that would come to mind watching that one!
It's funny, when you get down to discussing the actual dirty and labor-intensive realities of maintaining steam locomotives, you start to realize why diesels won that war pretty easily...
Dirty doesn't begin to describe it. I've had soot coat my arms through a long sleeve shirt.
Its the EXPRESS TRAIN TO ****!!!
For days, a ragged old man had hung around the Newark Central Station. The stationmaster kept running him off, but night after night he would return. He kept accosting people, shouting: "It's coming for me! It's coming!" Whenever anyone asked him what was coming for him, he would just clutch his head and cry: "I done wrong! I killed a man that cheated me at cards, and now I'm going to pay!"
The stationmaster finally took the man aside and threatened to call the police if he did not cease and desist. The old man rolled his eyes and replied: "The Express Train for **** is coming for my soul! You've got to help me." He broke away from the stationmaster and ran for the door. The time was two minutes to midnight. At that moment, new sound introduced itself. A long whistle blew, once, twice. The stationmaster was startled. The next train wasn't due until 12:05.
The old tramp started screaming when he heard the whistle. The stationmaster could hear the roar and chug of a steam train, approaching fast. Approaching too fast to stop at the station. The old man was standing at the edge of the platform, staring down the tracks in frozen terror. The stationmaster ran forward and grabbed hold of the old tramp to pull him out of harm's way.
The train whistle sounded again. A warm rush of air blew against everyone near the platform and the stationmaster heard the roar of an invisible train passing directly in front of him. He heard the hiss of the steam and the screech of flanges against iron rails; he felt the wind whipping our hair and faces, but he saw nothing.
Beneath his grip, the old tramp gave a terrible wail. Then he vanished, leaving the stationmaster empty-handed. The roar of the invisible train faded into the distance and then ceased. The stationmaster glanced at the station clock. It was midnight.
The stationmaster stared blankly at the tracks. Around him, the waiting passengers and other bystanders were gasping and murmuring in fright. "Good lord, he was right," the stationmaster murmured to himself. "It did come for him." He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his sweating, bald head with it.
A trembling man standing nearby approached the stationmaster: "Sir, what was that?" he asked. "Son, I believe that was the Express Train to ****," said the stationmaster. He shook his head and that seemed to bring him to his senses. "Why don't you go back into the station and pour yourself a drink?" he suggested to the trembling man.
He pushed the man through the station door and then turned to address the dazed and frightened passengers. "Nothing to worry about folks," he said. "It was just an express train passing through. The next train will be here in five minutes." The stationmaster's reassuring manner calmed everyone. People turned away from the empty tracks and settled back into their seats, whispering to each other about the strange events that had just taken place.
Then the stationmaster went into his office, closed the door, and poured himself a stiff drink to calm his nerves. "Well, that's one for the books," he muttered aloud. "I wonder if I should put it on the schedule; 12 am-Express Train to ****."
Shaking his head, he fortified himself with one more brandy and then went back to work
What a display...wow!
Now THAT is something.
Looks like he's burning some old left over rice, they got a good deal on.
Jack
That drop coupler pilot on the Stephen King book looks like a Pennsy K4 or T1 to me, but the rest of the loco looks vaguely Santa Fe!
I have heard descriptions of wood burning locos in South America putting on displays like this. Just my uneducated guess, but could the low grade coal burn so slowly that it doesn't have time to completely combust? Pity the fireman trying to keep up steam with that crud.
Back in the 60's, I visited a lignite coal operation in Saskatchewan that used an old CPR 0-8-0. They had to treat the stuff with oil to make it burn! What's more, so many leaky flues were plugged they had to stop every couple of miles to build up steam.
In the book Steel Rails to the Sunrise (Ron Zeil and George Forster) its mentioned how a fireman who worked on Camelbacks dumped a pail of woodchips into the firebox of his locomotive in revenge against the passengers at one station who got mad at him for making too much smoke the day before.
Stuart
They might have been running low on coal and substituted something else to help fill the fire box. Here's what a mix of straw and sawdust looks like. You guys need to go to some of the steam threshing shows in the Midwest.
Kent in SD
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