Wikapedia states the Niagra Class locomotives of the New York Central were retired as their "firebox wrappers" failed. Are they talking about sheets and stays? I am unfamiliar with this failure.
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Tommy posted:Wikapedia states the Niagra Class locomotives of the New York Central were retired as their "firebox wrappers" failed. Are they talking about sheets and stays? I am unfamiliar with this failure.
In my experience, I've always heard that the "Wrapper Sheet" was the outside boiler shell, which was much thicker steel than the firebox side, crown, and throat sheets.
Thanx.
The Niagaras were affected by transcrystalline cracking of the boiler shells caused by the use of silicon-carbon steel during initial construction. Apparently some and possibly all Niagaras had their boiler shells replaced by welded carbon steel during the early 1950s to address this problem. There is some discussion of this on page 17 of the linked article from the New York Central Historical Society magazine.
https://nycshs.files.wordpress...he-niagara-story.pdf
Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY
A truly excellent reference, Scott. I enjoyed reading it. Thanx.
Along the same lines of the boiler wrappers (shells) cracking on the NYC, there was a movement toward "lighter weight" boilers using nickel steel. However, that didn't pan out well, and one railroad, the Santa Fe, had such cracking problems with the nickel steel boilers that they ordered new all welded, carbon steel, boilers from Baldwin. Surprisingly at the end of steam, some of those totally new boilers had not yet been used/installed, and went to scrap when the diesels came.
