firebox
- Thread starter jim currie
- Start date
Neat! Water flows throught the tubes and is boiled into steam? I have all the RMC "Basics of Steam" series and should read it so as not to ask silly questions (I didn't say stupid, Catt 
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This cannot possibly be inside the firebox of locomotive. Unless my depth perception is way off, this is the mother of all fireboxes thats for sure.
thanks all according to the other pics with this one it is a 2-10-4 firebox the tubes the welder is working on are called thermic syphons
This is really an impressive firebox. As far as I remember, the firebox of a Big Boy is about the same size, but doesn't have any thermic syphons.
Thermic syphons are a way to increase the heating surface for generating steam. It further enhances the water circulation around the firebox and therefore reduces the calcification of the box and the crown sheet.
Ron
Thermic syphons are a way to increase the heating surface for generating steam. It further enhances the water circulation around the firebox and therefore reduces the calcification of the box and the crown sheet.
Ron
To err is human!!!
My brain isn't what it used to be...
Somehow these syphons kept nagging at the back of my mind - so I dived into my library and came out with the book "Big Boy" by William W. Kratville. So here are some more precise specifications of her (his? ) firebox:
The fire grate area is 235" x 96", so you could easily invite a group to have dinner inside!
And of course there were syphons, too. In the Big Boy they were called 'circulators', and their design is quite different from these in Jim's pic. The two lateral branches were used as a foundation for the brick arch which directed the flames first towards the back, then above the bricks towards the front and the boiler tubes. (These bricks are not shown in the picture below!)
Imagine the flames coming at you from the grate and then rising up and curving away above these syphon tubes. (Better not hold your head into that chamber when the engine was underway! )
Another detail: In the side wall you can see holes - the 'secondary air openings' to deliver more oxygene to that raging fire inside. Wow! What an engine!
Ron
My brain isn't what it used to be...
Somehow these syphons kept nagging at the back of my mind - so I dived into my library and came out with the book "Big Boy" by William W. Kratville. So here are some more precise specifications of her (his?
) firebox:The fire grate area is 235" x 96", so you could easily invite a group to have dinner inside!
And of course there were syphons, too. In the Big Boy they were called 'circulators', and their design is quite different from these in Jim's pic. The two lateral branches were used as a foundation for the brick arch which directed the flames first towards the back, then above the bricks towards the front and the boiler tubes. (These bricks are not shown in the picture below!)
Imagine the flames coming at you from the grate and then rising up and curving away above these syphon tubes. (Better not hold your head into that chamber when the engine was underway!
)Another detail: In the side wall you can see holes - the 'secondary air openings' to deliver more oxygene to that raging fire inside. Wow! What an engine!
Ron
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Flangehead
New Member
That is the "JAWS" of fireboxes. I've never seen arch tubes or siphons with that web like reinforcing from the top.
Thank God for automatic stokers!
Thank God for automatic stokers!
Whoa!
I was up in Chama, NM and was wandering around the engine house with one of the mechanics. They were replacing the "crown sheet" for the fierbox on one of their narrow gauge "Mikes". I thought that was big! That's a real wake up picture Jim, I think we sometimes forget how big those steamers were. There is a S.P. 0-6-0 on display in Demming, NM and I could not get over how huge it was when it's not HO or N.
I was up in Chama, NM and was wandering around the engine house with one of the mechanics. They were replacing the "crown sheet" for the fierbox on one of their narrow gauge "Mikes". I thought that was big! That's a real wake up picture Jim, I think we sometimes forget how big those steamers were. There is a S.P. 0-6-0 on display in Demming, NM and I could not get over how huge it was when it's not HO or N.
