Locomotive used for ?

[JerryL]

Hello everyone

I'm not into making and using steam engines . Like looking at them and admiring them .

I was sort of day dreaming about the really old big 4 8 8 4 or whatever they where ( Berkshires etc . )
Anyway what came to mind was ,

Did anyone / company or industry ever take one off the rails and take the wheels off and use it to power something else stationary ??

Just a wacky thought and question .

Thanks ... JerryL

[Harlock]

That happened a lot. Many an old steamer became a stationary plant boiler. In Thailand, there are two surviving examples, these two beautiful engines imprisoned within a building that was built up around them. Can't find the pictures right now but maybe someone else has them.

Most of the time they'd just lift the boiler off and scrap the rest.

[dorin]

I know that the large boilers were used to provide steam for
several things.

Up North here they were used to thaw iron ore for a while.
I belive some NW engines were used as emergency steam plants...
if I am not mistaken.

I don't know of any drivers actually turning to power anything.

-Mike

[Rwilliams]

More than one shay boiler was used to provide steam long after the machinery of motion was wore out. There was a small lumber mill near Roseville, CA that had purchased a boiler off of a cab-forward and used it for steam generation long after steam was gone from the SP in 1956.

SP actually kept a few small steamers around for steam heat of shops and office buildings into 1958 and 1959. A few locomotives were rented out for steam generation to online canneries that were good shippers for a few years after steam was gone from the main line.

[alanstepney]

The very first steam loco to work, Trevithicks engine of 1804, only ran for a short time, as, although it worked, the (cast iron) rails kept breaking.
It was then raised on blocks and spent many years powering machinery.

Back in the 1970's, at a local plant nursery, there was a small tank engine
raised on blocks, the boiler was used to provide steam to sterilise soil, whilst a drive was taken off the wheel to power a large saw bench etc.
(The loco has now been restored and is on one of the preserved railways.)

So, yes, old loco's did have other uses.

[JerryL]

dorin
Kinda hit it on the head what I was thinking of / about . I Meant that they maybe just took the wheels off and used the arms ? whatever they are called to push / power some other equipment .

Thanks Guys ... I have seen a scale / mini steam system with turn table switches etc . Up in Ohio ( Lake or Geauga County ) at Metro parks system . ( Penitentiary Glen Park Area )

Jerry Leskovec

[Bill Shields]

Somewhere Jim has a picture, courtesy of Harold Crouch, of a loco boiler being used to power the stationary steam engine used to swing a bridge up around NY City between NY and NJ.

I also have a picture of several NYC locos, parked at a siding in New England (Mass probably), piped in to supply steam to the town's powerhouse while their boiler was down for emergency repairs.

NYCRR also used to use loco boilers to heat track pan water in the winter to keep it from freezing.

The list pretty much goes on as far as anyone's imagination. If you needed steam in a hurry, in a remote location, there were plenty of loco boilers around to choose from.

[sncf141r]

Heres one in Leszno, Poland, taken earlier this year.

The frames in the foreground are for OL-49 111, getting a rebuild (boiler in background) the Ty-2 on the left has an orange pipe coming out of the cab - that is the steam pipe for the shops. I don't think it is still used, but who knows? It was warm when I was there.

The Ty-2 locomotive is pretty complete, and has been stored inside for a while. The Polish Ty-2 is the german class 52.

JohnS.

[sncf141r]

Hey, found some more pictures of this "stationary" locomotive:

http://parowozy.net/album/ty2-1086-jako ... esznie-104

http://mlodsy.com/zdjecie.php?id=1156

http://mlodsy.com/zdjecie.php?id=1157

http://www.locomotives.com.pl/Freight%2 ... es/Ty2.htm

JohnS.

[JerryL]

Thank YOU John and all the others

John those where great pictures and information / story .

Thank you to all who have contributed to my question about the use / uses of Old Steam Locomotives for other uses than rail .

I have seen the old steam farm equipment / fire trucks Some Steam fired operated factory forge hammers etc. but never anything that was re-made from a Locomotive .

Best to all and may your projects turn out well .

Jerry Leskovec

[steamin10]

In the 20's - 30's, it was traction engines being hauled into chicago to power buildings. It is part of the reason the boiler codes and laws in Chicago are twisted in strange ways. They were trying to oversee ageing junk stuck in basements, run by Joe Scmoes, and they had some problems.

It happened again when the 45+ era after the war saw many locos being ignored and scrapped in the recession that followed the close of WW II. Some that required major shopping were simply sold and put into growing industry. Removing the running gear after the frame was blocked up was simple torch work (UGH!), and usually paid for the locomotive. By the 60,s they were mostly used up or lost when businesses closed and were torn down for 'Urban Renewel'.

I personally dont know of any boiler set that is even ghosted inplace now.

The last vestige of that steam era I touched in E Chicago, IN, in what used to be a refridgerater car maintenance yard. (Ice car). The last cars had been scrapped and the old power house still stood with its 80 foot chiminy. It was condemned by the city and had to come down. The boilers were gone, but a twin cylinder steam engine and genset with the power panels still existed in the building. By the time I got organized to get in with my camera, the scrappers had already cut up the engine and genset, and were setting up a crane to bucket off the brick chimney. The steel frame and sheet building would be last. There is only the concrete and beds theere now, the area an overgrown backlot to a new business, ( 20 yrs now)

[gwrdriver]

There is a wagon top boiler (non-operating) built into a very old brick building complex, portions of which pre-date the Civil War. It was originally the Nashville Plow Works but became an ordnance manufactory during the war and reverted to manufacturing again afterward. The boiler doesn't appear to me to date from the Civil War but is more from an 1870s or 1880s era. The building complex sits adjacent to the old NC&StL main line and pre-1900 main shops location and is almost certainly from an old NC engine, I'd love to known which one.