Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

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10KPete
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Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by 10KPete »

Asking those of you who have Wendy locos, firing coal, or have worked them.

1) The drawing shows a bunch of fire tubes made from 3/8 sch. 40 pipe. These aren't exactly large inside and I was wondering if there has been a problem with chunks of coal getting in the tubes and obstructing the flow. I haven't read of this problem but want to check.

2) The drawing show a 1/2 NPT female in the top center of the fire box (crown sheet) but no explanation as to purpose. Is this for a fusible plug? Does anyone have one installed?

3) Looking at some of the club rules in two or three clubs there is mention of needing the ability to 'drop the fire immediately' in case of a low water incident. It's not clear to me how this would be done with the marine style boiler. Your thoughts please?

Thanks,
Pete
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Harlock
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Re: Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by Harlock »

10KPete wrote:Asking those of you who have Wendy locos, firing coal, or have worked them.

1) The drawing shows a bunch of fire tubes made from 3/8 sch. 40 pipe. These aren't exactly large inside and I was wondering if there has been a problem with chunks of coal getting in the tubes and obstructing the flow. I haven't read of this problem but want to check.
No problems with clogged tubes despite the size. That being said, tiny tubes is an American thing, UK, AU NZ do less, much larger tubes. There is theory, and then there is actual operation. In all the engines I ran in NZ I noticed no difference. If I were starting anew I would re-design it with 1/2" tubes. Most of the heat transfer happens on the crown sheet. The loss in heat exchange area going to the next size up tubes would not have a significant impact at all. Especially if you have an arch plate installed. But if you stick to the stock plan, you won't have a problem in this case either.

When running soft coal I punch the tubes daily. When running char you can go a month without cleaning them if you want. But I usually clean them at the end of the meet if I've been running pure char.
10KPete wrote:2) The drawing show a 1/2 NPT female in the top center of the fire box (crown sheet) but no explanation as to purpose. Is this for a fusible plug? Does anyone have one installed?
yes, fusible plug. Don't have one on mine. This should be guided by what the rules are in your locality. The firebox at least in mine is so thick for its diameter it would be very hard to kill the crown sheet (arch, in this case) dry firing.
10KPete wrote:3) Looking at some of the club rules in two or three clubs there is mention of needing the ability to 'drop the fire immediately' in case of a low water incident. It's not clear to me how this would be done with the marine style boiler. Your thoughts please?
Open the door, scoop it out. Takes less than a minute to get 90% of it out. The firebox and thus the fire are comparatively small on the Wendy. I've never known one to be denied on that basis. I had to do the same thing on an Atlantic the other day when all the water inputs failed. The ash pan was impossible to remove quickly so I just scooped everything right out.
Thanks,
Pete
-Mike
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sabin
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Re: Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by sabin »

What Mike said.

Jim
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10KPete
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Re: Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by 10KPete »

Thanks for the answers, fellas. I goofed on the fusible plug bushing; it's 3/8 NPT not 1/2". No big deal.

The boiler as designed is heck for stout, certainly, and I can't think of any reason to change it. Oh, I might put some of the bushings in slightly different locations but I wouldn't change the scantlings.

Pete
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10 Wheeler Rob
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Re: Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by 10 Wheeler Rob »

If your planing on burning soft coal I would recommend going to the 1/2 pipe flues as a minimum.

Rob
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10KPete
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Re: Wendy Boiler coal firing questions...

Post by 10KPete »

10 Wheeler Rob wrote:If your planing on burning soft coal I would recommend going to the 1/2 pipe flues as a minimum.

Rob
And that does raise an issue I hadn't really thought about: I use the Pocohontas (sp) nut coal for blacksmithing (haven't done any in a few years) and have about a sack of it. It's not the anthracite but it's a good coal. Without getting into the 'world is running out of coal' thing I might want to consider availability, in the PNW, of good steam coal. It certainly won't hurt the boiler to change to 1/2" pipe for the flues and just might cover later necessities. ???? Hmmmm

Pete
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