Fire in the smokebox?

[Greg_Lewis]

Wasting time on Youtube. What's up with this smokebox issue? Apparently, this was during a fan trip run and they opened the smokebox and this guy lit a fire in there. Scroll to about 2:40. Whasup?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RslHpgS ... e=youtu.be

[Glenn Brooks]

Greg,

My guess is they were cleaning up some carbon build up in the front end. And he sprayed a flammable solvent of some kind on the screening surrounding the evacuator (blast nozzle and stack extension inside the smoke box) to flush the fines off the screen, then burn them out through the stack. Then he hits the front wall of the boiler, around the fire tubes. The 1:1 locomotives usually have extensive spark screening mounted inside the front end, which sometimes gets clogged with fine carbon particles. Just was reading about Garrett front ends in S.Africa- they have fine screen mesh completely around the blast pipes to prevent brush fires on the Veldt.


looks like its a routine process for the train crew - the guy seemed to expect the flash of flame each time he gave it a shot, as he crouched and ducked just as he sends a shot into the the back of the smoke box. could be using diesel or even gasoline - east European country - anything is possible in some of these places!

Glenn

[Greg_Lewis]

Thanks, Glenn. Looks weird to me. Not OSHA approved, for sure.

[Bill Shields]

not much about a steam loco is osha approved...but they are fun anyway...(locos not osha)

[Fender]

If they would just remove all the netting in the smokebox, they wouldn’t need to do do this. But then they might have a different problem...


https://youtu.be/pYqb1x21hWg

[Greg_Lewis]

Oh my. Save that one for the Fourth of July!

[EOsteam]

It’s in the Czech Republic.