Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 310, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 December 1910 — ENGINE WITHOUT FIRE [ARTICLE]

ENGINE WITHOUT FIRE

FIRELESS STEAM LOCOMOTIVES BUILT IN GERMANY. - • Are Very Useful Where Ordinary Locomotives or Electric Motors Would Be Dangerous—Steam Not Generated, but Stored. —The steam locomotive in which the steam is not generated, but merely stored, is not a new idea. When the London Metropolitan underground line was opened, it was proposed to use such motors on it, in order to avoid the inconvenience of smoke. The development of electric traction has made the use of fireless steamlocomotives unnecessary on underground roads, but there are still conditions where they are desirable, and they are now built in considerable numbers at Tegel, near Berlin. The Railway Magazine says: “This type of locomotive is especially suited for use on railways where the question of fire precaution is almost a first consideration, as, for example, powder mills, cotton plants, wharves and other places where the presence of an ordinary type of locomotive, or even electric power, prejudices the insurance. “The simplicity of the flreless locomotives can be understood when it is stated that in the cab the mechanism consists merely of a regulator, re-versing-gear, and brake. Only one man is required to work the engine, thus saving the expense,of a fireman. Flreless locomotives are growing in favor, and lately the Prussian state railway has taken up the type for special service, such as shunting in 1 covered stations, etc. “The locomotive is fireless; it has no fire-box. In general appearance the engine resembles the ordinary type of locomotive minus the fire-box, funnel and sundry other attachments. It must be understood that this type of locomotive is unsuitable for uninterrupted railway service, but is essentially a yard shunting-machine; iif other words, it must keep near its base of supply, and this base of supply is the boiler of some local powerstation, where the tank of the locomotive is filled with steam, and on this supply the machine will run from four to five hours doing ordinary shunting work.” Contrary to one’s natural impression, we are told, steam is not taken into the engine’s tank at high pressure, but at a pressure about the same as that in the boiler of the powerstation. In order to effect this, the boiler is filled with water to about three-fourths its capacity. Steam is admitted by means of a steam coupling from the power-plant, and is mixed thoroughly with the water in the boiler-tank, the effect being to superheat the water and thus raise the pressure in the locomotive boiler practically to that in the boiler of the power-station.—Literary Digest.