The Atlantic & Southern Saturday Report

[Rollin]

Judge,

Any boiler can be dangerous, the fact that locomotives were on the move made them especially so, not to mention the extra wear and tear from vibration, the weather conditions, etc. Stationary boilers were often subject to regulations as well. When my dad had greenhouses (in Ohio) the boilers would be used for heating, first with steam and later we converted to hot water, which was a little less dangerous.
Boilers at factories, like the rubber plants in Akron, had employees who monitored the conditions around the clock, but our boilers were 'Ohio Specials' so called because they were LESS than 100 hp rating and did NOT require around the clock in person monitoring, but only automatic systems which would shut them down and ring alarms if the flame went out or the pressure was too high, etc.
Of course, if the alarm went off in the middle of the night, we would have to get out of bed and go check...
January weather doesn't allow you to wait and fix it in the morning!

[Jim Donovan]

Finally had a chance to catch up on the doings of the A&S as reported by that intrepid reporter known simply as 'The Judge'. Funny, informative and enjoyable. Thanks!

Jim D

[PRR Modeler]

Very interesting Bill. I have never really thought much about the dangers of operating a steam locomotive. Please keep up the great stories in 2022.

[GPdemayo]

Great story Bill.....I had an uncle, in New Jersey, that was a boiler guy for one of the railroads and made a darn good living with his specialty.

I remember him talking about the dangers of the steam locos, but was always adamant that if the machines were operated correctly (by the book) they were as safe as any other machine. He always thought that the benefits the railroads brought to the country far outweighed the problems and disadvantages.

[Judge]

There were a number of trades working at the Lima Locomotive Works in Ohio.  They were often in friendly competition with each other.  Sometimes there was an argument as to whether a particular task belonged to one trade or another.  I remember some reported banter between trades at Lima describing the boilermaker trade - "He doesn't have a trade, he only has a habit."  I assume the speaker was referring to the thousands of rivets/bolts that held a boiler together.

I have a book describing the shops at the Lima Locomotive Works.  The shop was divided into several sections, all of which were deafeningly noisy.  The boiler shop was one of the worst, although the shop that had the huge presses used to stamp out locomotive parts, such as side rods, must have been right up there.  Imagine OHSA inspecting the Lima Works today?   

Here is a link to a video taken of the Lima Works in 923-24.  It is of poor quality (typical of the times) and accurately gives the impression of a dark, dangerous environment.  Look at all those bolts on the boiler!

                                                                                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzXoMnGVKg

[Zephyrus52246]

Interesting video.  I can only imagine how loud it was in there, and hot in the summer.  I think the white substance on the firebox is probably asbestos as well. 


Jeff

[Judge]

Saturday Report – January 8, 2022

There is no Saturday Report this week due to the hospitalization of the A&S's CEO after open-heart surgery.  Happily, the surgery was successful and he is either out of ICU or will be moved this afternoon.

Last week we took a look at safety during the steam era and learned that boiler explosions were the main cause of death due to problems running the locomotive.  Today, we will take a look at other causes of death and injury.

                                                                                                         Danger Beyond Boilers

      It might surprise you to learn that the second cause of injury beyond boiler explosions was the squirt hose.  This gadget was a rubber extension hose for use to periodically clean coal off of the engine deck and to lightly wet down the tender coal pile to control the dust.  The hose came off of an injector and the water was scalding hot, which caused needless injuries.  The ICC reported the scalding hot water injured up to 80 employees (mostly firemen) a year.  The injuries declined when hoses were improved after 1945. 
   The third most common source of injury was the grate shakers.  Non-standard shakers and ill-fitting shaker bars caused most of the problems.  Firemen used the grate shakers to clean the ashes from his fire.  The fireman would insert an iron shaker bar into a hole and "rock" the grates back and forth, causing the ash to fall onto the ashpan below the firebox.  If the shaker bar came loose from the grate operating lever, it could throw the fireman severely.  Different engines had different grate shakers and often the shaker bars from different engines got mixed up.
   Slightly less frequent, but far more hazardous were bursting flues and arch tubes inside the firebox.  When these items failed, steam pressure and boiler water was released into the firebox.  If at that instant the fireman was standing back beyond an open firebox door, a large quantity of burning coal from the firebed would blow into his face.  Serious burn injury or death inevitably resulted.
   Installation of "butterfly" firebox doors, many steam-operated, reduced other firebox problems. 
   Up until 1925, the fireman's job was the second most dangerous job in railroading, after the brakeman.  The installation of the automatic stoker, a steam-driven mechanical device that used an augur to convey coal from the tender to the firebox significantly reduced the fireman's risk of injury due to firebox dangers.  Stokers were invented and installed because by 1925 locomotives had gotten so large that a single fireman could not maintain boiler pressure under normal operations.  Thus, the safety aspects of stokers were a secondary reason for their installation.  Interestingly, the ICC regulation requiring stokers on heavier locomotives met with objection from both the fireman's and engineer's union, but the railroads agreed to install stokers and they became standard on most engines. 
   The stokers themselves presented problems.  They would jam if rocks or other trash was loaded in the tender along with the coal. 
   The advantages outweighed the problems.  The cab of the locomotive became safer and cleaner when stokers were installed and steam-powered grate shakers reduced other hazards.
   Other hazards included broken axels, blow-off cocks failure, injectors failing, steam pipes cracking, crankpins failing, and side rod failure.  The latter hazard could be particularly deadly if the failure occurred on "Mother Hubbard," or center cab locomotives.  The side rod could wipe out the cab, killing its occupants.
   This short review of the dangers to crew members barely begins to cover the topic. 
   Next week we will turn to the story of locomotive development.
   Your reporter is surprised to report that the Saturday Report received over 1400 visits from last Saturday until this Saturday's posting. Who would have thought?         

[PRR Modeler]

Great information Bill.

[GPdemayo]

Very interesting Bill.....thanks. 

Enjoyed the videos also.

[postalkarl]

hey Bill:

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. My Great Grandfather was an Engineer on the Pennsylvania RR.

Karl

[Judge]

I found a video reporting on a firebox backblast.  Really close call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TJPmkcPer8

And here is a video on how to bring a steam locomotive up to steam. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx9Q8PphAVo

[S&S RR]

Judge


Great report - it is amazing how much Engineering went into the design of Steam locomotives. Managing the energy from steam is very tricky.

[PRR Modeler]

The how to video is amazing. I never knew there was that much work invoved in getting a steamer ready to go.

[Judge]

Saturday Report - January 15, 2022

      There will be no formal Saturday Report today due to the A&S CEO being laid up recovering from open-heart surgery.  Your reporter spoke with him by telephone yesterday and his recovery is proceeding nicely, thank you.

      Your reporter has always been fascinated with railroading back in the link and pin days and he stumbled across an article in the July 1940 Railroad Magizinge this morning that provides the basis for this week's story.

     Each month, the publication had a section called "True Tales of the Rails" and it usually contained three or four short stories.  The July 1940 issue included a story entitled "50 Years on the High Iron."  As you might imagine, it tracked the career of a railroader whose first job was in the 1880s.  Two of the tales contained within the article are reviewed this week.

                                                                                                     THE WAY THINGS WERE

      A. L. Butcher made a fifty-year career of railroading beginning in the 1880s.  He lived in Tennessee and spent most of his career on the L&N or subsidiary railroads many of which have long been forgotten, such as the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia.
His first job was as a roundhouse flunkey and he was the butt of jokes typical of the era.  He was sent to look for a left-handed link or a three-cornered pin.  He was ordered by the  "car knocker" to walk about a quarter of a mile carrying a drawhead on his back, saying this was very necessary in training to be a switchman. 
      In those days, the yard conductors hired their own brakemen, and Butcher's first run as a brakie was mid-winter in Tennessee.  The temperature sat at six below zero and since this was before air brakes, he had to "decorate" the tops of the cars and work the hand brakes in response to whistles from the engineer. As an additional duty in those days, brakemen had to wrestle 250lb bags of salt to the tops of the cars and spread the contents on the wooden running boards to discourage ice from forming. 
      Train crews worked sixteen hours a day.  Conductors were paid $75.00 a month, while brakemen made $40.00.  Butcher says they could live as well on that as rails can live in 1940 "on twice that amount." 
      Butcher had a friend who had been railroading since the 1870s and he related a trip when Jefferson Davis, the former president of the Confederacy, rode his train as a passenger.  His friend, Ross Smith, hauled freight during the Civil War on the ET&V, first for the Confederates and then for the Yankees, whichever side was holding that stretch of the railroad. The Federal Government gave all conductors the rank of captain under the authority of the army and they were still called captain even in 1940.  (Your reporter's grandfather was a conductor on the ACL from 1900 until his death in1936 and he was called "Captain" until the day he died.)
Smith was proud to have been the conductor in 1873 on the train on which Jefferson Davis traveled back to his home in Mississippi after he was released from Fort Monroe.  Smith recalled the incident as follows:
      "Jeff Davis got on my train at Bristol.  He sat alone in the back of a coach, staring out a window most of the trip.  Evidently, he was most dejected.  But when we stopped at Jonesboro, the site of a tragic battle, I watched the old Confederate leader get off the train, head erect, shoulders squared, and stride briskly over to the Capt. James Sevier Hotel for lunch.  A real man, I thought, a fine Southern gentleman."

[GPdemayo]

Good story Bill, I'm really enjoying the history in your series.....