White and Black Smoke

[NW Mailing List]

The white smoke is not actually smoke, but steam.  At the risk of 
sounding pedantic, steam locomotives exhaust the steam from their 
cylinders up the stack, which induces a draft in the firebox. 
Especially on cold days, this is seen as a huge cloud of white "smoke" 
coming out of the stack.  The black smoke usually indicates that the 
fireman is tending the fire, and is in fact smoke.  In steam days, black 
smoke was enough to get a fireman in serious trouble with the railroad, 
because it indicates coal going out of the stack unburnt.  This not only 
  wasted coal, but made more work for the folks who cleaned the soot off 
the equipment.  Very hard working could also make black smoke, as the 
intense draft would literally lift the fire off the grate.

A properly fired & working locomotive should generally show little or no 
smoke, and I have seen several pictures that show less exhaust than a 
diesel!

Kenneth Rickman

NW Mailing List wrote:

> Good morning.

>  

> I am not worried about my Arrow not arriving yet and will not be posting 

> when it arrives.

>  

> The purpose of my post this morning is to inquire as to why on many of 

> the programs that I watch on RFD TV (Trains and Locomotives) some of the 

> smoke is black and some is white.  What is the cause of this? Have a 

> great weekend and thank you in advance for any responses.