[VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts]"Takin' Twenty with theVirginian Brethren"

[NW Mailing List]

The only technical account of the C&O 614T tests I know of was written by David Wardale in his book, The Red Devil and other Tales from the Age of Steam.  He was a participant during the tests along with D. Porta and others.  Starting on pg 384 and continuing to pg 412 he discusses the ACE3000 program. Pgs 390 to 402 cover the runs on C&O/CS.  This may not sound like much, but Wardale's book uses very small print and narrow margins, so there are a lot of words! Although Wardale had several positive comments about 614's performance, he was very critical of the locomotives general condition and inefficiency. It's not an entirely positive commentary by any means.

The J3a's were equipped with Hancock exhaust steam injectors, a so-called "poor man's feedwater heater."  This is a large pump-like device located on a bracket immediately in front of the trailer truck on the fireman's side.  Photos will show if it's there on not.  They did not have a good reputation for reliability. This device was removed from 614  and the ACE3000 tests were run with two injectors AFAIK.  This contributed to the high coal and water consumption.

Dave Stephenson


--- On Thu, 5/15/08, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:


> From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Subject: RE: [VirginianRailwayEnthusiasts]"Takin' Twenty with theVirginian Brethren"

> To: "'NW Mailing List'" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

> Date: Thursday, May 15, 2008, 2:20 PM

> "T' was for 'turkey' as the feedwater

> heater was not working on the 614

> during the tests.  Without the recovered energy from the

> feedwater heater,

> the tests results were going to be disappointing as the

> 614T wasn't going to

> perform as well as the 600 series did in their in-service

> lives.  The 614T

> was down on horsepower and had increased coal consumption

> in comparison to

> the 'old time' Greenbriars.  I always wondered how

> or if Rowland or

> Chessie's engineers could figure out how to come up

> with useful data from

> the testing without the feedwater heater working.  An

> operating feedwater

> heater has a lot to do with a steam locomotive's

> thermal efficiency.

> Railroads added the feedwater heater to most of their

> locomotives for a

> danged good reasons- lower coal consumption for the same or

> better

> performance and faster response to the throttle.

> 

>  

> 

> Ed, did you ever hear of how the group worked around this

> issue?  The

> thermal cycle temperatures had to be 'off' by a

> bunch with the addition of

> cold water into the boiler.  Unless the team had a lot of

> old C&O test data

> to make adjustments into the efficiency calculations, I

> can't figure out how

> they would have come up with anything useful.  Given that

> the tests were run

> and the ACE 3000 project never got off the ground, maybe

> that is what

> exactly happened.  

> 

>  

> 

> Gary Rolih 

> 

>  

> 

>  

>



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