Automatic switchers

[NW Mailing List]

I am so glad someone asked this question. I'd always wondered just how
'automatic' those locomotives were.

 Thanks Mike Shockley for asking, and thanks Ed and Jim for explaining.

They sure were strange looking locomotives. Was the skyline jacketing
(correct term?) that was added to the top of the boiler in any way related
to the functioning of the automation? Or was it simply added for
style/looks to make the locomotive look more futuristic or 'automatic'?

One further question, based on Ed's comment about not trusting an automatic
water level; how often did the low water alarms go off? Is that something
that you would never hear sounding? Or was it set at a higher level, where
it went off from time to time? Does anyone know what they sounded like?

Mike Rector


On Wed, Mar 8, 2023, 11:20 AM NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
wrote:

> There were only the two - the 1100 and 1112.
> They had  automatic stoker and draft controls  using fans in the
> smokeboxes and automatic  water level controls but no steam locomotive
> engineer was ever going to be comforable relying on anything automatic to
> take care of the water level in a boiler,
> It didn't take long for the 0-8-0s to put  the automatic  switcher idea
> away  but the 1100 and 1112 proved that it could be done.
> - Ed King
>

If I remember correctly, there were automatic controls of the boiler water,
the draft fan (and maybe the firing rate) so that the boiler could be kept
hot while unattended. Only the 1100 and 1112 were "automatic".

Jim Nichols

>
>
> On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 7:15 AM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <
> nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
>
>> What was automatic about the Automatic Switchers in steam...?
>> Were there other than 4-8-0s?
>>
>> Mike Shockley
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