LSWR T3 Exhaust Pattern

[brucevoelkerding]

I came across this YouTube this Morning -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=feTU6UJq2DU

This is the first time I have ever noticed the Exhaust "dancing" from side to side at a Chimney. If you watch the Video starting around 2:40 you can see the Exhaust "swing" from side to side in time with the exhaust Beats. I can imagine how this could happen depending how the Blast Pipe (s?) was designed.

On another Note, it sure seems like it would be impossible to lubricate the Eccentrics without access to a Track Pit.

Bruce

[brucevoelkerding]

I see the Answer to my first comment. Look at this Video at 6:28 -

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX7IhfUS4gg

One can clearly see the Cylinder Exhaust Pipes running up to the Blast Nozzle. There is almost no vertical Run in the Blast Pipe.

But this Video poses another Question - at 1:54, one notices there are qty 2 "missing" Flue Tubes. I wonder why ?

[mbrown]

Interesting. In the second video, at 0:06, the shot of the works drawing shows the Adams vortex blastpipe, but the glimpse inside the smokebox of the restored loco show a simple Y breeches pipe. That prompted me to look up the entry in Bradley's history of LSWR locos, and he says the Vortex blast pipes were removed in the early 1900s.

But I had never seen the side to side exhaust patter before and I am sure you are right that the way the two branches of the Y join only just below the blast nozzle is the cause.

I don't think oiling the eccentrics would be much more difficult than on ,most inside cylindered locos with Stephenson's gear. You wriggle in between the frames at the point in front of the front splasher where the frames dip and the boiler leaves a fair bit of room, then you lie on top of the motion plate and rods to reach back to the eccentrics. That's why "Not to be Moved" signs always had to be fixed when oiling up, and why unauthorised removal of such signs carried a huge penalty as it could easily lead to a driver's death - as actually happened, not all that infrequently.

Thanks for sharing the clips.

Malcolm

[brucevoelkerding]

in the second Video at 2:oo one can see tapped(?) Holes in the front Tube Sheet corresponding to the "Missing" Flue Tubes mentioned in my second Post above. It seems like an odd place to situate Inspection Holes to check Tube Plate thickness. I wonder what their actual Purpose is ?

[jma1009]

I had watched the video Bruce referenced before seeing Bruce’s post, and didn’t notice the effect Bruce then described. Then I watched it again, and there it was! (But only at the start).

However, quite a few more YouTube videos today of the LSWR T3 563 on it’s launch in public service this weekend, and that exhaust peculiarity has disappeared. Paul Hitchcock has quoted Holcroft on this volume 2 ‘Locomotive Adventure’ I think page 141 without checking.

It is perhaps worth commenting that some ‘modern’ large passenger locomotives such as the GWR Kings and Castles had a relatively short ‘straight’ section of the blast pipe before the blast nozzle.