Solution To Prevent Safety Valves From Constantly Going Off

If in manual mode, open the blower before the pressure gets high enough to trigger the safety valve.

 

I use manual firing and leave the firebox door half open which stops the AI fireman doing anything useful. Very occasionally I'll open the doors properly and let him throw a couple of handfuls of coal on so he doesn't feel left out but that's just a pity stoke - no matter how long it's been since any coal got added the pressure comes straight back up as soon as I close the regulator, and the safety valve has always popped by the time I stop at a station. But at least it doesn't go off while I'm actually using steam.

 

The blower actually will increase the draft through the firebox, can’t see how that would reduce steam production.

 

The draft is created by steam.

 

Yes - whe you have the regulator open the steam will cause provide the draft - but when sitting in a station with the regulator closed, you will not have sufficient draft thus the blower — also the blower is a safety to help keep the fire in the firebox since the blower will be near the fire doors blowing forward to the fire tubes.

Edit — Used to work on steam boilers on steam ships —

 

I think leaving the large ejector open unless I need max boiler pressure has served me well. It's odd that the pressure will always increase by default, even if you haven't been adding coal for a while and with the dampers closed. I wonder if it's realistic or not.

Generally if there is a downhill section coming I will just close the dampers well in advance so that I arrive at the summit with just enough pressure to not slow down or loose too much momentum.

 

The blower is located in the smokebox at the front. It's pointed straight up the chimney so that when it's on it creates a vacuum in the smokebox. This causes a draught through the fire and keeps it going when the regulator is closed. As Leadcatcher says it's also a safety device as when a steam locomotive enters a tunnel there can be a blowback and without the blower on, the flames and gases can enter the cab through the firedoor. If turning it on full blast in the game causes the pressure to fall, well, that's not correct.

 

Not by a lot, just enough to keep the safeties off.

 

Then it is coded wrong - the blower would be increasing the draft that would increase the heat thus increasing the pressure not the opposite. While the blowers would use steam to operate - it wouldn’t offset the increased steam production.

 

I'm not saying it's accurate, I just found a solution to keep the safety from constantly going off.

 

Wouldn't that also be dependent on the dampers (allowing air to the firebox)? Just a hypothesis, but if I use steam to create airflow on the end of the system, but do not allow any air in at the beginning, the airflow would not get much higher and I'm just spending steam in the blower. If I have blower running in-game and everything else closed, the pressure basically stagnates. If I then open dampers, it goes up fast. As mentioned, I have no experience with actually operating steam stuff, but with my physics background, the idea sounds somewhat logical.

 

Dampers will influence it as you state, but fireboxes are not airtight so you will get some airflow. Like you point out, if dampers are opened you will get a great airflow, but closed you still get some flow. Of course the boilers I worked with in the ‘70s were built in the ‘30s so well used.

 

As a real life steam fireman you want the blower going at least a little ALL the time. Its not just tunnels where you get blow back. Every time you open the firebox door you risk it, blower on, open a crack then open fully shovel shovel shovel slam it shut. There is nothing quite like being cooked by your own fire.

Its also very useful when cleaning smokebox and firebox at the end of the day so you don't get a face full of crud, very hot crud.

Note as has been said by DTG on stream, firing in the game is not fully implemented - its more magic than anything so the things players are doing do seem to have some sort of impact but don't expect them to be particularly realistic. Real science will come with manual firing. I kinda like it this way, I know all too well just how hard it really is .

Paul

 

Ships are fascinating beasts. I got invited down into the engine hold on TSS Earnslaw in New Zealand and fired that coal fired two boiler four firehole very hungry beast. It was a lot of fun but I really deserved my lunch at the end of the trip.

Paul

 

However, ship steam plants- even reciprocating ones - are very different from rail applications in one major respect: they recirculate steam/feedwater via condensers. That changes a lot of things.

 

This one uses locomotive boilers but they have two fireholes and yes they do recirculate condensed steam back into water and back into the boiler they also suck in lake water as needed.

There were some locomotives with condensers but agree they were unusual for unusual operations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensing_steam_locomotive

Paul