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WDM Short Line
(NEW) History of the Short Line
Ninety-seven years ago Vulcan Iron Works in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania shipped the shiny new narrow gauge locomotive
to southwestern Alberta. For the next few years, the Vulcan worked in
the coal mines at Hillcrest Collieries in the Crowsnest Pass. From there
it went to Alsask, on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, where it hauled
hopper cars loaded with sodium sulphate from a salt lake bed to the
Saskatchewan Minerals dehydration plant. The Vulcan moved again, to
another sodium sulphate mine at Bishopric near Old Wives Lake southwest
of Moose Jaw. The locomotive ended its working life as a steam heating
unit for the Bishopric plant.
Fortunately, the Vulcan did not fall victim to the cutting torch, a fate
that befell thousands of steam locomotives in the 1950s and 1960s.
Instead, the engine was acquired by the Western Development Museum in
1958. Rebuilt in 1978 as engine 101 on the Short Line, the Vulcan
steamed along a track on the Moose Jaw WDM grounds, to the delight of
visitors. The late 1980s saw another overhaul of the engine, but by
2008, the little engine needed a new boiler.
In 2009 the WDM commissioned a new boiler for the Vulcan. The engine was
dismantled at the WDM Curatorial Centre in Saskatoon and a new boiler
built by Saskatoon Boiler. For the past several months, Curatorial
Centre staff and volunteers have rebuilt the Vulcan, restoring the
mechanical components to top notch shape, repairing the cab, painting,
installing and fitting the boiler to the running gear, installing the
pressure piping, and dozens of other details. Today, the Vulcan looks
like new.
Builder photo of 101's sister engine at Vulcan factory in Pennsylvania.
(How 101 would have looked at time of delivery in 1914.)
Image courtesy Hagley Museum & Library, Willmington, Delaware
101's original Locomotive Record or 'birth certificate'.
Click on the image for larger view.
Image courtesy Hagley Museum & Library, Willmington, Delaware.
To learn more about the history of steam in Saskatchewan, read
"New for the 19th Century" by
Collections Curator Ruth Bitner
Short Line (narrow-gauge rail -36”) Vulcan Iron Works (0-4-0 class) Locomotive
Vulcan Locomotive # 2265
WDM Engine #101 - built in 1914
Weight 11 tons(9979 kg) Hauling capacity 659 tons (597845 kg.)
Drivers 24 inches in diameter Wheel base 4 feet
Boiler :
Maximum allowable working pressure
200 psi
175 square feet of heating surface
17.5 Boiler Horse power (175 kilowatts) steaming capacity
46 tubes 1 ¾ “ diameter
86 ½ “
Long firebox 26 ¼ “ long 29
¾ “ wide 26 ½ “ high
2” diameter Safety Valve
Internal throttle valve -
shaking grates - built
for firing coal as a fuel
Engine:
2 – 8” diameter pistons with 12”
strokes
Stephenson Valve Gear
Sliding D valves
#6 Nathan mechanical lubricators
2 - ¾” Penberthy Injectors
400 gallon saddle type water tender tank originally came with a cab lamp,
head light, a bell and a Lunkenheimer whistle.
Getting All Steamed Up
By former WDM Conservation Manager Larry Postnikioff
Steam is still one of the more efficient ways of conveying power. The concept is really quite simple; heat energy is added to water by means of an exchange device called a boiler. Sufficient heat is added to change water into steam. The steam conveys the energy through pipes to a device which converts the thermodynamic energy into mechanical energy. This device is called a steam engine and for the purpose of locomotion the most common type is the reciprocating steam engine.
Water in its solid and liquid form (what we call ice and water) do not compress. If you have a one kilogram mass of ice or liquid water it will take up a constant volume at a given temperature and you cannot make it take any less. If you heat liquid water to its boiling point, it turns into steam, its vapour or gaseous state. If the steam is not contained it will expand 1600 times the original liquid volume and as it expands it will give up its heat energy until it reaches its liquid state again or condenses. The more heat that is added in the confines of the boiler, the greater the compression of the steam and the more mechanical energy that can be produced from expansion. Expansion from contained high pressure steam to atmosphere is explosive. It expands at supersonic speed and then collapses nearly as quickly. This force is very useful if controlled.
How the Steam Engine Works
The engineer controls a
volumetric steam release from the boiler to the steam chest on the
engine with a special throttle valve. The steam chest on the engine is
an enclosed chamber that houses the engine valve which directs the steam
to either side of a double acting steam cylinder and exhausts (expanded
steam) out the opposite side of the cylinder to the atmosphere. The double
acting cylinder has a piston running through it that allows the steam to
be admitted or exhausted on either side of the piston. Alternating steam and exhaust to and from the cylinder causes the piston to move
back and forth or go through the pistons stroke. Steam is only admitted
for a part of this stoke after which time the expansive nature of the
steam is utilized to carry it through. The end of this partial admission
of steam is called the cut off and is where the economical use of steam
comes into play. The timing of the valve comes from the position of an
eccentric on the main driving axle. The eccentric is like a cam that
imparts enough motion at the right time to open and close the steam
valve to let steam in and out of both sides of the cylinder at the right
time. A lever is connected with a linkage reverses the action of the
valve timing that causes the engine intake and exhaust to be exchange
and thus the engine turns in the opposite direction. This lever is some
times referred to as a “JOHNSTON BAR”
or reversing lever. This device allows the Engineer to choose a
direction or set the valve so that there is no admission to either side
of the piston. It will also allow the engineer to set the cutoff so that
he has the most efficient use of the steam using only the amount that he
needs for his power requirement. The reciprocating motion is transformer
to rotary motion with the use of a special knuckle slide joint called a
crosshead. This joint rides in a slide that is set parallel to the
piston rod that has a hinged connection between the piston rod and a
connecting rod that attaches to the crank pin on the wheel. So the
Engineer put the
The boiler is a very special piece of equipment that has to be specially built to make and hold high pressure steam. It has to be designed to produce enough steam to allow the engine to pull its cargo at what ever speed is desired. The boiler must be cared for in order to prevent deterioration from corrosion from taking place until it is too dangerous to operate.
This is the reason for the Vulcan re-boilering project. The old riveted boiler will be replaced with a modern welded replica boiler.
More information about the Short Line project:
How
can YOU help?
How do Steam
Engines work?
History of the Short Line 101
Restoration Progress Updates
Short
Line News
Vulcan 0-4-0 Specifications