NYC Smoke Consumers

There was a post on Train Orders .com asking about smoke consumers
and I wrote some info on them and this will be a repeat with additions
The 0-8-0,and through the L's and j's all had smoke consumers.They were called consumers on the NYC
and were marked as such on the controls.
These devices were supposed to help control smoke in stations in cities
and other restricted locations.
The value of them was never determined and I never used them and
the engineers discouraged their use.
There were holes on each side of the of the fire box 2" in cir. and about a ft. above the grates.There were 3 or 4 on each side and they were staggered across from each other.If you looked down on the fire box they would by pass each other and cause
a circle motion of air above the fire. Had better add that the 2" holes had tubes in them from lines on the outside of the fire box that would blow steam from them when needed.The consumers made a lot of noise because anything less than
almost wide open was a waste of effort and the engineers did not want the added noise.
As these swirls of air were working
above the fire they caused a cooling
effect and with a normal fire,5"-8"
they would cause the coal to start to clinker and then you had to rock the grates to break the clinker crust that was starting to form on the fire.
Adding a little more blower usually
would take care of the smoke and you could accomplish the same thing by
locking the fire door about half
open.The consumer was not used while
working the engine pulling a train.

Did you ever wonder what would happen if the control handle became
disconnected,say on the stoker?One
time the U joint at the end of the
handle at the steam valve came off.
and fell from the engine.We stopped
and raised the cover in front of the cab,
yes that is what is under that cover
on l's and j's,and shut the valve off and I would stand up to reach the main valve until we reached the terminal to operate the stoker. LEW

 

LEW, thanks for more great technical info on those great old monster steam locomotives. I did not realize that so many other NYC locomotives had those smoke consumers. Their installation wasn't as obvious as it was on the P&LE 2-8-4's.
Did you ever have any other controls fail on an engine? I have heard some terrifying reports about the power reverse wheel on bigger road engines spinning and breaking hoggers arms.

 

Here's a photo from Harold K. Vollrath's collection of P&LE Berk 9400. You can see the evidence of the smoke consumers here, in the form of the "cans" along the side of the firebox. Other models did not have these cans. LEW, could you see the holes in the firebox on other engines? I apologize for the quality of the scan.

 

In answer to Fitz,No I was lucky and
never was on an engine with any big problem.As to the reverse wheel spinning I would think a bolt would have to fall out or something in the valve gear break for this to happen.
There was a lock that flipped over into a notch on the reverse wheel to keep it from creeping.In the situation you describe I would go to the big hole and close the throttle.
Trying to stop the reverse wheel with your hands would end in disaster.
WE were on # 78 at night coming into
Graig,about 1 1/2 miles west of Greensburg,In. and the engineer called out the signal as clear reached up to ease off on the throttle and it would not unlatch.The
The bolt on the trigger had fallen out and we looked with our flashlights and found the bolt and replaced it.As we were hunting the bolt I was agitating asking why he was not slowing down and if we could'nt find the bolt was he going through all of the reds and on to Anderson.Of course there were some nasty words directed my way and if we didn't find the bolt ther was two things the monkey wrench would be used for,1 to unlatch the throttle
and 2 on my head.Never could understand why he would say that.
Yes the holes can be seen but piping sometimes makes it hard.Some of the yard engines had can like covers on the smoke consumers.

Box,Yes some firemen did not care and some times on the road with bad coal you had to make smoke.I always tried to keep the smoke down but sometimes
you still made some.I worked a local
and we worked at the town I live in.
You do try to keep it down because
the women will raise cain in any town
on wash day.I bid a road job in and about a month later a lady stopped me uptown and said you are not on the local now ? I said no,she said she did not think I was and I asked why.
When you was on the local we could hang our clothes on the line now there is to much smoke and we have to wait until the local leaves.It sure does make you feel good. LEW