They always required high maintenance - it's why the last countries in the
world to use steam locos were ones that had a good supply of cheap labour.
Cleaning out the boiler and firebox alone is hard and nasty work. The steam
train line that runs through my backyard relies on volunteers. But of course,
everyone wants to be an engineer and no-one wants the rake out the box, so they
have to qualify for time by doing the scut work as well. As they are a 'going
concern' with a good income as a tourist railway, they have their own safety
inspection staff.
They have an old wood burner, an ex-sugar train engine with insanely low
gearing. It used to pull very long light trains and it's only small. Costs them
a fortune in firewood every time they run it so it doesn't get many outings.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.soultheft.com
Publisher: The SLR Compendium - http://www.blurb.com/books/3732813
On 16/01/2013, at 3:58 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
>> That is awful. What are the components that require such high maintenance?
>
> With infrequent use, they have to do a full preservation setting each
> time, which means drying everything out, greasing the snot out of a
> few hundred moving parts, cleaning and maintaining the stoker and
> general boiler maintenance. They also have to do safety inspections on
> the boiler and all high-pressure systems. Equipment like this that
> isn't used every day also tends to break whenever you do run it.
>
>
>
>
> --
> Ken Norton
> ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.zone-10.com
> --
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