Recent content by bunnspecial

Classical thermodynamics can actually explain a lot of what's happening in boilers and steam engines of all sorts really accurately and really well because-in a way-it was developed to explain what was known and cutting edge at the time. As you said, in many cases, the guys on the ground...

Yes, that definitely is a simplification, but does at least give an idea. As you surmise, they're also just not "turn on and go" devices. With the caveat that I'm working on second hand knowledge and not having actually worked with one, the general procedure is to first start water flowing...

Here's a good video just on how the injector operates This page has a lot of good steam locomotive videos/animations that look at individual components, and really a "modern"(say post 1930s) steam locomotive has so many systems that about the best you can do is have an overall picture of how...

Usually the quick fix in steam is to back off the throttle a bit and it will grab again. You can also flip the sanders on to help, but Ed has stated that he avoids them on the Big Boy. I'm not sure if avoids them means "never" or just "not regularly" If the slip is caught fast enough, there's...

I'm not sure if it's worth going into more detail because it seems that you know far more about how steam locomotives should work than the people who designed them in the first place, but I'll try... In steam locomotive contexts, the "boiler" means the pressurized vessel that holds water/steam...

Sorry but...no... The Big Boy, like basically every other modern steam engine uses "injectors" to put water into the boiler. There are normally two of these-if I'm not mistaken FRA regulations(and just good practice in general) require two separate systems for putting water into the boiler...

Something kind of interesting, or at least I think... Allowed axle loadings on most railroads are a lot higher now than they were in the steam days, but there have been few improvements in the quality of trackwork and in some cases it's actually worse than it was 1950s. There's still rail out...

I took a day off work and chased it through central Illinois is 2024. It's taking a different route and I've debated about going to see it at the end of this week, when it's coming through here again. As great as it is to see, the Big Boy draws crowds like nothing else rail related these days...

Sorry, not trying to stir stuff up, just that I've been repairing watches for a while(and I have single pocket watches worth $5K...I've been collecting for a while...). My point-again-on all of that was that a timing machine really is not a magic bullet to look at/measure the "health" of a...

I have a decade and a half of using timing machines under my belt. I’ve noticed an increasing number of more casual hobbyists having them now. Serious questions to anyone using one: 1. Can you look at a running watch and visually estimate amplitude? 2. Can you listen to a watch and hear...

I’ve been in Illinois the last 5 years, but was born in Kentucky and lived there the first 30 years of my life. It was a real shock to have to pay my deductible for windshield replacement as I’d never paid out of pocket before. My dad use to have a state government job that sent him all over...

As a couple of random thoughts on the Hamilton 992B, 950B, and derivative movements(3992B, 4992B, Ball 999B): A typical American watch prior to these still had a lot of hand fitting of parts as the watch moved through the factory. To help keep things straight, aside from using assembly...

Up until probably the 1940s, nearly all high quality watch lubricants were whale oil based. Hamilton and Elgin both did a lot of work up to and during WWII on synthetic lubricants, and if I'm not mistaken started using them pretty heavily on war contract watches. Post WWII, synthetics pretty...

Actually truth be told it was VERY flimsy especially considering that you posted two blog posts and correlational data. I hadn't had a chance to actually give it a proper response or full read out the one peer reviewed source you did. I don't actually live on this site all day. With that said...

And I remember years ago buying and opening my first bottle of Moebius 941/2, which is one of the higher priced oils in their line up(at the time around $40/2mL as opposed to more like $30 for 9020, etc). Knowing how expensive they are, it can be nerve racking to open the bottle and get some...