Washouts, and the effects of scale on steam loco boiler efficiency

[70014IronDuke]

EDIT - ooops, that should read Washouts, of course! How do I correct that in the thread title?

Taunton's posts on this thread
https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/steam-on-fenchurch-street-line.163881/
have got me thinking.

Steam locos needed regular boiler washouts to clean out the scale on the tubes, which - despite treatement to take it out of the water beforehand - inevitably built up as water was evaporated in boilers. I seem to remember reading this would typically be every seven to 10 days, BICBW.

How was it decided when a loco needed a washout? Was it on a case-by-case basis, when the drivers reported poor steaming, or on a scheduled basis, either in terms of days in service or mileage covered?

More intriguingly, were tests ever made to evaluate the drop off in thermal efficiency of the boiler as scale built up?

Could footplate crew tell very quickly from the performance whether a locomotive was fresh from a washout, mid-way through the cycle, or in need of a washout PDQ? (Of course, the quality of coal and fire would also affect the steamability of a loco, so perhaps there were too many factors to be sure?)

 

[John Webb]

Curiously the BR "Handbook for Railway Steam Locomotive Enginemen" published in 1957 (and since reprinted by Ian Allan) makes no mention of the factors dictating the frequency of boiler washouts. I assume that this was too variable, depending on water quality in any area, to define in a book, and was left to the experience of the shed foremen to determine for each locality.

 

[Taunton]

At 83B Taunton shed I think washing out was generally to a fixed pattern - the boilermaker at the shed, who supervised them, would have a schedule posted up for days ahead which the foreman (GWR term for shedmaster) would use to allocate locos to turns. There were only a few sets of washing out kit. It would take several days to do, I recall once a month was common.

The ORR feel the need to publish a proper document to heritage railways telling them how to do it, doubtless based on old BR material

http://webarchive.nationalarchives....a/assets/pdf_file/0017/2636/RSP6-locoblrs.pdf

 

[ainsworth74]

This video from back in the day may be of interest to those who aren't quite sure what a washout entails:

 

[Cowley]

Interesting subject.
I seem to remember that on the Mid Hants locos were scheduled for routine washouts every couple of weeks or so - the water there being fairly hard and lime scale rich.
They certainly had to treat the water constantly to counter the problems it caused.

 

[swt_passenger]

EDIT - ooops, that should read Washouts, of course! How do I correct that in the thread title?

As the person who started the thread there should be a drop down menu “ thread tools”, right side above the first post, below the top reply button, as you see it.

Hope this helps.

 

[70014IronDuke]

As the person who started the thread there should be a drop down menu “ thread tools”, right side above the first post, below the top reply button, as you see it.

Hope this helps.

Certainly does, thank you! Easy when you know how, innit?

 

[70014IronDuke]

This video from back in the day may be of interest to those who aren't quite sure what a washout entails:

I'd seen that video a year or two back, but had forgotten it. Very informative, but it looks as if the loco was almost ex-works! I wonder what shed it was filmed at.

And there is another lesson in this film - if anyone questions why BR had to get rid of steam quickly, just think how easy, or otherwise it was to recruit and retain men to do some of these jobs as horizons started to lift for the working classes in the 50s and 60s. Just imagine a young fellah, having gone on his first week's package holiday in 1964 to the Costa del Sol coming back mid-August to merrily start night shift cleaning out clinker at Warrington Dallam, St Margarets, Llantrisant or some such?

 

[Taunton]

Many of the cleaner recruits were from families with a railway tradition, and others from enthusiasts who peaked in this age group in the 1950s. Things would be more difficult in Warrington than at say Woodford Halse, railway tradition and with little else around. The knowledgeable ones would be aware that this was the route to ultimately being a driver, seen as a significant skilled working occupation at the time. One significant railway benefit was that after say a year it was common to be conscripted into the Army for your two years, when you came out your seniority had been retained throughout, for pay and for advancement..

I've also seen a few comments about cleaner/passed cleaner/fireman pay at the time. There's a perception that because it was dirty work it was bottom pay scale. This does not appear to be so, there were a range of elements which brought the pay level from basic up above what you got for unskilled labour in a factory, which had its own downsides such as boredom, repetition, and lack of job security.

 

[John Webb]

"Wash and Brush Up" dates from 1953, according to the notes in my BFI booklet and also in John Huntley's "Railways on the Screen" book. But neither of them mention the shed it was filmed at. Presumably if one can find out where 73020 was allocated in 1953, that might be a clue?

 

[Taunton]

It has a 15A Wellingborough shed plate in one shot. It was new to Chester in October 1951 but could be just back from works overhaul. On the other hand it could have just been prepared for the film. Two of Taunton's 63xx, 6347 and 6372, were prepared for the Royal Train, double headed by them over the Taunton-Barnstaple line, and looked a sight better than ex-works condition.