# 30's era film of NYC's DeWitt yard



## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

For those of you disappointed by _Extreme Trains_, hopefully this will make up for it - http://www.cnyhistory.org/video/video.html?vid=3863108A-E1C6-4B18-812A-2D44DE92D64D .
I love the shots of the guys riding the boxcars in the hump yard.

-Brian


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## Sesh1975 (Aug 25, 2008)

Can anyone explain the water trought in the middle of the rails?


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I love the bit where the switchman walks BACKWARDS across the tracks in FRONT of a moving steam locomotive!







He sure is surefooted to not trip over the rails! Also neat the way the smoke is sucked back into the chimney and the steam is pulled back into the dynamo!









I also wonder if the workmen putting the water trough between the rails might have had an easier time if they had drained the water out of the trough before they tried to move it... might have made it a bit lighter to move.

As for the fellows riding the cars down the hump... today young folk would PAY to get to do that.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

The water trough is to pick up water into the tender "on the fly".


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

That's a water pickup trough for high speed passenger trains. If you look at the bottom of some later era steam loco tenders, there is a scoop on the bottom. The Aristo long tender has one. 










-Brian


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Semper Vaporo on 11/12/2008 11:04 AM
I love the bit where the switchman walks BACKWARDS across the tracks in FRONT of a moving steam locomotive!







He sure is surefooted to not trip over the rails! Also neat the way the smoke is sucked back into the chimney and the steam is pulled back into the dynamo!









I also wonder if the workmen putting the water trough between the rails might have had an easier time if they had drained the water out of the trough before they tried to move it... might have made it a bit lighter to move.

As for the fellows riding the cars down the hump... today young folk would PAY to get to do that.






Yeah, there's a section of film that was put in backwards. A bit of comic relief, I guess.

I thought that was a bit odd that they put the trough in filled too.


-Brian


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Somewhere I've seen pictures of a train hitting the trough--water flew everywhere. I assume they filled the trough as needed, or else it would freeze in the wnter


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By lownote on 11/12/2008 11:34 AM
Somewhere I've seen pictures of a train hitting the trough--water flew everywhere. I assume they filled the trough as needed, or else it would freeze in the wnter


There would be a small heater shed adjacent to the track (and an employee there 24/7 to maintain the water level and heat for winter). Winter time water pickups could be quite spectacular!


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Also, it could be even more spectacular if the fireman didn't get the tender scoop retracted before the end of the trough!


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

I dug through that site and found these - 

big NYC 40's passenger steam - http://www.cnyhistory.org/video/video.html?vid=1F0D81B0-65B6-4607-BAEA-2C931BFB885C 

a 9 minute film trying to convince the voters of Syracuse to vote on a new Northern NYC RR route versus a Southern route with elevated tracks (not much train footage) - 
http://www.cnyhistory.org/video/video.html?vid=EC59B75E-CF1A-4030-A9B2-FE304940BA26 

this one featured freight trains, an old steam inspection loco, miniature live steam and servicing a Pacific and Berkshire - http://www.cnyhistory.org/video/video.html?vid=F1FD401B-F8F5-47D6-9AF5-5AD5D1E72524 

this one marks the end of rail service through downtown Syracuse (I guess the new Northern route was approved by the voters) - http://www.cnyhistory.org/video/video.html?vid=C91E88F2-30B2-435F-A195-77D49CB5E5C2 

-Brian


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I wonder, is it the archive "film" that is flipped upsidedown or backward or the person that is digitizing them?

Anyway.... Wonderful scenes of steam locos in operation. !!!


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

The same scoop that Aristo mistakenly put on all their long tenders regardless of railroad. I have seen video of this function, and the spray blowing out of the sides and top of the tender is unbelievebale.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I read a story of the first experiments in picking up water on the fly. The scoop connected to a duct that carried the water to the top of the tender (so they didn't have to make a seal/valve at the bottom where the scoop connected) and the top of the duct just ended at the top of the tank. Seems they didn't realize the force the water would have on the top of the tender from inside and the first time it was tried it blew the top off the tender! They had to add deflectors to the end of the duct to spread the water in many directions to reduce the force on any one place.

When it works right there is little spray to the sides and the passengers don't even notice that anything happened, but when it didn't work right the trailing cars got a good bath and passengers would notice a jolt when the scoop hit the water. I have never read anything as to what made the difference in working right and washing the first few cars in the train.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Without much more information, I would imagine that a few things would be at play:
1. Speed. Going too fast, this would cause more water to try and go up the scoop than it can handle. The result would be the excess water finding another route, spray, etc.. because water is incompressible. 
2. Depth of the scoop, relative to the water level. If the scoop was too shallow, I imagine it would tend to shear the water surface, without much going up to the tender. Kind of like when you row a boat, and 'miss' the water. If it was too deep, a lot of force resisting the movement of the scoop through the water resulting in an instantaneous braking effect. 

We studied this specific application in freshman physics. It seems to me that there were several approaches to how to introduce the pan water to the tender. I recall that they did have to open the regular water hatch when filling with the track pan just to reduce the chance the tender would blow up once it reached the full level. 

One thing that wasn't discussed is the effect of the cinders from passing trains being thrown in to the pans. Since coal is less dense than water, it tends to float. That means the scoop is picking up a lot of particles that end up in the boiler. Maybe it was negligable.


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