More engineering ignorance on my part here: doesn't the steam need to flow through the heating pipes? In other words, doesn't there need to be two connections for steam, one inlet and one outlet? It seems to me that static steam would cool pretty fast and be useless for heating the tank car contents. Surely they didn't introduce steam directly into the contents.

Richard Townsend

Lincoln City, OR

-----Original Message-----
From: destorzek@... [STMFC] <STMFC@...>
To: STMFC <STMFC@...>
Sent: Thu, Nov 16, 2017 3:56 pm
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Tankcar Steam Connections

 

Thanks to all who answered. The project was trying to figure out what exactly was happening in a forties era photo captioned "unloading road oil." There is a tankcar, an oil spreader truck with the booms folded across the back, and a trailer full of unidentifiable machinery between them. There is a hose from the top of the dome to the trailer, and a second from the trailer to the hatch on top of the tank truck. Then there is another hose from the trailer to the bottom of the tankcar. I am of the opinion that there are both an engine powered pump and a steam generator on the trailer, and the last hose is running steam to heat the car.