Spark arresting chimneys

[009 micro modeller]

Currently I'm constructing an 009 loco, which is freelance but in the style of a British loco built for export. To achieve this appearance it has a spark arresting chimney (similar to this: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2949/15437925376_3c4ff259bf.jpg).I know in the UK these were fitted to coal fired locos operating in places where sparks presented a safety risk (e.g. Woolwich Arsenal and Bowaters Paper Mill). Were they fitted to locos working abroad that operated in very dry environments, or were they only ever fitted to wood or bagasse fired locos? If the latter I will model the loco carrying wood fuel rather than coal.

[DavidB-AU]

Very common on 2' gauge sugar cane railways/tramways in Australia and across the Pacific (is the linked photo the Hudswell Clarke from Fiji at Statfold Barn?). Some examples from Fowler and Hudswell Clarke, and for comparison Baldwin and Krauss.
 
Cheers
David

[009 micro modeller]

Very common on 2' gauge sugar cane railways/tramways in Australia and across the Pacific (is the linked photo the Hudswell Clarke from Fiji at Statfold Barn?). Some examples from Fowler and Hudswell Clarke, and for comparison Baldwin and Krauss.

 

Cheers

David

Are they burning wood and/or sugar cane waste or are they coal burners that just have spark arrestors to stop them setting fire to the cane in the wagons?

 

Edit: Yes it is the loco at Statfold. In Narrow Gauge World a while ago there was an article on the repatriation and restoration of this but I can't remember what fuel it was originally designed for. Since it was latterly converted to a diesel while in Fiji I think a lot of work was required to get it working as a steam loco again, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's been restored as a coal fired loco in any case.

Edited August 19, 2018 by 009 micro modeller

[DavidB-AU]

In Queensland it varied between wood and coal depending on the mill and the price of coal. Sugar cane waste was usually the primary fuel source for mill itself. The Bundaberg Fowlers were designed to burn coal but could run on wood if required (but not efficiently). There were a handful of Queensland sugar locos were converted to burn oil in the 1960s. In preservation some have been run on diesel and even LP gas.

 

Cheers

David

[009 micro modeller]

Thank you.

[moore43grm]

might not be what 009 micro modeller intended but as for spark arresting chimneys ..

 

 

 

 

Russ M

[Talltim]

I get the impression that it’s the ‘alternative’ fuel* locos that got them fitted, presumably they create more sparks and embers. As you say, sometimes they were also fitted to coal fired locos used in more flammable surroundings.

*not including oil

[Pacific231G]

They were certainly used on the oriignal steam locos built for the Voies Ferrées des Landes (VFL) a susidiary of the C.F.du Midi (and later  of SNCF which it still is as part of VFLI) This company operated a series of fairly short "d'Intéret local" lines in the Département des Landes (a département is roughly equivalent to one of our counties) that branched off like fishbones from the Midi main line between Bordeaux and Bayonne. Though they were local common carriers generally running a couple of mixed trains each day, their main purpose was to transport timber and other forestry products (mainly turpentine and pine resin) to the main line from the vast artifical pine forest that covers much of this part of France. For various reasons this forest is particularly prone to fire so 15 of the VFL's 19 steam locos, which were coal fired, were fitted with large spark arresting chimneys known as "tromblons" (blunderbuses)rather similar to the diamond smokestacks of 19th Century American wood burners so familiar from Westerns.. 

 

 

These locos survived until the end of steam on the VFL in 1957 but curiously, the steam locos used on the S.E. Réseau des Landes de Gironde which ran through the same forest in the next département were fitted with more conventional chimneys (as were four VFL locos nos 21-24 built by Franco-Belge for one of its constuent companies including the one parked behind no. 4 ) I think these did though have mesh screens to avoid sparks but there seems no logical reason for the difference; the whole forest (that covered a million hectares across three départements) would have been equally flammable. 

Edited August 20, 2018 by Pacific231G

[DavidB-AU]

It took a while to find a picture of a Queensland sugar loco with a visible fuel load! But here's one of Homebush (Hudswell Clarke 1067 of 1914) at Homebush Mill, Mackay in 1968. Since 1978 it has been preserved operational at Victoria Mill, Ingham and hauls tourist trains over the mill network, and on a few occasions (such as its 100th birthday) the first cane train of the season.
 
Cheers
David

[009 micro modeller]

I'm not sure what I'll be doing with my loco yet but it could end up on some sort of mineral railway, so it probably wouldn't have a spark arrestor because of the surroundings or loads carried.

[DavidB-AU]

Depends on the mineral. If it was shale you might not want to set it on fire.

Cheers
David