Travelling Range

[Steamtown Pete Hess]

How far can our Forney travel before it needs refueling??  Water??  Coal?? 

[James Patten]

For #10, assuming the 2 car train we had for most of this summer (coach 8 and open car 103), with round-trip over the whole line, with the current crop of coal...

We typically go two round trips before watering up.  Water's between 2/3rds and 1/2 of the way down, so we could probably make 4 - 5 trips before the tank ran dry.

As for coal, we've been using 15 - 20 five-gallon buckets worth each day, up from about a dozen or so last year.  This year's coal has high ash content so after every run we clean out the clinkers, thus we use more.

For heavier trains we use more coal, of course, but we don't often run heavier trains.

[Steamtown Pete Hess]

Hi James,

Thanks for the quick reply. 

You mentioned our Forney uses 15-20 five-gallon buckets per day ... What would you say a five-gallon bucket holds in weight??  How many round trips make up "a day"??  How much coal can the locomotive carry??   

What I am really trying to determine is how far can an average Forney pulling four or five cars go before having to stop for water and coal.  I understand the size of the locomotive, the weight of a train and the terrain it covers will certainly affect the answer.  I guess the best way to ask is when the WW&F operated, how far apart were water stops and how often would they stop for coal??

[James Patten]

There are 7 round trips a day, each is about 4.5 miles.  I'd guess that the five-gallon bucket will weigh 20-30 pounds when full (it's heavy but not really heavy).  The coal bunker is probably a foot deep, 3 feet wide and 4 feet high.

The WW&F had water stops probably 10 or so miles apart.  There was one in Wiscasset, of course, then the next was a mile above Head Tide station, which would be 10 miles.  I think the next one was along the river south of Coopers Mills, then Weeks Mills and Albion.  3 stations over 43 miles and 2 at either end.

I think there were only two places for coal - Wiscasset and Albion.  Engines probably heaped their coal on top of the tender.  #9's tender coal bunker is probably two feet deep and 4 wide and 4 high.  Somebody familiar with the coal reports in the archives would have to tell you what typical daily usage might be.

[Allan Fisher]

We actually did the calculations on #10's coal consumption at the WW&F a couple of years ago. Back then, with a 3.3  mile round trip, we used eleven (11) buckets of coal (each 38 pounds) for 8 round trips (45 minutes schedule). That's 418 pounds of coal for 26.4 miles. SO - carrying that out that's 126 miles per ton.

So Number #10 could easily have made a round trip from Albion to Wiscasset & return (87 mile) with a heaping load of coal on the tender.

Also remember that our present #10 at 12 tons was the equivalent size and power of WW&F #1.

WW&F #9 is 18 tons with larger cylinder size and more like the WW&F #2 & 3, with larger water & coal capacity.

[Steamtown Pete Hess]

Hey, thank you guys...!!  This really answers my question perfectly. 

[Matthew Gustafson]

How far can our Forney travel before it needs refueling??  Water??  Coal?? 

What about #9's travels until runing out of coal and water?

[Ed Lecuyer]

That's hard to know since we haven't steamed her yet. 

[Matthew Gustafson]

Once #9 is finish and up and runing again then we should try an expariment were #9 pulls all 7 WW&F cars (8 if the tankcar is finished by then) to see how strong she really is compared to #10! We can do the same thing once #11 is finished! 

[Matthew Gustafson]

Plus although #11 has a long way to go to be finished and runing on the WW&F. Can we compare her traveling distance with MNGM's 2-4-4 #7?