why the fan when the doors are right there? seems a waste with the smoke jacks in place and cooler air coming in from under the doors. how much difference can a fan that size make?
As a youngster, I can remember helping my father fire up cold steamers at Edaville. He liked to get the fire boxes full of pine and douse the wood with a coffee can full of kerosene. He'd put a match to his preparations and then open the engine house doors to cold and blow. With fireboxes crackling and producing thick smoke, one of the G.E. diesels would push the locomotives outside.
Dad would get his rags, oil and check that the required tools were within each engine. We'd rake cinders when the power was outside. It always amazed me how long it took to clear the wood smoke from the inside peak of the house.
Another day, years later at the W.W. & F. Ry., I remember starting the Brookville up in bay one, at the north end. I was planning on letting the engine idle for a moment and got down to see if there was any coffee left in (what was then) "the bay one cafe". As I started to walk for the coffee pot, I heard a tiny little sneeze. I looked up over the Brookville and saw a red squirrel sitting on a purlin. I opened the doors to clear out the exhaust, which produced a chill wind. The squirell tucked into a nest of insulation to escape the cold. That little guy was a sort of mascot for a time.
