The Ridgway Spark Arrestor (the funny hat) is a beautiful piece of engineering. Let's take a look at it! Merch: hyce.creator-s... Join my discord: / discord Become an ES&D Train Crew Member and get extra perks! / @hyce777
As one of the guys that installed it, here's a bit of trivia about 346's: it's built of heavier material than the originals. The baffle plate was not specified for narrow gauge engines, only standard gauge, it was however decided to include it. The angle of the netting is what makes 346s ridgeway so effective, much more than the squat ugly ones that were built by Durango as it's built to the print, except for the fact it was assembled backwards😊
you forgot to mention the fun fact about the ridgeway is that it acts like a funnel in high winds and makes a pretty impressive backdraft when you're pointed into the wind. Nothing like firing when there are 50mph winds during polar and you open the door and you're greeted with a 3' tongue of flame coming out the door as you look down to check the fire...I only lost a little bit of eyebrow that night
So 346's arrangement leaves a Hansel-&-Gretel style breadcrumb trail of black soot alongside the Right of Way, so you can't lose the locomotive? That's excellent!
A video on how various spark arrestors work would be great. side note, the term spark arrestor brings to mind the backfire/exhaust flame hiders on late war German tanks with the wonderfully imposing name "Flammevernichter" which translates literally as "flame annhilator"
C&S had these on a handful of Standard gauge locomotives as well. They were a requirement for operating into Black Forest for certain locomotive classes.
With the demise of steam engines, cinder pathways gradually disappeared. When I was a small boy in the early 1950s, the cinders from railyards were used as fill material for paths in parks, woodlands and other public places. It worked well as it prevented mud from developing, and cleaning cinders from your shoes usually just required wiping your feet on a door mat.
So I found out the restoration club that is on the same museum property as the model railroad club I’m with used to care for Uintah Combine 50. I was really excited to see it when I visited the museum a week ago
“GEVO is a foamer term. No one that works for the railroad calls an evo series locomotive a GEVO” Hyce, us foamers adopted the GEVO name from the engine that powers the Evolution Series: the GEVO-12!
I liked how you described the various layers of screening and nice to see this aspect up close. I also appreciate getting on your soapbox about correcting made up terminologies. Nice to hear that such erroneous terms are not only heard my line of the museum world. Thanks again Mark for another great video.
Thank you for this excellent explanation on the Ridgeway Spark Arrester. I have seen these before but I wasn’t aware of the inner screen. Great information!
I am going to use a wood burning traction engine on My farm at some point so a in depth video on diamond stacks would really help with cracking the code on how these things work for me
If you do a video on smokestacks and spark arrestors in general, make sure you hunt down a picture of W.H. Eccles Lumber Company #3 with her very wide stack. If you can't find one I'm sure one of us Sumpter Valley people can give you a good one. She still puts out a lot of sparks, though! A picture of an SVRy engine with the onion/cabbage/Rushton stack would also be a good one.
glad you explained that it's hooked up to some tube or something, I was looking at that open cone under it and thinking...so it just drops out and bounces into the bushes? Well, no. And I guess treated ties/sleepers/whatever the real name is for those things aren't prone to easy ignition
Sometimes low tech solutions are the best. If we would re-invent steam locomotives nowadays we probably use some high speed camera and and computer controlled air-hose which blasts the cinders into a holding compartment. Unnecessarily complicated but common wisdom says it new and modern must be better.
Awesome! I love those old c+s moguls. I have a few G scale models from the original German LGB run of them, one has this exact spark arrestor. Beautiful engines, and models.
Neat! I was actually just wondering what these were for. I think I saw a train with an odd smoke stack, like the one in back to the future. Is that something similar? Also nice to see what's behind that hatch on the front of a train. So that's a smoke box eh? And what a lovely couple of cabooses you have there in the beginning. And those two trains look really cool. They remind me of the cartoons I used to watch as a kid, but the real deal is even cooler.
Trains aren't the only thing to get weird foamer names. WWII tanks got all sorts of names that were mostly the product of model companies or armchair historians.
I have a 7.5" gauge Little Engines modern mogul that i'm freelancing into something that looks like a PNW logging railroad purchased an old mogul from the SP for logging service and i've been thinking about fabricating one of these spark arrestors for it. nice to see a video of one up close!
I know your channel logo is based on a macaw, so I wanted to share a little bit of presidential trivia: Andrew Jackson had a grey parrot named Polly who he taught to swear and had to be removed from Jackson’s funeral because he was continuously swearing.
OK: Beartrap out, Ridgway in. Thanks for the episode on the Ridgway Spark Arrestor! Tho, I need to ask: if they were so effective, why did the D&S drop using them?
Thank you for answering this question, which I had for many years! (here in Brazil no one has ever been able to explain to me how this device worked). One more question. Wouldn't a balloon stack be more efficient? What is the difference between them, in theyr use?
Balloon stacks are more used for wood burning engines, where additional baffles are needed, and when the smokebox is quite small. The more modern engines with bigger smokeboxes didn't need them because they 1. had more room in the smokebox for screening + baffles, and 2. they burned different fuels that made less issues.
Could you explain why in past events last year 346 hasn’t had her spark arrester on? I remember for the triple steam up ,and the harvest haunt express train, and other runs last year she hasn’t had it on.
Some people on Discord also call them tie burners, because it looks almost as if its burning the side of the ties, though not really. Haven't a clue where the Beartrap name came from.
Questions about stacks. I love the old 4-4-0s. Are these devices the reasons why alot of old wood burning locomotives had those beautifully crafted very broad smoke stacks?. Did they incorporated it the stacks design and made it look good with the upside down bell look? or is the big stacks just simply for looks. Because most 4-4-0s had big crafted wood cabs, broad cattle plows, large ornate headlamp box. Or was it just a sheet metal trick to look cool?
The big stacks are fancy spark arrestors. Early engines had small smokeboxes, so they elected to put the screens inside the stack itself instead; hence the big stack.
I'm looking forward to a video at nite showing the fireworks display. I liked your comments at the end about bogus terms. Ignore the haters who will comment, because I like your take. Very well done video, as usual.
I would have enjoyed the video even more if it had included a view of 346 with her "hat" on, even a still photo from her previous running. I was able to find one elsewhere, however, in a few minutes. UPDATE: The title image does show the Ridgeway spark arrester in place on locomotive 346.
Is 346 a superheated engine? I'm assuming those two large cast pieces that look like onion rings laying down are the returns to cylinders after the SH?
Didn’t the Durango and Tolec use the bear trap arrestors to keep track of the train’s schedule? Since they would leave trails of soot in sync with the steam exhaust chugs. It also are kind of like the spedmoter of the 1890’s. Thank you I like the video.
Why would a diesel locomotive have a spark arrestor installed on it. The POVA railroad runs a few GP10's that have spark arrestors installed and I have never seem to figure out why.
I wonder if you wouldn't be able to explain a part of another locomotive that I have wondered for the longest time. Take a look Steamtown's Canadian National Mikado 3254 and I wonder if you wouldn't be able to tell me what the cylindrical piece on top the front end of the smokebox is. It's in front of the stack and behind the number boards. I've wondered for the longest time what its called and if it serves a purpose or if its just for decoration. I've seen something like it on the front of many other steam engines and alwaus wondered.
90% sure it's a feed water heater based on your description; look up Elesco feed water heaters and see if it's what you're thinking of. More modern and efficient steam locomotives used the heat from the smokebox as a heat exchanger to heat up the water being put in the boiler for efficiency reasons, a lot of them have that tank up front and on top.
I didn't know railroader's didn't call GEVO's, GEVO's? New video idea? Do foamer terms that don't mean anything to railroaders type thing? Also, very interesting info on the arrestor!
hay, Hyce i saw that you was in railroads online, but i need little help with something what if you saw a locomotive with 4-8-8-8-4 what will you say and what will the size whaeth andatracdifert and the pulling power.
So Ive noticed that 20 has been on the C&TS a few times before. How did she get out there? Is there a rail connection or was she just trucked over there? Also, have you guys done the same before with 491 and 346?
Wouldn’t you still have the same problem with 491? Since they are all burning coal it seems like they would all be highly likely they all create extreme fire danger
491 has a special front end device called a cyclone, or Anderson front end inside the smokebox. It emits very few hot cinders comparatively; so much so it runs without an arrestor.
I never liked the ridgeway spark arresters because of how they looked, but now I at least know how much better they are for preventing wildfires... but I still think they're ugly
Most steam locomotives do not. Mainly because most locos in the us don’t run through deserty areas like the NG. Standard gauge locos still do spit out sparks, it’s just not as big of a concern in their neck of the woods
