Fireman...a Lost Art???

Thanks Jim for starting an interesting discussion.

When I became friends with the firemen on the DQ, I realized how important their job really was. Without the fireman watching the pressure for the steam, the steamboat was not going to go anywhere at all. There would also be no hot water for cooking or cleaning or anything.

However, in fairness, crew is crew and the ability of crew to get along with each other like the large extended family that they are is also necessary.

Finally, in answer to your last question, there are all those small steamboat owners (like the ones who gather annually in New Hampshire) who have a collective wealth of knowledge of how to make the boat go using any time of fuel to create the steam. I found that truly amazing!

Cheers
Elaine

Jim, firing a locomotive was (is) probably far different from firing boilers on a big steamboat. On locomotives hand firing coal required skill and dexterity. You have to place the coal evenly in the firebox plus deal with banking it in the back so that the draft will pull it forward. On an engine running at track speed there is considerable bucking and rocking to deal with. An experienced fireman learns to build up a kind of rythem to do this.
Generally, you do two scoops down the left side of the firebox, two or three down the middle, two down the right and a few in the back. Also, by lightly bouncing the bottom of the scoop on the bottom of the firebox door you can spread the coal fairly evenly. This is all done with the firebox door closing between each scoop and operated by a foot pedal that is air operated. Once this round of firing has been done, the fireman watches the smoke and when it clears up he repeats the round of scooping. Of course, engines working in yards or not running with a train don't require as much. The fireman also controls the stack blower.

Stoker fired locomotives have steam jets that direct the coal to different parts of the firebox and the coal is pulled from the tender via an auger.
It all works fine until a big lump of coal or a piece of junk in the coal fouls the auger and the whole thing jams up.

Another aspect of coal firing so that when the supply of coal in the tender starts to run down, coal has to be moved forward so the fireman can reach it. The lucky guy with this job is called a "coal pusher". He rides in the tender on top of the coal pile (catching all the smoke in his face) and shovels the coal down when needed. In real service, the fireman sometimes had to do this but on excursion locomotives, a volunteer or crew member does it. (I've done this on Southern Ry 2-8-2 4501.) Many engines were equipped with steam powered coal pushers installed in the tender.

Oil burning engines are fired by manipulating oil, atomizer and blower controls. The fireman has to watch the engineer constantly and adjust these controls with the movement of the throttle and reverse lever. A good fireman will maintain a slight haze of exhaust coming from the stack. Over firing will produce black smoke and tend to clog the fluse in the boiler. Also, on oil burning locomotives, it is necessary to occasionally sand the flues to clean out the soot. This is done by filling a small scoop with sand and holding it up to the inspection hole in the firedoor and letting the draft of the working boiler suck the sand out of the scoop. I have no idea how this would be done on a steamboat boiler where there is not much, if any, draft.

As for the small steamboats that Elaine mentioned, firing is much easier since the boilers are very small. My 21 foot boat has an vertical boiler 2 feet in diameter and I just open the firedoor, throw in a few pieces of wood and an occasional paper bag of coal, and shut the door. It is necessary to adjust the blower from time to time but generally, once the adjustments are made, it goes on pretty well.

-Jim Herron

The Fireman's Art

A good Fireman was as valuable to the steamboat as was the Pilot or the Engineer. Until recently, all the steamboat firemen I knew were black, and that may have been true down through the generations. We mentioned Eat-Em-Up who would have been an Engineer had he been white. One of my very favorite Firemen was Robert Lollar, or better known as "Preacher" from the time when Captain Tom Ryman taught him the Scriptures, as Robert could not read or write, and the, then, young black man held Sunday services on the head of the Tennessee Captain's steamboat while the white folk attended their own ministry on the Boiler Deck with Cap'n Ryman conducting. Preacher also fired on the IDLEWILD, AVALON, and worked well up onto his nineties on the DELTA QUEEN in the engine room and later shining brass. Captain Doc Hawley often introduced Robert as "one of the best coal firemen, ever, on the river". An accolade he wore long after the boats converted to fuel oil. He was that well-respected.

So, it seems quite possible, judging from the fine examples of latter day black steamboat firemen who all probably lacked a so-called "formal education", black men, during slave days, could have learned the firebox art and served honorably in that specialized capacity.

That reminds me of a time in 1980, 20 miles or so south of Memphis when on the DQ the fire was lost. According to Bubba Chin, fireman extrordinaire, who had the watch, this was due to some fuel contamination. The boat was nosed over to the riverbank and good 'ole Bubba went to work re-lighting his boilers. When after 30 minutes or so, he had them lit, I went topside to view the stack. At first the smoke was nearly white, then brown, then jet black, and remained that way for about 45 minutes until we had steam. There was absolutely no wind that day, so the smoke just hung in the sky like a huge cloud. Some 4 hours later, upon reaching Memphis, that cloud was still clearly visable on the horizon.

Fireman! Yes, I agree with Sam that a good fireman is right up there in skill with some of the pilots and engineers...especially so if solid fuel is involved. While I am a licensed engineer and fireman in the State of Ohio, I have never fired a solid fuel boiler personally since I was in management, not the union. The fact that back-breaking work and terrible heat are involved, robbed some of the prestige from the fireman's job methinks. Anticipating the variations in the load ahead is not easily mastered, as you hafta anticipate what Cap will do, the whims of the pilot, and where the next lock or landing is. And, all this in a position from which the view of the river is sometimes poor at best and remote from the engineer, the pilot and the captain. He had to rely on scanty clues provided by bells and whistles and infrequent glimpses of the river. But the skill to deal with the unforseeable is also there...the Captain suddenly makes a stop and you just got the fire clean and nice and hot for running the boat up the river. A good sudden dose of feedwater might forstall her "popping off" and spooking every horse and living thing in earshot (a long way)...but, too much and she'll prime on you (water carry-over) at start-up. Popping off is to the the fireman as "centering the wheel" is to the striker engineer only not as dangerous. Water carried over in the steam can shear off turbine blades or pop off a cylinder head on the main engines. On a liquid or gas fired boiler, the fireman cuts back the fire with a valve but it is easy to get a flame out or lotsa smoke, and, a good slug of water in the oil and you gotta flame out even when under full way. No steam, no, wheel turn, no wheel turn and no control...the fireman will then see the captain soon enough when that happens, sure enough...likely the last person in the world he wantsta see at that time! Having to explain what happened to management while addressing the problem can be a real frustration and the smart captain will stay well out of reach of the slice bar...now THAT is something that I DO know something about!

I've always heard that a lazy fireman is a good fireman. Any insight on that?
During a recent steamboat meet, one of the participants fired our boiler, and was under the impression that it would be a piece of cake, since he was well experienced firing steam tractors. Next thing he knew, the pressure was down to 80 lbs. and he could not get it hot for love nor money. Poor guy. On the other hand, we have a 20 year old fellow working for us who has no trouble keeping up steam, although he gives the appearance of being bone idle and has no prior experience with boilers. Go figure.

Another Catagory

Now that's another catagory, as Chief Cal was fond of saying. I can see what your most-interesting expression might imply: someone fiddlin' with the fire might be doing too much. Of someone like old Preacher Lollar, it was said a skilled fireman knew how to "lay a good bed of coal", but one not so skilled would smother one. Somewhere within lies the truth. Where's Cap'n Bates on this?

As a fellow who never earned a nickle as a fireman, I can honestly say I have fired a locomotive, a derrick boat and a coal burning steamboat. Far and away, the toughest was the locomotive. It takes skill to stand on a violently shifting deck and hit a hole barely larger than the scoop. That has to be overcome before learning the subtleties of combustion. The derrick boat, with a vertcal boiler was easiest.

I was once allowed to give firing a locomotive a try, and can say amen to that. And how on earth can you tell which little corner of the fire to toss the coal into when all you can see in the fire box is a blinding white light?

Lexie,
That statement is pretty true of any complex job--one who is really good at it makes it look like little effort is done--there is no wasted motion, or the performance goes seamlessly. The final benifactor of the work has no clue as to the effort or knowledge done/used. I say "final" because the folks in-between sure do know! (on the boat; the chief, pilot, etc.) And, as with most art, the work usually goes unrecognized! Well, until later when that person is no longer around and is greatly missed!
S'
David D.

I was, more than once, regaled with the tale that nobody is indispensible. It sometimes comes up upon retirement: place your hand in a bucket of water and then remove it...in seconds the surface is healed and it appears that nothing was ever there...Well, that may well be true, but the sharp eye will note that the level in the bucket has dropped! There are many businesses that failed when the owner retired or passed away and it is because of the skill of the owner and the lack thereof in those who try to pick up the "dropped baton". I never tried to fire a loco, Lexie, but did ride L & N No. 152 in the cab and the cab floor will soon teach you to dance while trying to stand in one place...and that at only 35 mph!

Jim and I of late have discussed selling our business as we are getting too old for the physical demands. To keep it going, as is, would require someone who is comfortable around steam, well versed in the business of tourism, and knows their way around boats. Also, not afraid of work and not expecting to make a million bucks. We know of no one around here who fits that description, and thus we feel that the business would fail quickly if turned over to someone else, or be unsellable. I wish we were indispensible. It is a real dilema. So I guess we'll pony on until we peter out. That won't, I'm afraid, be long.

And I have known and worked with people who ARE missed and who DID make a difference. And that was the 152 I attempted to fire, way before my balance went south.

Firing the 152 was my sole experience at firing a steam locomotive. As Tom said, the speed was moderate and so was the work. On accommodation trains the fireman built a fire during station stops, knowing the train would make another stop soon. On through runs there was no such luxury and the engine ate the coal with relish.

I volunteered to "cut coal" on the Southern Railway 2-8-2 4501 for a weekend between Jacksonville, FL and Valdosta, GA about 20 years ago. Cutting coal means you ride on the top of the coal pile in the tender and shove coal down to the fireman as needed. There were two of us cutting coal that day and the engine had two firemen who traded off when they got too hot or tired to go on. I was invited to fire for awhile and quickly got bushed. Running 40-45 mph, I earned some laughs from the experienced guys but was later told that I had fired over the "ruling grade" of the line. How much of a grade? Probably about 1/2 of 1 percent. Whatever, I was still beat and, from the coal cutting, black as a coal miner. I was staying at my sister in law's house that wekend and she made me hose off in the garage before I could enter the house. Still, it was a great weekend and I have some pretty neat movies I shot over the top of the engine as we rocked along. Firemen defintely earned their pay.
-Jim Herron

Jim: My intro to 4501 came in 1966 or 1967. We were working in the yard where we still live when I heard a whistle. Knowing it was a steam whistle, I told my wife to get in the car, we raced the nearly two miles to the Mt Zion Road crossing of the Southern RR tracks south of Florence, Ky. We got there in time to see 4501 scream by northbound from an excursion. We rode her a couple of times since and moutned her cab on at least two occasions but never under way. About 25 years ago, being warned, I found her drowsing in the Ludlow yard under steam but unmanned. Her fires were banked and you could feel the quiet circulation of her boiler water under the influence of that banked fire. She was in green Southern livery back then and I have not seen her in many years except in an occasional movie. Donno where she is now but she was a splendid example of 1911 Baldwin outshopping.

Tom: The 4501 is at the Tennessee Valley RR Museum in Chattanooga. She's all but retired now, in need of extensive boiler and/or firebox work. I last saw her running in the mid-1990's and Billy Byrd was the engineer. Billy was possibly the most famous engineer on the L&N and was interviewed by Charles Kuralt twice, once on Billy's retirement run and again about his love of steam. Now, Billy has passed on, too. I shot video of Billy running engines 630 and 610, as described below.

TVRM has one of the best steam shops in the country and finished re-building their ex-U S Army 2-8-0 last year and is nearing completion of repairs to Southern Ry 2-8-0 630. Both will run on the museum's line and occasional jaunts down a 40 mile short line. 4501 will most likely remain a static exhibit, I am told.

Jim: Alas! Sorry to hear that she is retired. I was told years ago that 4501 was owned by an individual. She ran annually out of Cincinnati to Danville via Lexington or somewhere south, sponsored by the Cincinnati RR Club. These were day trips, of course and she had to be assisted up the big hill out of Ludlow to Erlanger which I think was nearly a 4% grade. The Southern RR Bridge over the Ohio at Ludlow had a swing span to let the steamboats through during high water. Dunno if it was ever used. 4501 had to take water via local fire departments along the way during her excursions. 4501 has a combination of grace and raw power that always appealed to me. But, Baldwin and Brooks locos always did that for me.

Speaking of the Southern Railway Bridge: some months ago I was looking at some small photos (not photos in my collection) of some locations during the 1937 flood. I thought I could identify some as Cincinnati. One of them appeared to be the Southern Bridge. The pier for the swing span clearly visible--sans machinery, However there appeared to be steelwork on either end of the former swing span indicating a lift span. The question: was it ever converted to a lift span? If so when and for how long?

The car ferry Str. BADGER which operates on Lake Michigan between Ludington, MI and Wisconsin (see www.ssbadger.com) is coal fired. She has 4 Foster Wheeler boilers that her firemen attend to below the main deck. I'd say it's a safe bet that she is the largest coal fired steamer operating today in America.