South Africa's Diesel busting Steam Locomotive - SAR "Red Devil"

by the 1980s steam power had become redundant on many Railways across the world with most running diesel engines or fully electrifying their lines some Engineers however still felt that steam was a viable option and tried their best to prove that steam power could keep up with the times in South Africa this resulted in an engineer trying to beat out Diesel power With a Little Help From a devil built in 1953 the class 25s of South African Railways were hardworking beasts and for their time quite intricate in design being some of the most modern steam locomotives in the world fitted with condensing equipment to help them save water they weren't without their faults however having a long history of needing to be modified and various features be replaced to keep them in working order by 1973 the condensing equipment was considered too or liid and expensive to maintain along with several other aspects of the engine's design so it was decided they'd be rebuilt in order to make them cheaper and easier to run at the time South African Railways wanted to transition from Steam to Diesel and Electric engines however David wardale who was employed as a mechanical engineer on the railway disagreed he felt that steam power could still be drastically improved and that because South Africa had such a plentiful supply of coal it made made more sense to use steam over diesel engines with the price and availability of imported oil fluctuating the railway held little interest in Wale's ambition but permitted him to trial his ideas when he promised they'd help reduce Lin side fires wardale chose a class 19d engine number 2644 which was a notoriously bad performer and had it fitted with better cylinders better blast pipes some other minor upgrades and his secret weapon a gas reduction combustion system or gpcs for short the way a traditional locomotive Firebox works is coal is spread over a large grate once lit the heat from the fire draws air up through the grate and into the Firebox helping the coal burn a flammable gas is released from the burning coal and opening the Firebox door allows more air into the Firebox to help this gas can burst the Heat and burning gases are then drawn through the boiler tubes to heat the boiler before being exhausted out the Smoke Box the problem with this system is the rapid rate at which air is drawn through the Firebox often resulted in smaller unburned pieces of coal getting pulled through the boiler and exhausted out the chimney this not only meant that the engine was essentially wasting unburnt fuel but the small particles moving at such a high speed effectively sand blasted many internal parts of the engine causing a significant amount of wear on components not to mention mention that firemen had to maintain a thin bed of coals at all times when firing an engine but too thin wouldn't produce enough heat while too thick would stress parts of the Firebox from the heat as it was the gases that were released from the coal that produced most of the heat an engine needed the gas producer combustion system worked by prioritizing releasing the gases from the coal and combusting it afterwards the Firebox grates had much smaller air holes to limit the amount of oxygen that to the fire and a nozzle would spray a small amount of exhaust Steam from the cylinders up into the bed of coal the coals were laid thicker burned at a lower temperature and the water combined with the slower air flow ensured that little to no unburned coal would be drawn through the boiler above the layer of coal were vents that allowed fast moving air to enter the Firebox and allow the released gases to combust the hot gases would then flow through the boiler and then be exhausted as normal this was a much more efficient way of burning coal as not only did it ensure little to no fuel was left unburned but the airflow ensured that no coal particles were flowing through the boiler and damaging components or that any hot coals were being spat out causing line side fires an added bonus was that this layout also helped reduce the amount of clinker that built up at the bottom of the Firebox once overhauled and after a few weeks of tuning the modified 19d was found to not only be more powerful than its unmodified counterparts but consume between 20 to 25% less fuel on average too foot plate Crews ended up nicknaming the engine spooky due to its unearthly performance and its quieter than usual exhaust deeming the experiment a success South African Railways allowed wardale to continue with his plan and modify one of the previously mentioned class 25s feeling that if he can modernize what was already seen as a modern steam locomotive design then the railway might also see the same untapped potential in Steam as he did engine number 3450 was selected and taken to the Salt River workshops in Cape Town in 1979 where wardale spent the next 2 years refitting it not only with a gpcs but many other minor alterations including but not limited to a self-cleaning Smoke Box better superheating better cylinders and a new feed water heater the Vol Schwartz valve gear itself was improved using measurements calculated on a computer that's how up to date the engine was on the 5th of February 1981 the engine was steamed for the first time and after dealing with some leaks the engine went for its first test run the next day 3 days later on the 9th the engine was unveiled to the public being given a bright red coat of paint and named LD Porter after an Argentinian locomotive engineer who inspired many of the changes Wale had made to the engine the local press took a great interest in the locomotive and by the end of the week newspapers printing pictures of the engine had dubbed it the Red Devil its paint job however wasn't the only thing that earned its nickname like the modified 19d before it 3450 was found to be very fuel efficient with Savings of 28% on coal and 30% on water usage not only that but the engine's overall pulling power was significantly stronger too during tests it was found that the dynamometer car used to measure the engine's power was faulty and so most estimates of the engine's power were very conservative despite the skeptical measurements the engine showed a 43% increase in draw bar horsepower at minimum so it's possible that the engine was much more powerful than it was measured to be while already being significantly more powerful than the rest of the class 25s as a result the engine was officially reclassified into a class 26 being the only locomotive of its class all of this paired with its size really puts into perspective how absurd this engine was the locomotive itself weighed 117 long tons including the tender was over 90 ft in length and had a starting Tractive effort of 52,000 ft to put that into perspective it was longer heavier and more powerful than a grzly Pacific while running on Narrow Gauge 3' 6 in rails I think you'll agree that on top of being an absolute unit the name Red Devil was certainly earned so much so that a name plate reading Red Devil was fitted to its smoke deflectors making the name official there was however a devil in the engine's details too many foot plate Crews found the engine awkward to fire with the locomotive's performance often depending on the quality of coal available the lack of air holes also caused problems with Ash building up on the Firebox great a leaky super heater and temperamental boiler pump didn't do it any favors either but it biggest drawback was its lack of traction the class 25s often suffered from Wheel slip especially when starting on or climbing grades and red devil was no different even with better sanding gear it just couldn't seem to overcome its problem with adhesion essentially rendering all that extra power it had useless if it couldn't deploy it in any meaningful way but in the end it wasn't any of these little foibles that ended up condemning the project but simply South African Railways is indifference to the engine altogether the directors by this point had made up their minds and wanted to make the switch to diesel engines no matter how efficient steam power was by comparison war 11 left South African Railways in 1984 once he realized the railway was steadfast on scrapping steam power and moved on to other projects Red Devil ended up being modified and partially converted back into a standard class 25 to help resolve some of its issues it was later withdrawn from service but saved from scrap by a group of preservationists who used it to pull special excursions until 2004 when it was eventually put into storage it was recently stored into working order in 2018 and has since been carrying Excursion trains during the South African winter while certainly not the last great Harrah of steam power the fact that Wale was able to improve the performance of an engine so much just goes to show that steam locomotives might still have more to give than we first thought just be sure to practice your fiddle playing before you go about building another engine you know just in case subscribe for more

Channel: Train of Thought

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Keywords: Train, Trains, Locomotives, Steam, Steam Train, Steam Trains, Fact, Fun, Fun Facts, Informal, Railway, Railroad, Educational, Train of Thought, ToT, of, Thought, Trainofthought

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Length: 10min 8sec (608 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024