Steam Locamotive Water Use Per mile

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  • November 7, 2021 at 8:07 pm #6554
    kevin_herrington22
    Participant

    I am working on a railroad display and one of things we are going to incorporate into it is a model water tower. I have been doing some research to try and get an idea just how much water a locomotive would use per mile generating steam. It looks like it can be anywhere from between 100-300 gallons per mile. This depends greatly on how fast the train is going and how heavy of a load it has and the terrain. Does someone have a rough estimate of how much water these locomotives would use per mile around 1940 on the line from roughly Helena to Mcgehee, AR? I know this is a rough estimate, but just want to know if I am on the right track.

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    Ryan Smith

    November 9, 2021 at 2:20 pm #10369
    peggyrothschild
    Participant

    If you have the Condensed Profile for this area or an employee timetable it will show where the water tanks were placed and you can determine the mileage between each. The ‘unknown’ factor is how much water was remaining in the tender when additional water was added. There are several period steam locomotive manuals that provide detailed statics on water usage; do a Google search on the ‘book’ area and you’ll see several examples.

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