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| STE-1 No. 2300, aka |
| JAWN HENRY |
| Four years after the Chesapeake and Ohio had scrapped their enormous 6000 hp steam-turbine-electrics (a great story in and of themselves), Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton, Babcock and Wilcox, and Westinghouse built a smaller version for the Norfolk and Western. Some details, from an ACTUAL OPERATING MANUAL, follow. The boiler was a "... special natural circulation, water-tube longitudinal drum, low head locomotive type." Coal was delivered to the travelling grate by a modified type BK stoker. Combustion air, supplied under pressure by a turbine driven propellor type blower, was pre-heated to 350 deg F. at full load. A water softener and a feedwater heater were employed. Many functions were automated on this locomotive, drawing from experiences gained no doubt with N+W's automation experiments on other locomotives. In a sentence ripe with over-simplification, with the fireman's controls set on "... AUTOMATIC', the controllers send control air pressure through the selector valve to operate diaphragm valves and hold pre-set conditions of steam pressure, water level, air flow, and coal feed." Each of the 2 main generators was connected to the 6 traction motors on one truck set. The motors on each truck were permanently connected in series with each other, and the two trucks in each pair were in parallel with each other, and connected to one generator. While steps of field shunting were employed, no "transition" as such was employed. The locomotive possessed dynamic brakes, and a remarkably simple looking controller, as seen below. Instructions for starting a train are quite like those for contemporary diesel-electrics. |
| A few facts from the manual: Steam: 600psig, 900 deg F. Fuel capacity: 20 tons Water capacity: 22,000 gals. Tractive effort: 175,000 lbs. Continuous TE: 144,000 @ 9 mph. Max. speed: 60 mph. Total length: 161 ft. 1 1/2 inches. Total weight (estimated) 807, 000 lb. ( it was actually a bit heavier than that) |
| This locomotive, though more successful than it's C+O relatives, remained a one off. The cost of buying more was apparently prohibitive, and anyway certainly no other railroad wanted any. So, though quite powerful, the engine was scrapped in 1957. |