Talk:Condensing steam locomotive

Perhaps the title of the article should be changed to 'locomotive condenser', because it describes the commonest application of condensers to locomotives, which is generally different in fundamental purpose from their application to stationary plant or ship propulsion.

Gordon Vigurs 10:09, 21 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Also used in cars. Invented by Joens & Andre Cederholm in 1884 (sez G.N. Georgano, Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886-1930 (London: Grange-Universal, 1985). Trekphiler 23:36, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Steam road vehicles
There are several links here from articles about steam road vehicles. This is not necessarily wrong because "Steam locomotive" could include "Steam road locomotive". However, there is no specific information in the article about condensers for road locomotives. Would anyone care to add some? Biscuittin (talk) 18:47, 18 February 2012 (UTC)


 * There were several steam cars using condensers, mostly to reduce scale problems in their monotube boilers, also to increase range, also to reduce visible steam emissions.
 * I can't think of any "road locomotives" (in the UK sense) that used condensers, although I'm sure some of the steam wagon makers must have tried it. A more popular scheme, best known through Sentinel's 'exhaust drying box' example, was an exhaust reheater. This increased the temperature of exhaust steam slightly, so that it didn't immediately condense above the exhaust. By the time it did condense, it was dispersed too much to form a visible plume. Andy Dingley (talk) 18:56, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Worldwide view
Before I started editing this article, I thought condensing steam locomotives were a rarity. However, it seems that many of the pre-grouping British railway companies used them, but nearly all in the London area. The only significant exception I can think of is the Mersey Railway. We have a few South African and German examples but, otherwise, the article is now looking rather UK-centric. Did any other countries use them? Biscuittin (talk) 11:09, 20 February 2012 (UTC)


 * They were most commonly used for underground railways, before electric traction became ubiquitous. This does tend to limit it to the early systems, such as London. For other candidates I'd look at New York. Other major underground systems though, like New York and Berlin, also happened to be in cities with an early development of electrical engineering works nearby, so were early adopters of electrical traction. Andy Dingley (talk) 11:26, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I forgot about Scotland. Some of the Caledonian Railway 0-4-4Ts were fitted with condensing apparatus for the Glasgow Central Low Level lines. Biscuittin (talk) 12:27, 20 February 2012 (UTC)
 * What about Newcastle? The docks branch through Manors (and its steep curved tunnel) was a famous early conversion to electric haulage. Did they ever try condensing steam before this? What about Liverpool (the tunnels from Edge Hill, not the Mersey Railway), another city with extensive tunnels on the approaches to its main stations. Andy Dingley (talk) 12:33, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Third "purpose?"
I don't actually know if it was an intended purpose or merely a side benefit in the design of steam locomotives, but re-using the water in a steam engine reduces the accumulation of boiler scale. Reuse (and special treatment) of the water is standard practice in large, stationary steam plants, even when abundant fresh water is available. 74.111.99.101 (talk) 15:02, 24 February 2021 (UTC)