A Passion For Steam is really a story in two parts. The first section of the book runs eleven chapters, and after introducing his own love for water boiling, the author takes us by the hand and walks us through every aspect of the engineering behind small scale live steam. Starting with an overview of how water and fire are turned into movement, Horovitz devotes subsequent chapters to cylinders; pistons and lubricators; reversing mechanisms and valve gears; mechanisms other than traditional (such as geared engines); boilers; fuels and burners; boiler fittings such as safety valves, throttles, water glasses and pressure gauges; and feedwater systems. (Another chapter deals with tools and other handy things to have when running a live steamer.) It should be stressed that the chapters are not descriptions of the components on a full-size locomotive, but those found on live steam models. Nor has the author set out to present a technical manual showing how to create these items for a working model (although I am confident that he could). Rather, Horovitz discusses the general principles, history, strengths and weaknesses of various systems that an operator might encounter at a steam-up, and it is all supported by plenty of CAD illustrations and photographs.
No comments:
Post a Comment