Water column comes alive, railways relives steam era

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru/Mysuru: With a view to adding value to the Rail Museum, South Western Railway has restored a steam-era water column.

Many railway stations during the steam era had a water column for filling water in the water tank in the tender trailing the steam locomotive, which also had an enclosure for fuel such as coal, wood or oil. Water was one of the most important elements used by a steam locomotive.

When heated, the water turns into steam. The volume of water expands as it turns into steam inside the boiler of the locomotive, thereby creating high pressure. The expansion of steam pushes the pistons connected to the driving wheels, thus operating the locomotive.

In standard operating conditions, steam locomotives consume about 110-115 liters of water for travelling a distance of one mile (1.6 km). A Metre Gauge YP Class steam locomotive which was in use for hauling passengercarrying trains could hold 3000 gallons of water and 9.5 metric tonnes of coal in its tender. Other tank steam locomotives had water tanks ranging from 300 to 1750 gallons. Some tenders of Broad Gauge locomotives were designed to carry 15 tons of coal and 6000 gallons of water but the water capacity was later reduced to 5500 gallons to keep the axle load under 18.5 ton limit.

Water was perhaps the most significant limitation with most steam locomotives hauling loaded trains at speeds necessitating refilling every 100 miles (160 kms). Nine tons of coal gave about 350 miles (560 kms) range. Rahul Agarwal , Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway, Mysuru Division, said Rail Museum visitors would be happy to see the fully functional 1964-built water column and would appreciate the critical role of this rustic equipment.