A fireman , stoker or boilerman is a person who tends the fire for the running of a boiler , heating a building, or powering a steam engine . Much of the job is hard physical labor, such as shoveling fuel, typically coal , into the boiler's firebox. On steam locomotives , the title fireman is usually used, while on steamships and stationary steam engines, such as those driving saw mills , the title is usually stoker (although the British Merchant Navy did use fireman ). The German word Heizer is equivalent and in Dutch the word stoker is mostly used too. The United States Navy referred to them as watertenders .
33-722: The Swan View Tunnel is a former railway tunnel located on the southern side of the Jane Brook valley in the outer Perth suburb of Swan View in the John Forrest National Park on the edge of the Darling Scarp . After its closure as a railway tunnel, it reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, a rail trail . Prior to the construction of tunnels and the sinking of the Subiaco railway station in 1999,
66-409: A Royal Commission and union agitation for the locomotives' withdrawal was a significant issue in the 1940s. Between 1934 and 1945, a signal cabin was located at Tunnel Junction, on the eastern end of the tunnel, for managing the transition from the tunnel's single line to the dual lines of the system. The single line tunnel was considered unsafe for eastbound (climbing) trains. Following the events of
99-405: A drill and blast tunnel to penetrate through the hill. The successful tender for the tunnel construction came from a South Australian firm, Smeaton and Hedges. The tendered price was £47,608, with an expected completion time of 12 months. The engineer in charge of construction was John Muir who had also surveyed the prospective new route, designed the tunnel, and identified that broken rock spoil from
132-406: A too-rapid fire-raising can cause excess wear on a boiler, this task was usually performed by fire lighters working some hours before the fireman's main shift started. Only on small railways, or on narrow-gauge locomotives with smaller and faster-warming boilers, was the fire lit by the fireman. Whoever was responsible for fire-starting would clear the ash from the firebox ashpan prior to lighting
165-453: Is located in Midland , approximately 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the west. Fireman (steam engine) The Royal Navy used the rank structure stoker 2nd class , stoker 1st Class , leading stoker , stoker petty officer and chief stoker . The non-substantive (trade) badge for stokers was a ship's propeller . "Stoker" remains the colloquial term for a marine engineering rating, despite
198-404: Is not operating the locomotive, the fireman assists the engineer and monitors the controls. A mechanical stoker is a device which feeds coal into the firebox of a boiler. It is standard equipment on large stationary boilers and was also fitted to large steam locomotives to ease the burden of the fireman. The locomotive type has a screw conveyor (driven by an auxiliary steam engine) which feeds
231-673: Is the name of a watercourse and the valley that passes through the Darling Scarp , and which was utilised for the Eastern Railway and subsequently a central part of the John Forrest National Park . It is also the name of a suburb, situated approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) east of the capital city Perth , Western Australia. It is a suburb within the City of Swan . There are a number of fine wineries located near Jane Brook, producing premium hand-crafted wines. Most have restaurants serving lunch and dinner. The nearest major shopping precinct
264-475: The Deviation, with construction commencing in 1944, and completion on 28 November 1945. Rockfall problems similar to, if not worse than, those of the tunnel were encountered during construction and severely restricted the subsequent use of the cutting. "Construction involved a deep cut in granite, some 450 m long, in which protection from rock falls was essential in view of the character of the granite exposed after
297-646: The RCN, regardless of their platform (CPF, 280 or AOR) are nicknamed stokers. In the United States Navy , watertender (abbreviated WT) was a petty officer rating which existed from 1884 to 1948. Watertenders held a paygrade equivalent to today's petty officer first class . A chief watertender (CWT) paygrade was established in 1903. In 1921, the lower paygrade was split into watertender first class (WT1 or WT1c) and watertender second class (WT2 or WT2c). Another lower paygrade, watertender third class (WT3 or WT3c),
330-645: The Swan View Tunnel was the only tunnel on the Western Australian railway network. Swan View Tunnel was built on an alignment which replaced the original Eastern Railway passing through Smiths Mill, (now Glen Forrest ), and Mundaring . The project to build the new line, including the Swan View Tunnel, was managed by the Western Australian Government Railways Engineer-in-Chief, C. Y. O'Connor . The tunnel
363-545: The coal into the firebox. The coal is then distributed across the grate by steam jets, controlled by the fireman. Power stations usually use pulverized coal-fired boilers . Vladimir Lenin , disguised as Konstantin Petrovich Ivanov, escaped to Finland in 1917 on train 293 from Udelnaya Station. Hugo Jalava, a co-conspirator and the train's driver, helped to further conceal Lenin by having him work as his stoker. Jalava later recalled that Lenin shovelled with gusto as he fed
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#1732854571893396-457: The cut had been excavated. Steel fences, 2.5 m high with supports 9.9 m apart, were therefore erected on both sides of the cut. The 16 wires forming the fences were in continuous electrical signalling circuits and a simple but effective system of internal electrical interlocking was installed which made the protection system completely automatic. If a wire was broken by falling rock or if a battery or circuit failed, two relays became de-energised, and
429-427: The decommissioning of the last coal-fired naval vessel many years ago. Large coal-fueled vessels also had individuals working as coal trimmers , who delivered coal from the coal bunkers to the stokers. They were responsible for all coal handling with the exception of the actual fueling of the boilers. The Royal Canadian Navy had coal-fired ships, the last of which were replenishment ships. All marine engineers in
462-402: The early 1940's, planning commenced immediately to alleviate the bottleneck caused by the tunnel. Several options were considered, including blasting the top off the tunnel and turning it into a cutting. However it was decided to create a sweeping deviation with a new cutting west of the tunnel, closer to Jane Brook, on the northern side of the hill that the tunnel passed through. It was known as
495-487: The engine, making the train run fast. There were approximately 176 stokers on board the coal-fed ocean liner RMS Titanic . During the sinking of the ship, these men disregarded their own safety and stayed below deck to keep the steam-driven electric generators running for the radiotelegraph , lighting, and water pumps. Only 48 of them survived. Simeon T. Webb was the fireman on the Cannonball Express when it
528-409: The fire, adding water to the engine's boiler, making sure there is a proper supply of fuel for the engine aboard before starting journeys, starting the fire, raising or banking the fire as appropriate for the amount of power needed along particular parts of the route, and performing other tasks for maintaining the locomotive according to the orders of the engineer (US) or driver (UK). The engine itself
561-551: The granites and in places active swelling clay (montmorillonitic) seams have formed. The main structural problems come from a combination of shears and various types of jointing on the rock mass. There are 2 sets of sub-vertical conjugate (formed at the same time) shears about 135° apart. These are expressed as bands of closely spaced fractures that have allowed water entry, in some places producing clay seams. In addition there are several types of joints: (i) sheet joints or stress relief joints, which are continuous and sub-parallel to
594-434: The jointed and sheared granite, along with clay seams, caused difficulties during construction of the tunnel. Multiple rock falls occurred, which required further excavation at considerable cost. Because of the likelihood of further rock falls, the tunnel had to have masonry walls and was fully brick-lined with over 330,000 bricks, increasing construction time and costs and reducing the inner tunnel diameter. The deviation from
627-667: The larger Railway Reserve Heritage Trail . During the 1990s, the government authority in which the tunnel land was vested, the Department of Environment and Conservation allowed a number of night time "ghost walks" in the tunnel as part of the Hills Forest programmes. The tunnel and first open cut deviation are constructed in Archaean meta-granite (slightly altered, coarse-grained granite, in places pegmatitic). This rock mass has been intruded by dolerite dykes which are more deeply weathered than
660-402: The limitations of the tunnel. The tunnel's small diameter combined with the steep gradient (1:49), lack of ventilation shafts and typical requirement for 2 engines to haul heavily laden trains up the steep gradient caused smoke accumulation. Incidents involving near-asphyxiation of train crews started in 1896, and continued throughout the tunnel's operating life. Standard procedure for engine crews
693-504: The opening of the Avon Valley diversion that opened in February 1966. The new Avon Valley deviation route involved little rock work and flat gradients that had been initially favoured by CY O'Connor. After the 1960s, gates/doors were put at either end of the tunnel though these were later removed. The tunnel remains intact and has reopened as part of the John Forrest Heritage Trail, part of
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#1732854571893726-422: The original railway line, and the tunnel in particular, was a "significant technical feat for the time"; Engineers Australia awarded the deviation an Engineering Heritage Marker as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program . The tunnel was feasible for 1890s style locomotion, with some problems from smell and smoke accumulation, however the advent of larger, more powerful steam locomotives soon exposed
759-472: The signal controlling the line in the cut was placed at danger. An indicator in the Swan Valley signal box showed the operator that a rockfall (or other failure) had occurred. The control signal could only be reset with a special key at the signal itself." The diversion was completed on 25 November 1945. The railway line through the tunnel was lifted after the closing of the older and steeper Eastern Railway and
792-447: The topography formed by the erosion of the deep valley adjacent (ii) cooling joints, which are prominent in the intruding dolerite (iii) tectonic joints (iv) blast damage joints (rose of joints) caused by over-blasting The net result is that a blocky rock mass has been produced with some vertical and sub-horizontal clay seams which allow rock falls, block gliding, rock slides and toppling type failures. Jane Brook Jane Brook
825-442: The tracks. When the driving wheels passed over the chaff, the engines lost traction and stalled. The last act of the driver before the crews fell unconscious from smoke and carbon monoxide poisoning was to set the engines into reverse. Consequently the train steamed back down the line and crashed at Swan View Station, with the death of driver Tom Beer. Further cases occurred in 1943 and 1944 on up trains. Subsequent industrial strikes,
858-466: The tunnel could be used to create nearby embankments, a prudent move on Muir's part as the principal means of shifting spoil in the 1890s was by draft horse hauling mould board and plough, followed by tipping from horse drawn carts. Work began in 1894, with tunnelling operations commencing from each end and the two tunnel drives meeting on 18 April 1895. The tunnel opened on 22 February 1896, significantly over-budget and over-schedule. The unstable nature of
891-504: The very dangerous clearances. Industrial trouble arose in regard to the taking of the ASG locomotives through the Swan View tunnel. This tunnel was constructed many years ago and provides very little clearance for a modern locomotive. In the case of the ASG the distance between the sides and top of the locomotive and the structure of the tunnel is a matter of inches. The worst accident in the tunnel
924-465: Was cleaned by an engine cleaner instead of the fireman. Some firemen served these duties as a form of apprenticeship, aspiring to be locomotive engineers themselves. In the present day, the position of fireman still exists on the Union Pacific Railroad , but it refers to an engineer in training. The fireman may operate the locomotive under the direct supervision of the engineer. When the fireman
957-399: Was erroneously stated in contemporary reporting to be 13 chains long, which is 261.5184 m (858 ft). Modern authorities give the length as 340 m (1,120 ft). Inspection of open source aerial imagery confirms that the tunnel is 340.7 metres (1,118 ft) in length. Initial exploratory surveys of the new Jane Brook deviation were commissioned in 1891 by CY O'Connor. The aim
990-448: Was established in 1943. The watertender and boilermaker ratings were merged into a new " Boilerman " rating in 1948 and continued to 1976 when the rating was changed to "Boiler Technician" and subsequently merged into the " machinist's mate " rating in 1996. On steam locomotives , firemen were not usually responsible for initially preparing locomotives and lighting their fires. As a locomotive boiler takes several hours to heat up, and
1023-415: Was on 5 November 1942, when both drivers and firemen were overcome by carbon monoxide , one driver dying, when a fully laden double-header train passed through the tunnel at walking pace. A bale of chaff that had been poorly loaded on a previous train had fallen onto the track in the tunnel. When Number 97 goods train from Perth to Northam passed over the bale of chaff, it burst open, distributing chaff over
Swan View Tunnel - Misplaced Pages Continue
1056-528: Was to cover their heads with a water soaked hessian bag and to stay as low as possible on the footplate. The first serious incident of this nature was in 1903. The tunnel's design was incompatible with the ASG class Garratt steam locomotives used by the Western Australian Government Railways in the 1940s. The subsequent Royal Commission into the ASG dealt with design of the locomotive, and
1089-642: Was to find a route over the Darling range to replace the one-in-30 ruling grade existing Eastern Railway section in the Helena Valley. In 1892, O'Connor recommended to the first Minister for Railways in Western Australia, HW Venn, that a Jane Brook option be selected. His advice was not followed, with an alignment adopted that followed the Jane Brook Valley until a large granite hill was encountered, requiring
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