rex desilets wrote:Trying to get my head around the idea of a steam-powered subway. Must have had a helluva ventilation system.
The ventilation system was helped by the next engine pushing the steam and smoke from the previous train up the ventilation shafts, much to the amusement of the men up at street level.
The first trains that ran underground in London produced huge amounts of unpleasant and dangerous steam. To combat this, ventilation vents were introduced above the underground platforms at street level. This meant that when a train entered the station, wind would rush out of the vents on the streets, blowing up women’s skirts and showing off a shockingly indecent amount of ankle. At the time, this was considered so provocative that men began to loiter around the stations to catch a glimpse of lady’s ankles – so much so that policemen sometimes had to be stationed outside to keep ankle-watchers away!
Locos were fitted with condensing equipment which diverted much of the exhaust steam back to the water tanks, though not the smoke. It was lessened by using 'smokeless' coal, and earlier coke, but as this was meant to make conditions fine there was little to no attempt to provide additional ventilation.
The engine in the video seemed to produce a lot of steam but very little smoke.
Reference:
https://www.insider-london.co.uk/blog/t ... s-history/https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/un ... ra.168039/