Foster Wheeler Boilers (+ discussion about redundancy)

[bacon]

Does anybody have any pictures or diagrams of the 3 Foster Wheeler ESD II boilers?

Apparently they were the largest maine boilers ever installed, and i just wanted to see how immense they were.

[Waverley]

Bacon,
         Are these the three Foster Wheeler Boilers shown in the cut away diagram?

[Bob C.]

Waverly,
    Where did you get that cut away?  Never seen that one before.

[Waverley]

Bob,
     The cut away, I found in a book , The Encyclopedia of Transport by Marshall Cavendish IBSN - 0 85685 1760.

The cut away was printed over the two pages and would not fit into my scanner. Here is the bow section

[Bob C.]

Thanks,
    The artwork in this one is OK and the scale makes it look a bit wide but I love cutaways.  I've got one of the QE2 that my dad bought in 1969 (exactly like the 1969 one on Rob's website) that I had matted and framed.  Its about 1 m x 1.5 m but I reference it all the time and it looks great on the wal.

[Rob Lightbody]

I have the impression that even with her original steam plant, the QE2 could snap at Vicky Brown's stern and probably bite great chunks out of it as well. SEVEN days to cross the Pond!!! Just proves she is just a cruise ship. Poor Captain McNaught. He has gone from the sublime to the rediculous.

QE2 on her original steam plant was a very fast liner indeed - over 30 knots with ease and over 32 knots when pushed.  QV can only manage 23 knots if they turn things off to save power...  Steam-QE2 was a wee bit slower than QM1 and QE despite only having 2 props, but would still easily show a clean pair of heels to any cruise ship today, even QM2.

[Bob C.]

I could not scan this so I took  digital photo of it.  This is taken from my 1969 QE2 cutaway poster and kind of shows the boilers but it does give a very view of the power plant layout.  The cited source for the poster is the Daily Telegraph Magazine so perhaps they have this somewhere in their archives.  I'll see what I can do about getting a better picture

[bacon]

Bacon,
         Are these the three Foster Wheeler Boilers shown in the cut away diagram?

Indeed they are -  thanks for that!!

[Beardy Rich]

Foster Wheeler ESD II boilers. They produced a maximum of 310,000 lb of steam an hour at 850 lb per square inch and 950deg F. Normal output is 231,000 lb per hour, using 520 tons of fuel a day
That's some kettle!!!

[Leovinus]

She was meant to have 4 apparently, but the 4th was cancelled as part of last minute urgent cost cutting.  Not having a 4th caused her lots and lots of problems, through lack of 'redundancy'.

How did the redundancy issue make her suffer so badly? I know little of engines, though I realize that they need scheduled maintenance and unscheduled maintenance for quick repairs now and again. The way I read the comments about her problematic lack of redundancy makes me connect it with her "engine teething troubles" and not with general power plant quirks. Am I reading the comments wrong or was the steam power plant really a pain in the (cough) posterior outside of normalcy for her entire life until her heart-transplant?

Perhaps a fitting companion question would be if there is a source where I can read more about her early steam-powered escapades?

[ship pro]

She needed 3 boilers for anything above 23 knots, unfortunately she always had long periods that needed 3 boilers.
A steam plant is more complex than a diesel plant, mainly because the diesels are a stand alone unit that requires a straight forward supply of fuel and water, press a button and it starts, were as the steam plant has feed water systems, high and low pressure steam system, fuel, forced draught fans,condensate, vacuum systems, numerous heat exchangers and the need to make 500 tonnes of pure distilled water a day!  all these systems can impact the process of generating the steam and passing it through to the turbines.

The turbines themselves are reliable until something external effects them such as sliding feet not moving causing misalignment which destroyed a coupling causing the fire in 79.

If she had been put on a 6 day transatlantic, the speed would have allowed her to operate on two boilers the QM2 does it in 7 days! If QE2 was on a 7 day crossing the fuel savings between the steam plant and the diesel would not have warrented the cost of re engining, although I believe the 9 engine diesel electric plant gave her more flexability.

[riskygizmo]

Nearly 70,000 tonnes of ship doing 30 mph for four days straight using two delicate turbines fed from three
(maybe) temperamental boilers, half a day to turn around and then do it all again. Add to that one refit a year where the company seemed to spend most of the budget on carpets and you have to wonder why she didn't
break down more often?

[Leovinus]

She needed 3 boilers for anything above 23 knots, unfortunately she always had long periods that needed 3 boilers.

Cunard and/or John Browns surely made calculations on how the deletion of her initially planned fourth boiler would impact performance in service?

[Michael Gallagher]

Both shipowner and shipbuilder certainly knew the consequences of their decision but there would have been no QE2 if the November 1964 cost cutting hadn't happened.

[cunardqueen]

  Add to that one refit a year where the company seemed to spend most of the budget on carpets and you have to wonder why she didn't
break down more often? 

..and what lovely carpets they are....