QE2's Boilers & Steam Turbines

[Adam Hodson]

I was woundering if anyone would be able to give me or point me in the right direction of facts about the original boilers and steam turbines before the 1986/87 refit to diesel electric.

From what I have found on the forum I believe that the boilers were Foster Wheeler ESD11 boilers producing 850 lb per square inch at 950 degrees farrenheit. However I have not been able to find anything about the turbines. Could anybody help? 

[Rod]

They were FW ESD 2, or II not 11. Turbines were of the Parmetrada design. Somewhat experimental which accounted for some of the early and possibly later troubles. Personally, I believe a lot of QE2's mechanical troubles were caused by fast turnarounds, and exacting schedules.
At the time they were built, the ESD 2's were the largest boilers built for marine use. They dis reach 15 decks when all is said and done..... As a boiler room Engineer I walked it many times

[Adam Hodson]

That would explain why I couldn't find much about them online, I read the II as 11.

Were there other turbines for generating electricity as well as the propellor turbines? Also were there separate boilers for heating?

[Lynda Bradford]

Adam you certainly have come to the right place for Engineering questions and as Rod was an Engineer onboard QE2 he has first hand knowledge. 

I thought you may be interested in reading the discussion on the Foster Wheeler Boilers (+discussion about redundancy) on this topic where discussions from reply #22 onwards may be of interest to you. 
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,166.0.html

I have also attached an extract from the Cunard Press Release of 4 April 1967 which shows the non technical information given to the press prior to her launch.

You can see the pdf of the full  press release here
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,2118.0.html

[Clydebuilt1971]

Hi Folks,

Dont know if this has been posted before but I found a cutaway of an FW ESD type boiler on the sscanberra site:

Note link not working
http://www.sscanberra.com/files/plans/cutaway-boiler.jpg

Not exactly as QE2 was originally fitted out to but a starter perhaps?

On another note that Canberra website is excellent.

Gav

[Adam Hodson]

The press release is a great summary of the info I was after. The boiler cutaway is also very interesting, I've never seen that posted before.


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[Rod]

That would explain why I couldn't find much about them online, I read the II as 11.

Were there other turbines for generating electricity as well as the propellor turbines? Also were there separate boilers for heating?

Before re-engining there were 3 turbo alternators. That room became about half of the fwd engine room.
Steam for galleys and heating came from the main boilers off the Hotel Service steam line....pressure reduced considerably.
Another little known fact QE2 had a 4th boiler on 1deck on crew stairway 5. Known as the clean steam boiler, it was used to supply steam to the steamers in the Columbia kitchen.

[Adam Hodson]

Thanks Rod. I don't know much about this, so were the turbo alternators driven by the stream turbines or some other source?

[Rod]

They were separate separate turbines to drive the altermators

[June Ingram]

Thanks, Rod and Gav, for the information !

[Adam Hodson]

Thanks for the info, I understand all of her steam power plant now. Thanks!

[Adam Hodson]

I'm guessing the engineers may be able to help me out with this, but does anyone have any pictures of the turbines and boiler rooms? - Adam 

[Twynkle]

Hi Adam,

Maybe it would help if you were able to be more specific about what you'd like to know more about; this  could help any of the engineers who read TQS to respond as and when they can.
As you probably know - there have been several areas of engineering expertise, for example, technical, electronic, electrical etc who worked on board QE2...

Have you looked in google > Pametrada, steam, turbine, QE2 steam engines etc etc?
There's are links there that could answer some of your questions - also an advanced search here, as well as on Rob's good site, The QE2 Story.
and here:
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,4326.msg45747.html#msg45747
http://www.qe2.org.uk/engine.html
http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=395581
RMS Queen Mary's engine spaces
http://hull534.freeshell.org/er.html

About older ships / steam turbines
'PARSONS AND PAMETRADA MARINE STEAM TURBINES ...
events.imeche.org/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=23455&Digest...?
21 May 2013 - Chief Turbine Engineer, Siemens Energy. Power Industries ... MARINE STEAM ... steps, as well as the 1968 blade failure in the QE2 turbines'
You might want to make contact with the lecturer!

Would Rod's Ask the Engineer replies be of help?
https://www.theqe2story.com/forum/index.php/topic,4037.0/all.html

All the best
Rosie

[Adam Hodson]

Hi Rosie. Thanks for your reply, and thanks for posting that links. To be specific, I would just like to see some pictures of the boiler room and steam turbine room if anyone has any or could point me in the right direction of some. There is nothing really I would like to know, I would just like to see what they looked like. I have seen a few pictures of the steam power plant, and also a few clips in videos.

Adam

[Twynkle]

Hi Adam
Take a look at this!
Any help?
Rosie

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Steam+Turbines+QE2&client=firefox-a&hs=746&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=YDpYU5ntH8z6yAOs6IG4AQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1163&bih=626