How to start a (Western rivers) single cylinder engine?

[Bierjunge]

With great delight, I have just read Alan Bates' Western Rivers Steamboat Cyclopoedium and Western Rivers Engineroom Cyclopoedium. I was surprised to learn that the historic American sidewheelers (such as the classic Mississippi sidewheelers) all had independently driven wheels by a horizontal, single cylinder steam engine each.

For single cylinder engines, starting from a dead center position usually is an issue. I have heard of walking beam steamers for example, that is such a case some crew members had to enter the paddlebox an pry the wheel a few degrees forward. Once started, the huge momentum of inertia of the wheel would take it past the following dead cenetr position.

Curiously, A. Bates doesn't mention this problem at all. Neither he mentions any theoretically possible auxiliary device to pry or turn the wheel to a starting position. Instead, he praises the easy operation and great manoueverability of such boats. So I have to assume that stopping dead center wasn't a big problem in daily life, even in manouvers with multiple stopping and backing bells. How so?

Here are at random some crude assumptions of mine how this problem might have been overcome:

• By delicately controlling the throttle, the engineer could stop the engine at quarter position.
• Or once stopped in an arbitrary position, the weight of the massive pitman would turn the engine back to quarter position.
• Or unless finished with engine, the engineer wouldn't stop the engine totally, but continue to let it turn very slowly even under a stopping bell.
• Or as long as the boat was moving, the wheel would be turned by the water resistance and continue to turn even an engine with closed throttle.
• Or when docked in a swift river, the wheels would be turned by the water current.
• Or it was sufficient to get one engine started; the second one would soon be turned off center by the water resistance of the moving boat.

So which assumption is correct? Maybe a little bit of everything? Maybe none of these?
And what if several influences (e.g. 1, 2 and/or 5) cancelled each other under specific conditions, so that the engine stopped at dead center anyhow?

Can anyone give some enlightenment please?

Thanks, Moritz

[mjt60a]

I had read that it was sometimes necessary for a crewmember to enter the paddlebox and 'climb on the paddlewheel like it was a ladder' to move the engine to a suitable starting position....

[steamboatmodel]

I have seen on some engines holes in the flywheel hub for inserting a bar for moving the engine over. Some even had a smaller "Barring Engine" for this purpose.
Regards,
Gerald.

[Phantom]

Wester Rivers engineers took great pains to prevent either engine from stopping on "dead center." The paddle shaft usually was fitted with a larger iron wheel, say 3 or 4 feet in diameter and 4 to 5 inches wide, to use to turn the wheel if necessary. That "jacking" wheel had shallow square pockets on the outer edges that could be used with a pry or crow bar to force the wheel off center. The cylinders were first drained to make sure no condensed water remained, and then steam was admitted to both cylinders at the same time. Steam might also be bled through the cylinders to warm them up a bit before use to diminish condensation. With in-line compound engines the high-pressure cylinders got the steam first as usual but the low-pressure engines might be allowed to work a little less (easier). With cross compound engines both cylinders had to be working about the same even though on the early part of the first stroke the low-pressure cylinder got no steam. The valve gear was often operated manually when starting to allow for finer control.  A few revolutions of the wheel after backing clear of the shore and proceeding along the river, the valve gear could be set to run automatically.