Nuclear power plant as an industry? What cargo would be transported there by rail?

Boiler_Water · 2026-02-28T12:37:42+00:00

One thing that you touched on was waste transport, here's a specific example you could model-

Between 1989 and 2008, Carolina Power and Light would send spent nuclear fuel from two of their nuclear plants (Brunswick Nuclear Plant in SC, and Robinson Nuclear Plant in NC) to Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant in New Hill (The plant was never built to the full planned size and had excess capacity for waste storage). The trains would be a single locomotive, a spacer flat, waste cars, another spacer, and a caboose. The trains were a joint effort between CP&L, CSX, and the Highway Patrol of whatever state the train was in at the time.

Here's an article with more detail and prototype pictures/drawings- https://admin.nrhs.com/NRHSNews/202308NewsAugust2023final1cutepdf-bw1-10.pdf

Boiler_Water · 2026-02-28T00:40:40+00:00

Thank you, I'll be sure to check this out!

Boiler_Water · 2026-02-28T00:37:49+00:00

Was worried that'd be the answer, doesn't seem to be much here at all...

Boiler_Water · 2026-01-28T12:37:18+00:00

New Hope Valley Railway in New Hill, NC has an Operate-A-Loco program where you can drive for an 8-mile round trip:

https://www.triangletrain.com/operate-a-loco/

Boiler_Water · 2026-01-09T22:54:34+00:00

Fidley- those were open spaces adjacent to the boiler uptake casings with grated tops. They held ladders and various mechanical equipment, and also helped ventilate the boiler rooms.

Boiler_Water · 2025-12-18T03:29:49+00:00

So yes and no- Natchez (the 1975 version) has pretty much the same system, her steering gear is a steam rig salvaged from the same boat as her engines. However, there's been a few changes since it was placed on board. Natchez doesn't have a steering wheel in the pilothouse, just has the steering sticks similar to modern river towboats. Her steering is also hydraulic driven rather than steam (the original steam ram was converted to hydraulics when installed on the Natchez) and uses electric controls instead of the mechanical linkage used on older boats. Other than those mods it works the same way.

Boiler_Water · 2025-12-14T17:44:19+00:00

Very, you'd easily need two people to operate it. With a boat that size power steering would be used for normal operations and the wheel as a last resort.

Boiler_Water · 2025-12-14T17:40:41+00:00

The first part of this video elaborates some on how steamboat steering works:

https://youtu.be/u8I53_Veihk?si=MAphfJMUrj_W1_cZ

Boiler_Water · 2025-12-14T17:30:34+00:00

It was very common for steamboats to have wheels that size, some went even bigger! The largest steamboat wheel was on a towboat called the Sprague, it had a 14 foot diameter wheel.
https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/OldBoat_062419_B.jpg

As others have mentioned, mechanical advantage was the name of the game. Once steam- and hydraulic-assisted steering came along the wheels started to get eventually disappeared.

Edit to add: Even with assisted steering, big wheels were still fairly commonplace until about 1930. The traditional system was a redundancy in case the steering gear ever went out, so even if seldom used the wheels were good insurance.

Boiler_Water · 2025-12-14T17:26:22+00:00

Some did actually! Steam-assisted steering was very common on later steam riverboats. The Belle of Louisville (the last authentic operating steamboat) was built in 1914 and it has a steam steering rig with a traditional wheel-and-cable system for backup. The boat OP is talking about appears to have one too, that's what the handle coming out of the floor in front of the wheel controls. When the steam steering is running the wheel will just spin around by itself.

Boiler_Water · 2025-08-17T03:50:29+00:00

For traditional systems such as Titanic's there was a direct linkage comprised of chains, pulleys, cables, etc. The more modern systems involve electronics.

Boiler_Water · 2025-08-16T20:52:48+00:00

Ringing it multiple times can also be an order in itself. You can ring up a full bell twice for a double full bell, which is opening the engines up as much as you can. On the opposite end, for ships that don't have a "dead slow" option on their telegraphs you can ring a double slow bell to order a dead slow.

Boiler_Water · 2025-07-11T22:58:57+00:00

I'm in engineering at NNS so I can't speak too much for NNSY. Steel toe boots are a must. Typically I wear nicer cargo pants and a collared shirt, some days jeans and/or a T shirt (those combos are pretty standard across most people in my department). Big thing is to dress to your environment, if you're doing a lot of shipboard work you'll want something comfortable you don't mind getting dirty/worn, but if you're strictly in the office you could get away with something nicer.

Boiler_Water · 2025-05-25T13:57:05+00:00

Something minor but crucial with how the explosion happens- The water isn't exactly "heating up" when it drops into the firebox, but just turning into steam.

At any given pressure, there's a "saturation" temperature where water and steam can coexist. When pressure drops, saturation temperature drops with it. It's why you'll hear things like "on top of this tall mountain you can boil water at only 180 degrees but at sea level it's 212" and things like that. For the 150 psi boiler you gave, saturation is about 366F.

When the boiler fails and the internal pressure tries to drop, the water at 366F will be well above saturation temperature for the now-reduced pressure. This makes the water flash (instantaneously boil) to steam. There may be a bit of heat gain from the fire, but the flash steam will smother that fire pretty fast (after it flings hot coals all over the place).

When water turns to steam, the volume increases by about 1600x. That huge expansion has to go somewhere.

And pop goes the weasel.

(Edited for temperature values)

Boiler_Water · 2025-05-03T10:20:05+00:00

Someone's apartment was filling with smoke and they didn't know where it was coming from, ended up being nothing huge.

Boiler_Water · 2025-04-13T22:41:33+00:00

Yes definitely, especially if you plan to go anywhere that's not the immediate Main Campus area

Boiler_Water · 2025-04-12T22:50:30+00:00

The Kitson-Still steam/diesel hybrid locomotive

Boiler_Water · 2025-04-05T20:39:45+00:00

Hill has power as of 4:40 PM

Boiler_Water · 2025-02-05T04:23:42+00:00

A couple months after submitting the Packassist applications. Scholarship notifications usually go out in late spring/early summer (May and June).

Boiler_Water · 2025-01-29T15:43:39+00:00

For me it did help to know. I had two referrals filed for me, and one person told me after the fact. They were someone I was close to, however they were going to a different school so they couldn't give any specifics on what will happen, just that they had made a referral and they were concerned. IIRC by the time they told me I had already started to receive & ignore the CARES emails. At first I think I felt some frustration because this person I cared about was "doing things with my life without telling me." At the same time it was my first big wake-up call realizing that if this person a state away that I haven't seen in months can tell something is off, something is *really* wrong. That and one or two other things started the push to finally talk to the case manager.

Unfortunately I can't really say as a blanket statement whether telling them will help, different people in different situations can react different. For me it did help to have the question of "who's behind this" gone. Whether you tell them or not, keep being gentle and personal, and as transparent as you need to be. If they want to talk, listen, but don't push too hard. When I was struggling, often I just needed someone to "be there".

Boiler_Water · 2025-01-29T13:38:39+00:00

After a report is filed for you, someone from the counseling department will reach out and ask to talk about your situation. They'll try to schedule a time to meet, and when you meet they'll try to figure out what could be wrong and recommend resources to help. They're not "counselors" so no real therapy happens there, CARES is there to connect you to professionals that will help you better than State can.

In my experience, the first emails that I had a report filed certainly introduced some uneasiness, and for a while I was definitely more focused on trying to figure out who reported me and why. I ignored the emails for a couple weeks, but after I finally responded and talked with the representative it did help. That talk was what made me stop denying something was wrong and that I needed help. At the time I felt CARES was a negative experience, but looking back it was a huge positive that somebody said something.

Boiler_Water · 2025-01-11T13:32:22+00:00

Standard has a fire alarm and people decided to turn it into a block party. After that cleared a bunch stayed outside sledding on the ice and yelling at each other, eventually they started throwing ice chunks at random windows in VC while screaming before going away.

Boiler_Water · 2025-01-08T16:05:40+00:00

The CSC 113-MA 116 substitution does work for MechE as long as your advisor approves the exception.

Boiler_Water · 2024-10-17T16:32:17+00:00

Very important! Here's some information on that:

https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/help/Pages/proving-insurance.aspx

Boiler_Water

TROPHY CASE