The Wootten firebox is a type of

firebox Firebox may refer to: * Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine * Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted *Firebox Records, a Finnish 8101705801record label * Firebox.com, an elect ...

used on

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

s. The firebox was very wide to allow combustion of

anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal, and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic luster. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the hig ...

waste, known as " culm". Its size necessitated unusual placement of the crew, examples being

camelback locomotive A camelback locomotive (also known as a Mother Hubbard or a center-cab locomotive) is a type of steam locomotive with the driving cab placed in the middle, astride the boiler. Camelbacks were fitted with wide fireboxes which would have severely ...

s. The Wootten firebox made for a free-steaming, powerful locomotive, and the cheap fuel burned almost smokelessly; the combination made for an excellent passenger locomotive, and many camelbacks operated in this service.

History

John E. Wootten was the Superintendent of Motive Power for the then

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly called ...

(later simply the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly call ...

) from 1866, and General Manager of the system from 1876. He saw the vast spoil tips (piles of

waste) in the area as a possible plentiful, cheap source of fuel if he could develop a

that could burn it effectively. Through experiments, he determined that a large, wide firebox with a slow firing rate worked best, with a thin layer of the fuel and moderate draft. The typical locomotive firebox of the day was long and narrow, fitting in between the locomotive's frames. The successful design of a trailing truck with the firebox mounted behind the driving wheels had not yet been developed. Wootten instead mounted his huge firebox above the locomotive's

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...

s. The problem now arose that with a cab floor at the then standard tender deck height, it would be impossible for the locomotive's engineer (driver) to see forwards around the firebox shoulders. Instead, a cab for the engineer was placed above and astride the boiler. The fireman, however, remained at the rear with minimal protection from the elements. In later years these fireboxes were adopted in several large classes of engines, particularly express passenger engines with a trailing truck, so that the large grate area could give sustained high power output using standard

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

. For example, the UK Gresley Pacific

Class A4 The Class A4 is a class of streamlined 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley for the London and North Eastern Railway in 1935. Their streamlined design gave them high-speed capability as well as making them instantly recognisable, and ...

locomotives, of which "Mallard" holds the world speed record for steam traction, used a wide firebox. {{Commons category, Wootten fireboxes Steam locomotive fireboxes