Posted by Pete on March 26, 2000 at 08:40:50:
In Reply to: Re: calafornian posted by Adam Leet on March 25, 2000 at 16:46:14:
The Californian could not have been stopped "cold"
for the night as you described, since then there would have been no steam to run the electric generators for power and lights. Instead, I believe the Californian's boilers were in a sort of "idle" mode, producing just enough steam to run the auxiliary equipment, heat, lights, generators, etc., but not enough to provide propulsion. The engines may have been shut down but not the boilers. As to how long it would have taken them to go from this "idle" mode to full steam ahead is not known by me. I suspect it involved more than simply shovelling more coal into the boilers.
The engines would have had to have been readied to answer all bells.
Any experts out there know the answer?
Pete