As I made my way to the back of the workshop, I noticed a little switcher stuck almost hidden in the corner. As I approached it, I saw the name on it and was like "YES! It's a Heisler!" The only other time I had seen one of these was last year on my trek through Mississippi.
About the 'Fireless' Type in General - As a type, the "fireless" locomotive was indeed highly specialized, and few were manufactured. The Heisler Works of Erie, Pa., produced by far the greatest number of examples of the fireless type, about 50. Such a locomotive could only operate on tracks very near a large, stationary steam plant, to which the locomotive would return every few hours of operation for hookup to the stationary plant's boiler - in order to recharge the locomotive with super heated water - i.e. liquid water heated under high pressure and thus to temperatures well above 100 degrees C. (Super heated water contained in the cylindrical "pressure vessel" that is the principal visible feature of the locomotive provided the short-term source of steam to run the pistons to propel the wheels. By opening the throttle, the pressure within the vessel of super heated water was slightly reduced, and the slightly lowered pressure resulted in the generation of water vapor - saturated steam at the new pressure - to push the pistons.) There is no firebox to heat the water; hence the term, "fireless."
In the US, fireless locomotives ran exclusively on the small network of tracks located within the boundaries of some of the largest coal-fired power stations operated by utilities. Fireless locomotives were "mules" that shuttled loaded coal cars over distances of about a hundred yards from reserve coal-car storage tracks located within the power station's grounds over to the coal intake unit of the plant, and then moved the empty cars back to an outbound track within the plant grounds for pickup by a connecting railroad company's regular freight trains. A fireless could not travel more than about five miles in total before requiring a re-charge of super heated water from its "host" plant.
Basically, all it has is a throttle, brake, and pressure gauge.
You can see the throttle better in the window.
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