I found some camel info posted by a fellow named Bommer that 'splains a few things... maybe - or maybe he's fulla beans, but it sounds pretty good:
"B&O 305 at the museum in Baltimore is named a "camel." This was because the engineer essentially sat on top of the boiler, as though riding on a camel.
The term "camel back" refers instead to the hump-like projection the cab makes when straddeling the middle of a boiler. Here, the engineer sits on one side of the loco. "
"The old B&O camels were built with the cab on top of the boiler primarily to give the engineer the best possible view of the track ahead. That was far more important than one might think, given the kind of rail and roadbed back then. Also no signals - yet.
Both the Winans and Hayes camels were built to burn coal but wood could be used as well. The Winans and similar 'company' locos (i.e., B&O built since Winans at his leased shop also built locomotives for other railroads), were primarily for freight. The later built Hayes camels outshopped at Mount Clare by the B&O generally hauled passenger trains.
B&O used coal for its locomotive fuel of choice quite early, especially since it also carried that commodity. Early tests of steam locomotives when being developed in the 1830s often required that they be able to 'consume their own smoke.' It was recognized even then, that smoke was essentially unburned fuel and wasteful. To get around this, early builders in performing these tests often fired their locos with coke instead of coal. Result: practically no smoke at all even under a heavy load. But coke is not cheap 'every day' fuel! Wood as locomotive fuel was used as the cheapest available alternative during the mad railroad building rage of the mid-to-late 19th century. Still, coal was more efficient as fuel.
There were two types of fireboxes on some Winans camels. One was the "medium furnace" and the other was the "long furnace". Both had that unusual sloped-top firebox, intended to draw flames forward toward the boiler flues. The "long furnace" locos had a second firing door. It was set on top of a chute that could feed coal to the foward part of the grate. The fireman would put several shovels of coal down that chute, then with a fire rake working through end fire box door, spread the coal over the fire bed.
Firing either of the camels was tricky, since the deck was attached to the tender like an extended porch. It was not attached to the locomotive. Of course the top speed of a freight train back then was only about 10 mph. (25-30 MPH for passenger trains). For freight, 10 mph was considered to be the the most efficient speed, in consumption of water and fuel per mile. It remained so even into the 'heavy drag freight' years of the 1920s."
sketch of the original Winans' Camel of 1848-
So, from what I've gathered, the medium firebox Winan's engines had one chute, the long firebox version had two, and the short firebox and Hayes ones didn't have any. If you look closely at the sketch I posted last time, It also appears the longer firebox versions were fitted with some form of rocking grates. Another interesting point to note, over 55 or so years of service there are only 2 recorded boiler explosions of the Camel type engines.
This page is filled with detail photos taken during #305s restoration, a lot of them robsmorgan may not have seen...
http://ogsphotography.smugmug.com/B.../4/1320766811_fBBhqbJ#!i=1320766132&k=rqmtxKB < Link To http://ogsphotography.smu...20766132&k=rqmtxKB
The B&O bought either 109 or 119 Camels (depending upon the source quoted!), and half of all locomotives Winans built, before an acrimonious difference of opinion between Hayes and Winans ended the relationship in 1856... The B&O DID eventually purchase 3 or 4 (again depending upon the source) left over Winans engines due to a desperate shortage of motive power in 1863-4! (seems a lot of locomotives had been appropriated by the Confederacy...)
What I find somewhat curious is Winans' Centipede was run on the B&O in 1855-56, but not purchased, and taken back by Winans after the split... but then was still available to be sold to the railroad in 1864..... But then Winans' shop was right beside the Mt Clair shops in Baltimore, so maybe it isn't?
And I found this a bit ago on Wiki... nice since it gives dimensions, and hints at the color scheme.
"The majority of the Winans engines were burden (freight) as opposed to passenger type. Engines delivered after June 1848 are almost all of the Camel 0-8-0 type, favored by Winans. The early models are sometimes referred to as the Baltimore engines. The Camel name derives from the first of class of that name, delivered to the B&O in 1848. All Camel engines were of the 0-8-0 wheel arrangement. Winans did not believe in the use of leading (pony) trucks.
The Camel engines were all low-speed, heavy haul units. The speed was limited to 10?15 miles per hour by the steam capacity of the boiler, and the lack of a pilot truck. However, at that speed, a single Camel could haul a 110 car train of loaded coal hoppers on the level. The most distinctive feature of the Camel was the cab atop the boiler. They had a large steam dome, slide valves, and used staybolts in the boiler. More than 100 iron tubes, each over 14 feet (4.3 m) long, were installed in the boiler.
A Camel was about 25 feet (7.6 m) long, with an 11-foot (3.4 m) wheelbase. There were three major variations: the short, medium, and long furnace models. The small units had 17" × 22" cylinders, and the others had 19" × 22" cylinders. The medium unit had about 23 square feet (2.1 m2) of grate area, expanded to more than 28 square feet (2.6 m2) in the large furnace model. The long furnace model had a firebox more than 8 feet (2.4 m) long, requiring lever-operated chutes for the fireman to feed the front of the fire. The fireman worked in the tender, as the firebox was behind the drivers. This design required that the drawbar passed beneath the firebox, and it typically heated to a cherry red color. Even after rebuilds with a more conventional cab design, the fireman worked in the tender. The standard Camel engine had 43" wheels, and was painted green.
Camel tenders were 8-wheeled, generally with brakes on the rear truck only. They held 5 tons of coal, and 81?2 tons (more than 2000 gallons) of water. Fully loaded, the tenders weighted 23 tons, only 4 tons less than the locomotive."
The Pennsylvania RR also had 6 Camels, which they rebuilt as 2-6-0s. bringing the wheel arrangements possibilities to 4
As for the PS, I don't think ergonomics was really studied until the early Superpower era.... people were just replaceable cogs... (a state of affairs we seem doomed to return to....)