Old Train Thursday, Obscure Locomotives

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1)

THE “CAMEL-BACK”, an appropriately-named locomotive used on American freight trains from 1848 to 1873. The driver’s cab was placed on top of the boiler to restrict the overall length of the engine, which had an exceptionally long firebox. Note the fireman’s platform in front of the tender.

2)

A SINGLE-EXPANSION ARTICULATED LOCOMOTIVE. This engine is of the KK1 Class, and was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930 for freight services. The four cylinders are 23 in. diameter by 30 in. Stroke, and the outside diameter of the driving wheels is 5 ft. 10 in. The heating surface is large: the firebox area is 866 sq. ft., and that of the tubes 5,677 sq. ft., making a total of 6,543 sq. ft. The superheater area is 1,666 sq. ft., and the grate area 92 sq. ft. The tank capacity of the tender is 18,000 U.S. Gallons, and its fuel capacity is 20 tons.

3)



TWENTY-EIGHT WHEELS. South Africa’s most powerful engine is of the Beyer-Garratt type illustrated. It was built in Manchester, and was specially designed to haul heavy goods traffic up the forty miles bank between Durban and Cato Ridge, on the Pietermaritzburg line. The wheel arrangement is
4-8-2+2-8-4.

4)



BACK-TO-BACK. A Fairlie articulated engine used on the New Zealand Government Railways. Each locomotive is two engines in one, a single crew serving for both.

5)

TURBINE DRIVEN, the Ljungström locomotive is capable of a speed of 85 mites an hour. The exhaust steam from the turbine is condensed and used again as feed water to the boiler.. THE TURBINE of the engine develops 2,000 hp at a shaft speed of 10,500 revolutions per minute. The high speed turbine shaft is geared to the driving wheels, and reversing is effected by introducing an idler pinion into the gear train. This locomotive made several trial runs in 1926 on the LMS Railway.

6)

HIGH PRESSURE streamlined locomotive No. 10000 on the turn-table at King’s Cross, London and North Eastern Railway.

7)



“FIFTY-FIFTY”. A locomotive of the famous Garratt type used on the 2 ft 6-in gauge railway of Sierra Leone. The boiler, with cab attached, is slung between two similar power units, each carrying a water tank. The attachment of the boiler frame at either end to the power units allows the locomotive to negotiate very sharp curves.

8)

TRIPLE EXPANSION. This most unusual 4-8-0 locomotives, built for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, has four cylinders – one high pressure of 20 in., one intermediate of 27½ in., and two low pressure of 33 in. diameter. They all have a stroke of 32 in. The tender is fitted with a booster. The driving wheels have a diameter of 5 ft. 3 in. The total area of the evaporating surface is 3,351 sq. ft, the superheating area is 1,076 sq. ft., and the grate area 75·8 sq. ft. The ten-wheeled tender takes 17½ tons of fuel and 14,000 gallons of water. The engine weighs, in working order, 171 tons, and the tender 122 tons.

9)

STEPHENSON’S LONG-BOILER LOCOMOTIVE was patented in 1841. The three axles were placed under the boiler barrel, and the 5 ft 6-in driving wheels were flangeless to obviate lateral stresses on the crank axle. The engine weighed about 21 tons. The model shown in this picture was probably made in 1845.

10)

DRIVING EVERY AXLE, the Shay Geared Locomotive has twelve 4 ft wheels driven through gearing by three vertical cylinders, 17-in diameter by 18-in stroke. The weight of the engine, in working order, is 137½ tons. The tender has a fuel capacity of 9 tons, and can carry 6,000 gallons of water.

12)



THE FIRST LJUNSTRÖM TURBINE LOCOMOTIVE, invented by a Swedish engineer, it was built in 1921, and achieved some success on the Swedish lines. A similar engine was built in 1924 in Britain, and this locomotive covered 5,402 miles during some months service on the LMS. Transmission from the turbine to driving axles was by triple gearing. At 75 miles and hour, the turbine made 10,500 revolutions a minute, and the maximum tractive effort was 40,320 lb. The locomotive is seen here at St Pancras Station.

13)

“KING HENRY VII”, one of the Great Western Railway’s famous “King” class locomotives, which has been partially streamlined in accordance with th latest developments in speed design. Similar streamlining has been applied to “Manorbier Castle” of the “Castle” class. After some experience of running, however, the cylinder casings have been removed from both engines.

14)

A WORKING PRESSURE OF 450 lb per square inch was planned in locomotive No. 10000 of the LNER by the use of a marine water-tube boiler, the first of its kind in Great Britain. The driving wheels are 6 ft 8 in in diameter, and the wheel arrangement is 4-6-2-2, as the firebox is carried on two fixed axles. The engine weighs 103½ tons in running trim. It has two inside high-pressure cylinders, 12 in by 26 in, and two outside low-pressure cylinders 20 in by 26 in.

15)

THE REID-MACLEOD GEARED STEAM TURBINE locomotive was shown at the Empire Exhibition, Wembley, in 1924. The engine was of the compound type mounted on tow eight-wheeled bogies. The turbines were placed on the bogie frames. The low-pressure turbine drove the leading bogie and the high-pressure turbine drove the trailing bogie. The illustration shows the engine on a trial run from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

16)

LMS “TURBOMOTIVE”, a turbine-driven engine introduced in 1935. The boiler has a total heating surface of 2,967 sq ft, the firegrate area is 45 sq ft, and – similar to other LMS “Pacific” type engines – the locomotive has 6 ft 6 in driving wheels. Engine and tender have a total weight in working order of 163 tons 13 cwt. The engine represents an interesting experiment in propulsion by geared turbine without condensing equipment.

17)

STEAM WAS GENERATED at the pressure of 300 lb per sq in in the 1926 turbine engine, tried out on the LMS. The locomotive successfully worked express services on the Midland Division of the railway. The engine weighed 143¾ tons in working order, and proved efficient in operation but though economies were effected they did not lead to the construction of other engines of this type.

18)

A GIANT SUPER-PRESSURE LOCOMOTIVE, No. 8000 of the Canadian Pacific Railway has two low-pressure cylinders, 24 in by 30 in, using superheated steam at 250 lb per sq in, and a high-pressure cylinder 15½ in by 28 in, using superheated steam at 850 lb per sq in. The tractive effort of this 2-10-4 engine is 90,000 lb, and the weight, including tender, is 392½ tons. The ten driving wheels are 5 ft 3 in in diameter.

19)

STREAMLINING IN AMERICA.  The “Hiawatha” is one of the fastest trains in the USA; the photograph shows one of the locomotives of unusual design which haul the train. The “Hiawatha” covers the 280.8 miles between Chicago and La Crosse (Wis.) In four hours and eleven minutes, giving an average speed of 67.1 miles an hour, including three stops, and the entire 410 miles to St Paul in 6½ hours.

20)

The Beyer Peacock Ljungström locomotive on the Midland main line near Mill Hill, Middlesex. The engine had a leading four-wheeled bogie, three pairs of wheels with outside frames under the firebox end of the boiler, six-coupled driving wheels of 5 ft 3 in diameter under the leading end of the condenser chassis, and a second four-wheeled bogie at the rear end.

5 thoughts on “Old Train Thursday, Obscure Locomotives”

  1. Not many people realize that one of the major handicaps of the Confederacy in the war between the states was the lack of a standard gauge in railroad track. When two differently gauged tracks met, the only option was to stop, unload, and reload the next train. The Union was not nearly as inconvenienced. One of the aftermath’s of the war was the establishment of the standard 4’8.5″ gauge in use today.

  4. Shay locomotives (#10) were the preferred engines for the railroads logging the mountainous ground in the American West, as their geared ‘all wheel dive’ configuration meant they had an unbeatable tractive power that no other small engines could equal. Their unmistakable appearance is obvious because of the vertical cylinders and the engine’s offset boiler that makes room for those cylinders.

    If you ever get a chance to see one in operation, you can marvel at the genius and craftsmanship it took to create that method of driving an engine back in that day. Amazing.

  5. So, where’s the unparalleled UP 4014?
    I hope to see it at the UP depot in Ogden on July 4th or 5th…

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