AH HA Decapod

[yankee flyer]

 I always wondered how the 2-10-0 Decapods were changed to work on USA railroads. I was walking through the St. Louis Museum of Transportation and ran across one. It looks to me, like all that was done is put wheels on with wider tires and offset flanges to make up the 3 1/2" difference.
I was looking to see if we had a 2-6-6-2 on display, but my memory was faulty. It's a 2-8-8-2. All was not lost, I took a new look at UP's Big Boy. Pictures are one thing but when you crawl up into the cab of that monster or stand beside it, it's .
I can not imagine running it!

Y'all have a good day

Lee

[West Coast S]

The Decapod in question was built for export to Russia, to narrow the guage from 5, wider tires were installed as you surmised.  

Dave

[wjstix]

I remember at the Lake Superior RR museum in Duluth MN going up into the cab of a DMIR 2-8-8-4 and sitting in the engineers seat. It occured to me looking straight down out the window that I was about as high off the ground as I was looking out the second story alcove window of my bedroom at home.

...and just to bring it full cycle, the alcove window looked out on the Minneapolis Northfield and Southern RR "high line"; the MNS was I think the only US railroad to have bought embargoed Russian decapods from both world wars!!

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

West Coast S

The Decapod in question was built for export to Russia, to narrow the guage from 5, wider tires were installed as you surmised.  

Dave

Which is fine, until it comes to a self-guarded frog - the kind with ridges that extend above the top of the rail a couple of inches to guide the wheel crossing over the frog by its rim, instead of by the back of the opposite wheel on a conventional guardrail.  Or anything similar, such as a switchpoint guardrail (Bethlehem Steel Co. item) - though don't suppose it would see a hump very often, however.

- Paul North.

[AltonFan]

wjstix

...the MNS was I think the only US railroad to have bought embargoed Russian decapods from both world wars!!

I had not heard that the US embargoed decapods in World War II, or that any engines we built for the USSR during WWII were embargoed.  (The "Little Joes" were embargoed after WWII.)