The Madness that is Research...

[cabbage]

As several people know -I like to build the ugly and the wierd... This leads me to research my choice of chndidates to build very carefully. Up until now the hardest loco that I had ever researched was the Golwe , as used by the Ivory Coast and Congo Ocean Railways. The sum information I have on these 48 + 4 locos consists of: 6 sheets of A4, one web site and a hand scribbled note from Ivorian Embassy by the grandson of one of the drivers. But most of all, I KNEW IT EXISTED.

I had become enamoured with a drawing made by Henry Greenly for a locomotive from his book "Electric Locomotives". In fact it is in the next chapter to the "S" motor that I am building. The drawing and dimensions are for a Gauge 1 model -simple mathematics gives me the correct Gauge 3 dimensions. However the more I looked at it, the odder it became...



Other people had suggested that it was a crocodile, a valid one, -but somehow it did not look at all Swiss!!! The front and rear bonnets are pure edwardian era UK design, the fact that Henry had taken so much time in this design and drawings MUST mean that the locomotive was real. An eight coupled D+D loco of that era would have been quite a sight, (so there must be information on it?) The notes for it said that it could be powered from overhead or third rail like the original all pointed to an actual loco -but what was it???

I went to Butterley and spent most of Saturday morning trawling through their archives and then I got a lead. SLM had produced a design for Vulcan Engineering -a company not known for producing electric locomotives at this time. There it was, it was the one thing that looked odd about the loco -it was broad gauge, and it was C+C not D+D as the drawing showed... (I think the jackshaft confused the editor of the illustration).

It was made for the Great India Peninsula Railway and the first one was named.



I have a name , I have a configuration, and I have pictures! Now the real fun begins -the MATHS!!!

regards

ralph

[FJ and G]

Ralph,

That's a big project. Is it Indian wide gauge? You model 16mm right?

 

Maybe you can articulate it; curves might be tight? 

[cabbage]

Yes, it is 5 feet 6 inch gauge and it was articulated with two bogies and a concertina joint to the middle section. However it will be "converted" to run on std gauge. It will be a Gauge 3 model running on 63.5mm track at a scale of 13.5mm to the foot. It will still be 64.2cm long. The bogies will have to be designed with 5 feet radius curves in mind. Even at this the system is going to be fun to design!!!

This is the drawing for a bogie, I will go through how (I hope) it is going to work...



The top half of the drawing shows the side elevation. The motor is going to sit with its worm gear connecting to the top gear between axles 2 and 3. Power is going to be transferred to axle 1 by a cog and chain linkage. The triangular "Scotch Yoke" that connects axles 2 and 3 to the jack shaft and the conrod linkage to axle 1 is thus "ornamental". I have done this to take any pressure off the linkage. Most of which is going to have to be silver soldered from pieces of K&S section... This is normally 1/64th thick and could in no way take the power involved!!! Because everthing is locked together by gear teeth and chain it should all move in harmony (hopefully!)

The chain from axle 2 to axle 1 enables me to be very imprecise with the universal joint that is at the end of the Scotch Yoke and the ends of the drive axle. This will allow axle 1 to swing fully whilst cornering -without the need to build "radial axle correctors" as in the true "Krokodil" by SLM.

regards

ralph

[Mr_Ash]

It does look alot like a Crocodile! Sounds like your having alot of fun with your research too! Well IDK if you consider it fun lol but I allways like doing Research on stuff im interested in it just makes me feel good to know everything I can about things