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[quote user="Modelcar"] ....Any suggestions as to where {on here}, one might seek to find an illustration of the "equalizer suspension system".....?[/quote]Quentin, I can't find much reference on the web, but here is a drawing that shows equalization between two drivers of a 4-4-0:  <a href="http://cprr.org/Museum/Science_of_Railways_1899/Steam_Locomotive.html">http://cprr.org/Museum/Science_of_Railways_1899/Steam_Locomotive.html</a>Scroll down to the bottom of the page where the image is blown up, and you can clearly see the leaf springs under the driver axles.  The springs load as the axles rise.  The end of each spring that faces out or away from the driver set is basically fixed to a bracket on the frame.  However the ends of each spring that are near each other are connected to a short link, and those short links are in turn connected to a rocking lever, which looks like an inverted teeter-totter.  That is the equalizer lever (Item #43, Driver Spring Equalizer).  If one driver runs over a high spot on the track, it raises the inner end of its spring, which raises that end of the equalizer lever.  That lowers the opposite end of the equalizer lever, which lowers the inner end of the spring of the other driver.  So the equalization system keeps the weight born by each driver exactly the same, even though there are high spots on the track.  It also keeps the drivers in contact with the rail so the flanges remain engaged.Typically, in larger locomotives with six, eight, or more drivers, the leaf springs are inverted from what is shown here, and placed above the axles, but the equalizer levers are basically arranged the same way.  The arrangement of springs and levers is also carried through to the lead and trailing trucks.  The levers that connect the system to these trucks do not pivot at their center like the levers between the drivers.  The off-center pivot modifies the leverage so that less weight is transferred to the lead and trailing trucks than is transferred between drivers.  The system also transfers weight from one side of the engine to the other by means of a transverse equalizer lever.  So the system of levers controls equalization, and the springs absorb shocks as a system of suspension.  They are two independent systems, with each performing its own function.
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