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Are "Elephant Ears" on Steam Locos primarily a English/Canada/Euro thing?

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Posted by selector on Thursday, October 22, 2020 6:21 PM

My recollection, dimmed from when I was nine years of age, was that the Ferrocaril Central del Peru models ran from Lima on the coast up to Casapalca at 12K’.  They ran smoke stack first down-grade from Casapalca, but there was no turning facility anyway that I ever saw. Up-grade from the coast, perhaps with heavier stack emissions, they ran cab first.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, October 22, 2020 9:14 PM

Overmod
It was built to do so, but I don't think it did so very well.  It's possible that exigencies of the war years led to abolition of the pulverized coal setup, but it was from what I've seen temperamental and very dependent on fuel quality.

Just a quick "For what it's worth."

A while back I asked our late, lamented frequent poster Juniatha why the Germans would convert some of their steam locomotives to burn oil when Germany has ample supplies of native coal.  Her answer was German coal is good coal, but it's not great  coal, and oil firing gave much better results.  I guess pulverizing coal may have been an attempt to get "more bang for the buck" out of what they had.

Again, just a "FWIW."

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Posted by 54light15 on Thursday, October 22, 2020 10:25 PM

Overmod- As I recall now the photo I've seen of 3 EAR Garratts showed only the coal bunkers and not the main part of the engines so I can only say that you have to be right about just where the bunkers would have been relative to the firebox. It wouldn't make any sense any other way and without a doubt, they were coal burners. 

I wish someone would make a Garratt in N scale, I'd love to have one on my layout. It woudn't be authentic but what the hell. 

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Posted by NorthBrit on Friday, October 23, 2020 5:57 AM

54light15
I wish someone would make a Garratt in N scale, I'd love to have one on my layout. It woudn't be authentic but what the hell. 
 

 
Hattons (A Company in Merseyside UK)  are in the process of making a N Gauge Garratt.  Unfortunatey at the moment production is at a halt due to Covid 19.
 
David
 

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Posted by NorthBrit on Friday, October 23, 2020 6:12 AM

In the UK  the  use of pulverised coal was mentioned in Parliament.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1944-12-20/debates/ed8b7ab5-0e41-4e01-aea3-5eb24ef033aa/RailwayLocomotives(PulverisedCoal)

That was as far as it got!

David

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, October 23, 2020 9:52 AM

NorthBrit
Hattons (a company in Merseyside UK) are in the process of making a N Gauge Garratt.

They say it's low projected sales that have put the project on hold -- perhaps that is overall, due to COVID-19, but I think it may be inadequate preorders for this particular locomotive.

This is a highly interesting prototype ... but you'd better be an LMS fan.  That design of Garratt wouldn't make much sense almost anywhere but on LMS in the era it was built; it was highly successful in an era of 0-6-0s as freight engines as being 'two of them with a common throttle'.  That they permitted an 'acceleration' of coal trains to a blistering 19mph will tell you much about the situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRQxea9cWWg

Note the wonderful rotary coal bunkers - Britannic engineering at its finest. 

(Beware if you go to Hatton's site -- it crashed my browser twice.  Hopefully it's me and not them.) 

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Posted by 54light15 on Friday, October 23, 2020 8:20 PM

Northbrit- do you have a link to the info about the Garratt? I went to the Hatton's site and had no luck finding any info. I'd appreciate the help. 

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Posted by NorthBrit on Saturday, October 24, 2020 7:04 AM

54light15

Northbrit- do you have a link to the info about the Garratt? I went to the Hatton's site and had no luck finding any info. I'd appreciate the help. 

At the moment here in the UK firms making model railway/railroad items is virtually at a standstill.   Hattons are one of those Companies.   I have been waiting since February for some items.   Once  things start moving i shall post a link.

David 

 

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Posted by NorthBrit on Friday, February 12, 2021 10:55 AM

Error post

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Posted by NorthBrit on Friday, February 12, 2021 10:57 AM

54light15

Northbrit- do you have a link to the info about the Garratt? I went to the Hatton's site and had no luck finding any info. I'd appreciate the help. 

 

 

 
See 11th February  2021  re.  Garratt  locomotives.
 
https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/new.aspx
 

David

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, February 12, 2021 11:20 AM

A great deal of scrolling down reveals these are Heljan locomotives.  They had four in stock this morning, two each in different schemes.

Neither with any kind of visible smoke detector, though... Big Smile

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Posted by 54light15 on Friday, February 12, 2021 3:15 PM

They're in OO scale, not N. Oh well. Super AngryCrying

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, February 12, 2021 5:51 PM

54light15
They're in OO scale, not N. Oh well.

It's two different things.  The Hattons project to make the LMS Garrart in N scale is still 'on hold'.  The OO are merely being stocked by the store.

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, February 12, 2021 5:52 PM

54light15
They're in OO scale, not N. Oh well.

It's two different things.  The Hattons project to make the LMS Garratt in N scale is still 'on hold'.  The OO are merely being stocked by the store.

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Posted by sgriggs on Monday, February 15, 2021 12:42 PM

Found this on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh203YgZNEM

 

There are photos in the various Kratville UP books showing smoke tests on the Union Pacific in the 1930s.  I couldn't find one handy on the internet, but they basically show the smoke emerging from the stack, and then swooping down in a graceful arc right down to the cab sides.  The technical trend on that railroad in the late steam era was to open up the front end and minimize cylinder back pressure.  The downside was that smoke would leave the stack without sufficient velocity to provide a clear field of view for the engine crew.  Smoke lifters (wind wings on the UP) were a solution. 

 

Other types with either very short stacks (NYC Niagara) and/or lazy exhaust ejection at speed (PRR S2 Turbine) also benefitted from smoke lifters.

 

Scott Griggs

Louisville, KY

 

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