[only oiling the engineer /quote] I try to stay as "oiled" as possible!!![:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][;)] Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 2:20 PM Ah, 79, thats the number, it was escaping me... Thanks Bob Reply Edit lionelsoni Member sinceDecember 2001 From: Austin, TX 10,096 posts Posted by lionelsoni on Monday, March 28, 2005 2:09 PM Without positive train control, no one in the US can go faster than 79 miles per hour. Bob Nelson Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:58 PM Heck, J's made it up to 110 on PRR mains for testing. Nowadays, 844, 3985, and others cant run that fast, for they are not on their own rails, rather that of CSX, NS, or others Reply Edit selector Member sinceFebruary 2005 From: Vancouver Island, BC 23,330 posts Posted by selector on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:55 PM I agree, Jim. Every engine must have thundered at its max safe speed. I can't answer the ? about lubing the gear. For Lehigh, true that 60 mph was fast, but the engine was designed to run near 80 mph for extended periods...if I recall. Design limit was 90 mph. Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:53 PM Depends, Jim. Larger and newer built locos, only oiling the engineer had to do was to make sure that the main reserior was full and it was all pumped out by steam or mechanicly to the various locations Reply Edit Jim Duda Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Austin, TX USA - Central Time Zone 997 posts Posted by Jim Duda on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:28 PM QUOTE: Man, considering the weight of the valve gear and connecting rods of those fast passenger steamers, that was a LOT of mass thrashing around at high speeds! It's a wonder everything held together! Yikes!!! - Duda Selector - what I was referring to was even though the large drivers were able to turn relatively slower than smaller ones at the same speed, there still was a lot of mass flailing around at the speeds they hauled people back then. Those siderods alone must have weighed a ton...no pun intended! Were the running gear bearings auto lubed or did the engineer have to manually oil them every so many miles? I still think it must have been an awesome sight and sound to be standing near the track when one of these behemoths roared past...!!! Small Layouts are cool! Low post counts are even more cool! NO GRITS in my pot!!! Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:18 PM The 0-6-0 would be tearing itself to pieces, while the Hudson would be barely chuffing.<<< Correct on the B6, althougth at 60 MPH, that Hudson is chugging along pretty good. US speed limit for steam now I think is 60. Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 1:16 PM A good referance is that, however tall the drivers, is a safe top speed. Reply Edit selector Member sinceFebruary 2005 From: Vancouver Island, BC 23,330 posts Posted by selector on Monday, March 28, 2005 12:56 PM Jim, I think the whole idea of the bigger drivers was that you weren't going to get the thashing of valve gear due to the lower rotation rate of the drivers at speed X. Picture a 0-6-0 doing 60 mph, and the Hudson sighing along beside it on a parallel track. The 0-6-0 would be tearing itself to pieces, while the Hudson would be barely chuffing. I'm not sure if that is what your last post meant? Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Monday, March 28, 2005 8:58 AM Its wortha good slap in the face, Dave Reply Edit FJ and G Member sinceAugust 2003 6,434 posts Posted by FJ and G on Monday, March 28, 2005 7:56 AM K, Now I have an additional pickup line for gals. "You are invited to my basement layout to see my big-drivered huffing and puffing steam engine and blow the horn." Sadly, the line probably won't work. Reply Jim Duda Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Austin, TX USA - Central Time Zone 997 posts Posted by Jim Duda on Monday, March 28, 2005 7:49 AM Jon, you bimbo! I actually thought of you when I originally titled this thread and decided you'd jump on it so I added the "Steamer Wheels" in parentheses...(wink) But it does beg the question, "Once you get those Big Drivers pumpin', how long does it take to stop 'em...???" Small Layouts are cool! Low post counts are even more cool! NO GRITS in my pot!!! Reply highrailjon Member sinceJanuary 2004 From: The South 480 posts Posted by highrailjon on Sunday, March 27, 2005 9:44 PM One of my babes admiring a scale Pennsy T-1 Duplex driver!! Both 1:48th scale: [:D][:D][:D][:D][;)] Reply highrailjon Member sinceJanuary 2004 From: The South 480 posts Posted by highrailjon on Sunday, March 27, 2005 9:38 PM Jim, I'm not gonna get caught up in all the technical hoopla. Let's just say my layout babes have ALWAYS preferred bigger drivers!!! Scale Niagara drivers here(click on pix to enlarge). Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 9:05 PM The motion of the pistons of any steam engine (be it a stationary engine or locomotive) when the pistons stop at the end of each stroke and then begin their return, is referred to as "Lost Motion." BillFromWayne www.modeltrainjournal.com Reply Edit mersenne6 Member sinceMarch 2004 913 posts Posted by mersenne6 on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:59 PM The biggest drivered engines of which I'm aware were the Crampton locomitives designed by Isaac Dripps for the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 1849. The engine was a 6-2-0 machine with 8 foot diameter drivers. Actually there were 7 such engines 5 had the 8 foot diameter wheels and the other two were only 7 feet. In 1848 Baldwin was offered $10,000 to build an engine for the Vermont Central to pull a passenger train at 60 mph. He delivered a 6-2-0 Crampton named the Governor Paine which had 6.5 foot drivers. The difference was in the lead truck. Whereas the first Crampton had a single 6 wheel lead truck the Baldwin engine had a 4 wheel lead truck with two more small wheels placed directly in front of the huge drivers. The driver axles and the two wheels of the "lead" truck were combined so that the weight of the engine could be shifted back and forth between the wheel sets. The engine is reported to have hit 84 mph on the straightaway - with the roadbed being what it was in 1849 that would have been one wild ride! Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:45 PM One of the benefits of moving to diesel electrics was the fact that steam engines beat up the rail so bad because of all that weight pounding up and down. Modern trains don't have that up & down motion. I always marveled at all that heavy machinery in motion also and wondered just how it stayed together. Inside the modern diesel electric is a reciprocating engine where the pistons stop at each end of the stroke tho, and reverse direction and stop at the other end to the tune of maybe 900 rpms. There's a lot of mass there too. John[:o)] Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:30 PM Your cylinder has steam emitted, uses the steam and exhusts it about 3 times per second when in "company notch" the closest notch on the power reverser... aka; Johnson bar Reply Edit Jim Duda Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Austin, TX USA - Central Time Zone 997 posts Posted by Jim Duda on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:26 PM Man, considering the weight of the valve gear and connecting rods of those fast passenger steamers, that was a LOT of mass thrashing around at high speeds! It's a wonder everything held together! Yikes!!! Thanks for the history and physics lesson! Small Layouts are cool! Low post counts are even more cool! NO GRITS in my pot!!! Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:26 PM very good reply Ben. It would be pretty boring watching locos going 1 rpm tho wouldn't it? John[8D][:o)] Reply Edit ben10ben Member sinceJanuary 2003 From: Frankfort, Kentucky 1,758 posts Posted by ben10ben on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:19 PM Jim, Think of it like this. Let's say that you have two locomotives side by side, one with 44" drivers and one with 79" drivers. Let's also say that both drivers are turning at the same speed, 1 rpm for purposes of this. The circumference of each driver is given by the forumla pi*D, meaning that the 44" diameter drivers have a circumference of 138", and the 79" drivers 248". That means that every minute, the 44" drivers move 138" down the track, while the 79" drivers move 248". Assuming no slipping at 1 rpm, the 44" diameter drivers would be moving at 1.6 mph, and the 79" drivers 2.8 mph. Of course, the difference is much more striking with higher differences in rotational speed. Ben TCA 09-63474 Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:10 PM I was just at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago the other week. The 999 hit 112.5 mph with 86" drivers and needed a pu***o get going. It is displayed with smaller drivers that replaced the larger ones after the record speed run which incidently damaged the valvegear. The larger drivers wouldn't fit underneath the running boards. Diesels use a traction motor that is geared to the wheels which makes diameter of the wheels irrelevent, passenger engines are just geared higher than freights. John[8D][:o)] Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, March 27, 2005 8:02 PM The Hudsons had 79" drivers... The standard wheel on diesel is 44" Reply Edit 123 Join our Community! Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account. Login » Register » Search the Community FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month SIGN UP More great sites from Kalmbach Media Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy
Bob Nelson
QUOTE: Man, considering the weight of the valve gear and connecting rods of those fast passenger steamers, that was a LOT of mass thrashing around at high speeds! It's a wonder everything held together! Yikes!!! - Duda
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month