I got this as a gift this Christmas, and it was so nice I thought I'd do a quick review!
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You know while they aren't top of the line in terms of models, I will say I love my IHC 2-8-0's because1. They always run and are hard to kill2. Durable to handle (No parts snapping off)3. Smooth mechanism4. Easy to work on5. Good value for the above reasons...especially as a starter engine.You received a good gift there Darth. And who doesn't like a camelback? They are so unique...if not cramped for the crew.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
I own the 2-6-0 Camelback and the 4-4-0 rear cab, and my experience is the same. Moderately priced loco's, smooth running, good electrical pick-up/rarely stalls, decent detailing, but one can upgrade this if desired. I converted both to DCC and was very happy with the results.
The section behind the camelback cab is actually the firebox known as a "Wootten" type. It was wide to gain the grate area needed to utilize a low grade waste product from anthracite coal mining known as "culm" which was a mix of gravel sized coal and slate. The firebox width caused the cab to be relocated forward which is the camelback characteristic.
Nice review!
Jim
The 2-6-0 "Camelback" was always a unique locomotive in that it had a center cab so the fireman could burn lower quailty coal. Didn't RDG, CNJ, and DLW roster the Camelback?
ATSFGuyThe 2-6-0 "Camelback" was always a unique locomotive in that it had a center cab so the fireman could burn lower quailty coal.
Not so much that it was "lower quality" coal. The roads you mention are the "Anthracite" Roads operating in the region of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. Anthracite was actually a higher quality coal with fewest impurities and highest carbon content.
It required more air and a thinner fire and thus a larger grate area so the wider "Wootten" firebox precluded the cab location.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootten_firebox
Anthracite coal burned with less smoke allowing the Lackawanna Railroad to proclaim:
Says Phoebe Snow
about to go
upon a trip to Buffalo
"My gown stays white
from morn till night
Upon the Road of Anthracite"
Regards, Ed
Interesting, thanks for the info! I figured the center cab was simply for better visibility in switching and didn't know about the coal and firebox.
Well, both ATSFGuy and gmpullman are making correct statements but they are passing each other in the night.
Anthracite is a very high grade of coal, and the Wootten firebox was designed to burn lower quality coal. The connection is that in the early days, a big portion of the mined anthracite was waste because it was contaminated with a large amount of shale, making it virtually un-sellable. The process for separating out the shale on an industrial scale was not developed until years later. As a result, the mines had - literally - mountains of this waste, commonly called "culm", but noted in gmpullman's Wiki reference as "spoil tips". Readings' John Wootten looked at these mountains and thought "Thar's "btu's" in them-thar hills!" and developed the firebox to burn culm - the high quality coal - that was compromised by the shale, which made it, overall, a low quality fuel.
In later years, the RR's expermented with better fuel concoctions, including combinations of anthracite and bituminous.
Because anthracite is only found in certain parts of NE PA, only the anthracite roads used camelbacks. The exceptions to this was the Southern RR and one western RR I can't recall, who did try one copy each with the idea of using low grade local coal. These experiments were apparently unsuccessful.
Darth - sorry to send your post down a rabbit trail!
Yep, Camelbacks were used elsewhere. I'm sure I've seen photos of Camelbacks on U.P. and Rock Island, but I don't know how many they had or how successful they were. I never knew about Camelbacks on the Southern. B&O had quite a few Camelbacks that probably burned Bituminous, including some E-19a 2-8-0's that lasted into the 1930's and were photographed as far west as B&O's former Cleveland Lorain & Wheeling line in Ohio.
The major users were Reading, CNJ, Lehigh Valley, Erie, and Lackawanna, but there were others such as Staten Island Rapid Transit and a number of other small lines in the Anthracite Region. Even the Wheeling & Lake Erie in Ohio, which eventually became part of the NKP, had a few Camelback 4-6-0's built by Cooke in 1887, but they were rebuilt with conventional cabs within a few years.
Tom