What If? USRA Standard design Narrow Gauge Engines

[andrechapelon]

Texas Zepher

andrechapelon

In order to make sense of that scenario, you'd also have to assume that there was some fairly extensive and relatively heavy duty narrow gauge railroading going on, which wasn't the case. What narrow gauge lines that existed didn't have enough impact on the war effort to be a problem in search of a solution.

I did not make that assumption.  Doing so then puts the scenario into the realm of re-imagining the entire USA railroad infrastructure.   Doing that really opens the box to do what so many people do with their model railroads and just "do what ever I want because I want to".  For which there can be no meaningful debate nor discussion because the assumptions compound into infinite possibilities for which everyone is exactly right.

 

You may not have made that assumption, but the fact was that there was no need for the USRA to ever get involved in narrow gauge locomotives. There were already extant narrow gauge designs that would have served the purpose quite adequately since narrow gauge lines represented such a small part of the US rail infrastructure. Baldwin and Alco (including the constituent companies that became Alco) had extensive experience in designing locomotives for various overseas systems of various gauges. not to mention US narrow gauge lines, and there would have been no need for any experimentation.

 

There was no experimentation with the standard gauge USRA engines. They were designed based on known best practices of the time and were so good that many railroads not only had USRA originals, but also copies. The USRA light Mike was such a good overall design that locomotives based on the design were being built in the 1940's (AC&Y, KO&G - Midland Valley). If steam were still around, a USRA light Mike with a Lempor exhaust, gas producer firebox, roller bearings on all axles and rods, lightweight rods and rotary cam poppet valve gear would be a nice medium sized freight engine and would probably be able to produce something approaching 4,000 HP while being very economical with coal and water. Given modern counterbalancing, they also would be capable of sustained 70 MPH running.

 

Sorry for the digression. As far as I'm concerned, Rudolph Diesel needed to find a different hobby.

 

Andre