Good Day All,
I went to the local model club meeting the other night and ended up with the Minicraft kit of the 1829 Stephenson Rocket. My question, are the driver pins on the wheels located 180 degrees apart on the real thing? In the pictures I have looked at on line I can't see the rod on the far side even when I believe I should have been able to. I spent several hours on line and could not come to a definite conclusion. Help!
Thaank you,
Bob
Modeling in N scale: Rock Island freight and passenger, with a touch of the following; Wabash Cannon Ball, CB&Q passenger, and ATSF freight and passenger. I played in Peoria (Heights).
No, they're 90 degrees apart. If they were 180 degrees it would not run.
Good question! And in truth, I have no idea.
However, I'll take a guess that they were 90 degrees. The piston rod can't start the wheel moving if it is close to 0 or 180 degrees to the axis of the rod, so having the wheels opposite one another would run a significant risk of stopping the locomotive with BOTH driving wheels locked. A 90 degree offset would ensure that power could be applied to at least one wheel. Of course, maybe the inventors hadn't figured that out yet.
I had an old Hornby/Triang model of the Rocket in my teens. I no longer have it, but if I recall correctly, the rods were 90 degrees out of phase.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Thank you for the responses,
I guess you can tell I do't do steam. This leads to another question. I am on the platform, with the firebox directly in front of me and the tender directly behind me. The left driving wheel has its drive wheel connector pointing 12 o'clock, straight up. Does the right driving wheel have its connector pointing straight forward or straight back?
Thank you once again for your help,
Bob L.
Either way, just as long as it's 90 degrees from the other wheel. Steam locomotive cylinders are powered in both directions (push and pull) so it doesn't matter which way it would be.
cacole Either way, just as long as it's 90 degrees from the other wheel. Steam locomotive cylinders are powered in both directions (push and pull) so it doesn't matter which way it would be.
From a purely operational perspective, he's correct....it doesn't matter.
Recognizing, however, that the Rocket was a unique locomotive, I can see the desire to "get it right" per the prototype. Accordingly, I resorted to my old friend Google.
The original locomotive is preserved in the Science Museum in London, I was able to find photographs of both sides of the locomotive, and can report that, as it is assembled for display, which would hopefully preserve the historic configuration, 1) the driving rod connections are indeed 90 degrees offset from one another, and 2) the driver on the left is 90 degrees ahead of the one on the right -- that is, the left is pointing up, the right back towards the tender.
Thanks for the little detective problem. I enjoyed it very much -- especially because I also found dozens of pictures of the Triang /Hornby model I had as a teenager!
Thank you very mush,
I had googled but saw different angles so I could not tell which rod was which.
Thank you for the clarification!
I still have a Tri-Ang HO version, with two cars. From when it was sold in the US under the American Train and Track brand. Just for display for now, converting THAT to DCC would be a real task.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker I still have a Tri-Ang HO version, with two cars. From when it was sold in the US under the American Train and Track brand. Just for display for now, converting THAT to DCC would be a real task. --Randy
Yes. I defy you to find room for even a z scale decoder in that one, not to mention a speaker. One problem I always had with mine is that it wss increadibly light, and the slightest bump made it rock. I even had it fall over a few time when it hit a misaligned rail joiner or stray piece of ballast.
Yup, hit a piece of ballast, it's riding the ties. Light as it is, the whoel thing is metal, solid where there isn't room needed for the motor armature or gears Decoder would have to maybe go in the water barrel on the tender. AN extra 4 wheels o pickup wouldn;t hurt, either. It was always another good test loco, the slighest dirt would stop it as well, so if it would run slow, the track was clean and the feeders all working.
Just a tip from across the pond (Scotland actually). If you go onto YouTube and type in Rocket Locomotive there is a large selection of videos showing the replica locomotive operating I had a look at a few and from what I could see the should answer your questions. I hope that is a help to you.
Cambus,
Thank you for your reply. I don't know why I didn't think of YouTube. It's always good to hear from Scotland. Beautiful country. A couple of my last train rides were there back in May 2010. Took the train from Nairn (home of my gr.gr. grandfather) to Inverness and another from Inverness down to Edinburgh. Still had snow in the mountains.
Thanks again,
I saw the replica of "the Rocket" at the museum in York, England in 2003. One of the museum employees kindly took me to a shop where the engine was being cleaned. I recall the stck was hinged and it was tilted to horizontal for the cleaning.
There are numerous interesting antiques in the museum. The same man took me to a shop where the replica of the "Penydarren" locomotive was being completely ovehauled. It was being prepared for the 200th anniversary. The Penydarren was the very first operating locomtive. Now it has been over 210 years.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
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