3 cylinder steamers

[TomDiehl]

One of the other things I read about, on the subject of failed siderods, especially on a camelback, is that they were a hazard to the engineer; it could shear off the entire side of the center cab. And if it happened to be the engineer's side........ [:O]

[Tulyar15]

I read recently that "Green Arrow" (the only survivor of a once numerous class of General Purpose , or "Mixed Traffic" as we say over here, 2-6-2's designed by Gresley) recently broker its inside connecting rod while on a main line outing between Scarborough and York (the loco's base). Amazingly, after a quick inspection it was allowed to limp back to York with its train on 2 cylinders and was only 15 minutes late on arrival their.

Back in the 1950's a Bulleid "Merchant Navy" pacific suffered a crank axle fracture whilst hauling "The Atlantic Coast Express" from Exeter to London Waterloo at speed and derailed. As a result the whole class (and the 110 strong West Country class) were grounded and modfiications made to the crank axles. During this time locos were loaned to the Southern Region of BR by other regions; these included some of the "Green Arrow" class referred to above!

[Anonymous]

In Germany we have at least three active three-cylinder steamers: 01 1100 , 01 1066(both oil-fired) and 03 1010 still going strong and allowed to top speed, capable of running up to 85 mph. There´s still another, 01 1102 oil-fired, with shrouding, capable of at least 90 mph, on trials 100 mph.
Other engines are stored but can surely get a revival during next years, among them four cylinder-compund ex-bavarian S3/6 18 478 or three cylinder, oil-fired heavy decapod 44 1093.

If you want to see pictures, please e-mail me, I will send you some images, taken at high speeds, panning shots, some on heavy trains. Sorry, threading pictures directly doesn´t work(yet)

Tom at [e-mail]

[feltonhill]

As noted earlier, on UP 4-12-2's and SP 4-10-2's the first axle was likely provided with an offset in the middle (sort of a small crank) for the extra clearance required. Can't find the diagrams at the moment. The inside rod was not bent!

[Modelcar]

...Those camelback designs....I doubt if they could get very far passed OSHA inspection in today's world....With the engineer perched out there on the side of the boiler it seems he would have been in grave danger if anything happened....And how did he and the fireman communicate while on the go....The whole concept just seems so nutty....In fact the position of the engineer and fireman on any steam engine except the cab-forwards seems like they were hidden out of sight as much as possible making it quite "blind" as to what was coming up in front of them, etc....I don't understand how they really knew "where" they were on a snowy or foggy night that would make it hard to find "landmarks" ,etc.....How fast to be running, etc...