5AT: Excursion Test Bed For New Steam?

[wallyworld]

Yesterday, an hour long servicing stop at Mankato, Minnesota apparently drew a huge crowd, according to the local paper, estimated between 1,000 and 2,000 people who, on a week day,came to see the Challenger. This struck me as fairly amazing. Of course the first thing that came to mind was what an effective marketing tool this steam program is for the UP. This also brought to mind the success of 261 on her tours. A portion of the Orient Express utilizes a redesigned steam locomotive to pull this luxury tour. This engine could be the subject of a post in of itself as far as economy of fuel usage, improved control of exhaust gases etc. I dont know if any of you have kept up on the proposed new steam design from the ground up called the 5AT over in England. Quite an engine. Meant for excursion use.  One wonders if this also could serve as a test bed for third generation steam while earning her keep.... hmmm...an interesting concept....check out the website...interesting read for steam fans... if anything...it looks like a quite a speedster...two words came immediately to mind. Ross Rowland.

 http://www.5at.co.uk/

 

[carnej1]

 From what I've read that is one of the goals of the project's sponsors (said at the risk of reigniting the "Could Steam make a comeback thread").............Mr. Rowland , of course, would be a natural to be involved, though at the moment I understand he is extremely busy with the "Yellow Ribbon Express" project....

[jrbernier]

  You bring up some interesting points:

• The UP Steam Program has been around for years and is well used by the UP. 
• The 261 is a private operation, and has been very sucessfull with several excursions each year. 
• The AOE/Grande Luxe train is no more - They shut down in the past month and the equipment will be put up for sale.  I was unaware of any special steam used to power this train(usually standard Amtrak engines).  Or are you talking about the real OE in Europe?
• That '5AT' - it is interesting, but still only develops about 3500 hp to the drivers.  The problem with steam is not the performance - it is the total cost of operation due to the heavy service requirements.

  All of the above examples operate on a rather limited excursion basis, and I would hate to see the actual costs/road failures that would happen if they were used in a 24x7 world.

Jim

[wallyworld]

The original OE. This heavily rebuilt engine now does excursion work and luxury tours in Switzerland as German inspectors later cited some aspects of the redesigned modifications not conforming to their regulatory requirements. NG 8055 is a bullet nosed 2-10-0 that has had about 70% of its original construction replaced or modified to include improved thermal insulation, sealed roller bearings, central lubrication system, light weight motion work, etc. Exhaust gases were 80% less than state of art diesel per Kw at the time. Runs on light machine oil. Capable of 100 mph, designed to keep up in heavy traffic lanes. HP is around 3,000 abit less than 5AT.

[The Dude With The Hair]

8055 is capable of reaching 100 KILOMETERS per hour, not miles. Considering the the original design speed was 70kph thats still a marked improvement.

 

Also, the 5at may "only" develop 3500 horsepower, for that size of locomotive I think thats fairly remarkable. Sure we had bigger and more powerful locos in the US, but locomotives in the UK remained smaller. Consider that the largest passenger locos in the UK were 4-6-2 pacific types while the US had 4-84 northerns running express trains. If Wardale can get this sort of performance out of a 4-6-0 on the relatively restricted british loading guage imagine what he might be able to do with a larger loco.

 

Someone mentioned the maintenance costs of running steam locos, but new design elements take away much of the needed maintenance of older models. Gas Producer fireboxes don't generate clinkers like older designs and with the Porta water treatment boiler blowdowns are only necessary every 30 days, and washouts every 6 months. That saves a LOT of maintenance right there.