Fr.AlI thought I read somewhere that a 4-10-6 type was proposed. It might have been the UP or even the Pennsy. Or was I dreaming?
I thought I read somewhere that a 4-10-6 type was proposed. It might have been the UP or even the Pennsy. Or was I dreaming?
Trainman2941From what I understand, Russia built a 4-12-4, when they still had steam.
Stephen Karlson, DeKalb, Illinois
Erik_Magonce the US railroads figured out that a locomotive could pull a money making train up a practical grade, the emphasis turned to building to a much less expensive engineering standard.
The real take-home message about 'cheap' came with Stevens' "temporary track expedient" in 1827. Up until then I think there was sort of the same idea as in England that good track was damn permanent -- heavy chunks of carefully-laid granite for piers, with stout fishbelly girders for rail between them. Unsurprisingly both the ride and the line and surface of such a thing was ridiculous, and the expedient American alternative of longitudinal wooden girders with strap rail was not much better. When Stevens used multiple 'sleeper' crossties to give a resilient ride, not requiring careful initial roadbed preparation and relatively easy to "keep" lined and surfaced, he was onto something we still use today; there are better fixed systems but they are very expensive both to build and maintain.
Keelboat 'modularity' was often remarked on in practice during the American canal era, to the extent that boats built to fit the canal 'gauge' could be knocked down for portage and reassembled, and taken apart for their lumber 'downriver' to solve the problem of how to make upriver trips before cost-effective steam was possible at other than steamboat-line size.
The real thing that was missed right at the beginning of railways was the Rainhill condition that all locomotives 'consume their own smoke'. Had this been made a rigid condition ... perhaps even to the requirement to sequester any visible or olfactory product of the locomotive, as at least one science-fiction alternate-history story has suggested ... we might have had an impetus to clean coal, both on the railroads and in parallel on steam road carriages, and the history of power transportation including optimized alternatives to steam might have been interestingly different...
The point that James Vance made in his "The North American Railroad" was that conditions in the U.S demanded a very way of building railroads. One consequence of the nearly level British railroads was that British locomotive makers didn't have to design for high tractive effort, whereas once the US railroads figured out that a locomotive could pull a money making train up a practical grade, the emphasis turned to building to a much less expensive engineering standard.
As OM pointed out, the UK is stuck with 1830's loading gauge. Ironically, the canal system in the UK also has very tight loading gauges, with maxium beam between 6 and 7 feet, height above waterline maybe 7 feet. The height limit in canal tunnels was to allow boatmen to propel the boats by laying down on top of the boats and using their legs to push against the top of the tunnels.
charlie hebdoThere, an Act of Parliament was required to build a line and lines were built with quality to last more than a decade with lower grades, broader curves and protected crossings.
Flintlock76 SD70Dude I'd wager that track quality had a lot to do with it. It did. British railroads were built by industrialists who had plenty of money, and they didn't have to travel the distances American trains did, add in relatively cheap labor and they could build those tracks with superb quality. The downside was, when the Americans started competing with the British for overseas markets the American locomotives handled less-than-perfect track than the British locomotives did, so the American builders started getting most of the business. The Brits build darn near perfect locomotives, but they needed darn near perfect tracks to run on.
SD70Dude I'd wager that track quality had a lot to do with it.
It did.
British railroads were built by industrialists who had plenty of money, and they didn't have to travel the distances American trains did, add in relatively cheap labor and they could build those tracks with superb quality.
The downside was, when the Americans started competing with the British for overseas markets the American locomotives handled less-than-perfect track than the British locomotives did, so the American builders started getting most of the business. The Brits build darn near perfect locomotives, but they needed darn near perfect tracks to run on.
When most of the pre-grouping British mainlineswere constructed in the 19th C, labor was probably cheaper here. There, an Act of Parliament was required to build a line and lines were built with quality to last more than a decade with lower grades, broader curves and protected crossings.
charlie hebdoGlad you did. The height of elegance!
SD70Dude Overmod The interesting thing is that the big Prairies actually seemed to work as high-speed locomotives on the LS&MS, although not elsewhere: I am actually unable to tell what the actual truth was. I'd wager that track quality had a lot to do with it. Think of all the British locomotives with 2-wheel leading trucks, or their road freight engines without lead trucks.
Overmod The interesting thing is that the big Prairies actually seemed to work as high-speed locomotives on the LS&MS, although not elsewhere: I am actually unable to tell what the actual truth was.
The interesting thing is that the big Prairies actually seemed to work as high-speed locomotives on the LS&MS, although not elsewhere: I am actually unable to tell what the actual truth was.
I'd wager that track quality had a lot to do with it.
Think of all the British locomotives with 2-wheel leading trucks, or their road freight engines without lead trucks.
I think the Burlington used 2-6-2s in commuter service at one time.
SD70DudeI'd wager that track quality had a lot to do with it.
daveklepper Liked this s much that iI positively had to:
Liked this s much that iI positively had to:
Glad you did. The height of elegance!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
It gets worse in the wake of the problems with the Wilgus electrics, which were designed with the same general guiding principle and were branded as such a disaster after the initial runs that they had four-wheel trucks shoehorned in -- without consulting Wilgus who quit as a result. 'New York' then took over motive power design, and sent orders to rebuild the Prairies as rather inferior Pacifics ... or so the story went.
I am pretty sure that a leading Bissel in that era was grossly incapable of the necessary high-speed accommodation if this engine were to encounter a critical augment resonance at the upper speed range it could most probably reach... in other respects it was a better engine for high speed than either an Atlantic in the same 'form factor' or a typical Pacific of its era.
Liked this so much that I positively had to:
Paul Milenkovic A large part of the fascination with steam locomotives is the many design tradeoffs and how no single design is suited for all railroad services. There are also numerous design rules that end up getting violated, too, making for more variation, along with arguments in the enthusiast community. We a discussion on another thread as to whether a large-firebox 2-8-4 could be replaced by a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement by rigging the equalizers to redistribute weight?
A large part of the fascination with steam locomotives is the many design tradeoffs and how no single design is suited for all railroad services.
There are also numerous design rules that end up getting violated, too, making for more variation, along with arguments in the enthusiast community.
We a discussion on another thread as to whether a large-firebox 2-8-4 could be replaced by a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement by rigging the equalizers to redistribute weight?
I presume the GN O-8 was included in the discussion.
Grate area 98.5 sq ft
Weight on lead axle 30340 lbs
Weight on drivers 325000 (4 x 81250) lbs
Weight on trailing axle 70200 lbs
Driver diameter 69"
T. P. at 83.5% Working Press. 75900 obs (Working Pressure 250 lbs)
Wardale thought a 4-8-4 could be turned into a 4-8-2 by such a change to take weight from the trailing truck and transfer it to the drivers? Another rule is that a 4-wheel leading truck is required for a locomotive in high-speed service. Maybe a 2-wheel leading truck was never used in applications exceeding 80 MPH, but 2-wheel trucked locomotives have been used on passenger trains?
Wardale thought a 4-8-4 could be turned into a 4-8-2 by such a change to take weight from the trailing truck and transfer it to the drivers?
Another rule is that a 4-wheel leading truck is required for a locomotive in high-speed service. Maybe a 2-wheel leading truck was never used in applications exceeding 80 MPH, but 2-wheel trucked locomotives have been used on passenger trains?
GN used 2-6-2's on passenger trains, along with a multitude of 4-6-0's. The Prairies had a higher weight per driver axle than any of the Ten Wheelers. Driver diameter was 69", while the 4-6-0's had a large range of diameters, with a max of 73". I imagine the 2-6-2's would have been the better choice for slower speeds and frequent stops.
The LS&MS was very much into high speed. And 2-6-2's.
Here's one pulling the 20th Century:
Grate area of their 2-6-2's exceeded that of their 4-6-0's. And so did their maximum driver diameter--81" for the Prairies, 80" for the Ten Wheelers. So they took them very seriously.
And then came the Pacific.
Overmod pointed out that a minimum weight needs to be placed on a lead truck to allow the amount of horizontal resistance needed to obtain stable guiding, but there are cases where the required boiler makes the locomotive so heavy that the non-driving carrying wheels are at the axle-load limit. The 2-6-6-6 Allegheny comes to mind along with the Pennsy 6-8-6 S-1 and S-2 locomotives?
Paul MilenkovicThe Russian locomotive used a combination of lateral motion on end drivers and blind drivers in the middle, so perhaps its wrecking the track was a combination of a badly designed equalizer rigging, badly constructed track, overenthusiasm for bragging rights and just bad decisions on where to operate it?
That it would not negotiate track in yards could be predicted. That it would not like anything but veeeeerrry long crossovers might be equally predictable. What might not have been as clear was the need to turn engines with that rigid wheelbase on wyes (or loop tracks) to set up for loading and unloading.
The thing other than straightening switch trackwork would be rolling rail, and on much of the track at that period I'd expect even a 14-odd ton axle load to be oprimistic science fiction much of the time...
Overmod Russia sent a team over to study best American practice circa 1928, the right time for early Super-Power but a tad early for the better improvements to the idea. The great fruit of that trip was the IS class 2-8-4, which was successful; I think the 4-14-4 would have worked fine on its intended service -- heavy trains on obligate light rail, ridiculously light rail by our standards. What it would NOT do was traverse light track not nicely lined and surfaced... or any kind of diverging switch or yard trackage. Alas! this includes most wye trackage to turn the engine around, including the reverse leg.
Russia sent a team over to study best American practice circa 1928, the right time for early Super-Power but a tad early for the better improvements to the idea. The great fruit of that trip was the IS class 2-8-4, which was successful; I think the 4-14-4 would have worked fine on its intended service -- heavy trains on obligate light rail, ridiculously light rail by our standards. What it would NOT do was traverse light track not nicely lined and surfaced... or any kind of diverging switch or yard trackage. Alas! this includes most wye trackage to turn the engine around, including the reverse leg.
The Russian 4-14-4 was said to have a 33-foot "rigid" wheel base whereas I looked up that the Union Pacific 4-12-2 type "only" had 30-feet 8-inches?
I read, was it in Kratville and Bush, The Union Pacific Type, that those locomotives were restricted in where they could go. There was something written about getting a retired Union Pacific type to California for display in a city park was a close thing getting it there?
The Russian locomotive used a combination of lateral motion on end drivers and blind drivers in the middle, so perhaps its wrecking the track was a combination of a badly designed equalizer rigging, badly constructed track, overenthusiasm for bragging rights and just bad decisions on where to operate it?
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
We a discussion on another thread as to whether a large-firebox 2-8-4 could be replaced by a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement by rigging the equalizers to redistribute weight? Wardale thought a 4-8-4 could be turned into a 4-8-2 by such a change to take weight from the trailing truck and transfer it to the drivers?
I think one factor no one built a 4-10-4 is that the four wheel leading truck was -needed for three cyclinder locos (see 4-10-2 and 4-12-2) due to the weight up front. Since three cyclinders in North American practice went out of style in favor of high wheeled Superpower (Erie's Berkshires and C&O's Class T-1 2-10-4's) around 1930 and Northerns provided plenty of grunt for passenger service, there was no market for a four wheel leading truck on ten-coupled power (save for the PRR's pseudo-ten coupled class Q abortions).
From what I understand, Russia built a 4-12-4, when they still had steam. I think it was attempt to upstage UP with their 4-10-2, and Russia could brag they had the largest one frame locomotive.
the 4-10-4 was for passenger use but UP decided that a 4-8-4 was a better ideal.Gary
Of course, Union Pacific had the first 15 of its 4-12-2 Union Pacific Type on the roster in 1926. If the 1927-proposed Lincoln Type had 73" drivers for fast freight, one might suppose that UP looked at the performance of their 67-inch-drivered Union Pacific types and they decided a Lincoln-type was not needed, seeing as they ordered additional 4-12-2 locomotives in 1928 (23), 1929 (25) and 1930 (25) to bring their fleet of 4-12-2 locomotives to 88.
kgbw49It's too bad that the name "Lincoln" didn't get applied to another wheel arrangement since the 4-10-4 did not get built.
On the other hand, we have the name ready for the first road, or person, who builds one -- it won't be a case of having to call it an Eighteen-Wheeler or some similar wimpout.
The very interesting thing to consider is why nobody built one. It's quite a confluence of different factors!
It's too bad that the name "Lincoln" didn't get applied to another wheel arrangement since the 4-10-4 did not get built.
In 1924, UP had 60 new 4-8-2's with 73" drivers. I would not be shocked to find that UP viewed the 4-10-4 as an extension of these recent locomotives. So then, what were the 4-8-2's being used for?
A scanning of an article in "The Streamliner" (Volume 9, Number 3) shows use in passenger service at that time.
Ed
7j43kHopefully, the article(s) in the magazine will reveal UP's intent concerning usage.
To me this is an attempt to take a consist from 'the East' of a certain length and work it over, say, at least some of the ensuing grades without helpers. This before the rediscovery first of simple articulateds and then the N&W/Alco independent discovery of how high-speed articulateds need no vertical hinging.
Theoretically even ignoring the smoother torque and reduced augment force from a balanced three-cylinder drive, the reduction in wheelrim mass alone would put the effective diameter speed of the engine above a conventional quartered engine with 80".
kgbw49 I do have a question on the proposed UP 4-10-4. Was the intent for it to be a fast freight hauler, or to be a passenger engine on mountainous terrain, taking over from the 7000-class 4-8-2 locomotives at Cheyenne or maybe Ogden and perhaps running on the LA&SL, where oil-fired Challengers held sway for a period of time on varnish?
I do have a question on the proposed UP 4-10-4. Was the intent for it to be a fast freight hauler, or to be a passenger engine on mountainous terrain, taking over from the 7000-class 4-8-2 locomotives at Cheyenne or maybe Ogden and perhaps running on the LA&SL, where oil-fired Challengers held sway for a period of time on varnish?
Hopefully, the article(s) in the magazine will reveal UP's intent concerning usage.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.