10 ms·

Unusual Locomotives

118 points by ggoo 5y ago

euroderf 5y ago
There must be someone, somewhere, obsessively making working models (3-D printed?) of some of these.
- dajtxx 5y ago
  Of course. We make miniature working models, powered by coal and steam. If you just meant the weirder types of loco, then yes to that too - someone will be making one. Turbine locos are not unknown and the Model Engineer magazine has had a long series on turbines in general going for a while now. 3D printing is only used for dummy detail parts. We mostly can't afford the type of printing required to make working bits. Laser cutting, water jet cutting and CNC machining are more prevalent at the moment.
mikewarot 5y ago
The Hesston Steam Museum has a Shay Geared Locomotive, and I've always looked at those bevel gears out in the open, and wondered what OSHA would say about it, but compared to logging, it's probably the least of the worries.
- mannykannot 5y ago
  With its crossheads, connecting rods and valve gear, a conventional steam locomotive has many external moving parts, which is part of their appeal - plus, of course, the whole thing is a moving part. Some things just cannot be hidden away and you have to be careful - propellers, for example. The Roaring Camp railroad above Santa Cruz had a Shay locomotive in service when I visited a few years ago. https://www.roaringcamp.com/ https://www.roaringcamp.com/
Waterluvian 5y ago
I have a ridiculous question about the “backwards” trains. What makes them backwards?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- masswerk 5y ago
  If you are referring to backwards locomotives, the alternative name, cabForwards, should convey the idea. It's the usual arrangement of a locomotive, but reversed, where what is usually found at the front is at the back and vice versa.
  - Waterluvian 5y ago
    Right but what’s different between that and just running any other locomotive in reverse?
    - masswerk 5y ago
      I guess, the general layout of the cab? – As I understand it, these locomotives where popular for routes including long tunnels, where the crew would have suffered seriously from the exhaust. If you intend to run the locomotive generally cab-forward, you'd probably adapt the layout and also add a proper wind screen.
      - Waterluvian 5y ago
        Oh. Derp. That makes complete sense. Thanks for helping me cross the finish line.
    - Symbiote 5y ago
      From memory, from things my father and grandfather told me (both trainspotters), being taken all over Britain to preserved railways as a child, and from searching. Most locomotives for medium to long routes have a locomotive with a boiler in front, the cab/footplate where the driver and fireman work in the middle, and a tender of coal and water behind them [1]. Going backwards, there's even less view for the driver as the tender is square but the boiler round. The large wheels are the driving wheels, and they need weight on them for good adhesion. That's also why they're huge, to increase the contact area with the rail. The fireman needs to be between the tender and the firebox (under the boiler), to shovel coal in. They'll use most of the coal in the tender on a long journey, around 9 tons to go about 350 miles (550km). If you put the cab at the front, you either need some way to get the coal, or a second cab for the fireman -- but then a difficulty in communication. By the time appropriate innovations to avoid these issues were invented, steam was being replaced by diesel and electric power anyway. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A2#/media/File:Hugh_llewelyn_60532_(5371150220).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A2#/medi... Addendum: realize it isn't a given that people know the words, as you probably didn't have a trainspotter father. On that picture, the cylindrical black then green part is the boiler, full of long copper pipes over almost the full length. It's above the firebox, which is between the large driving wheels. The pistons are at the front, just under the "Blue Peter" nameplate, connected with coupling rods to the driving wheels. The small, front wheels provide stability (somehow, this is the answer I had age 7 or so). The cab is the bit with 60532 on it; there are forward-facing windows as well as to the side. There are green poles on either side of the entrance. There's the entrance to the firebox in the middle, plus valves and levers to control the amount of steam/water etc (i.e. speed). The tender has British Railways on the side, and is a separate part, semi-permanently coupled to the engine. It carries coal for the fire, and water to boil for steam. This is a long-range, powerful locomotive. Short-range ones could use smaller versions of all this, which could mean the coal/water being carried around the boiler, rather than in a tender. If you look closely at the driving wheels, you can see the brakes (acting directly on the rims) and the sanders (apply sand to the rails just in front of the wheels, to increase adhesion if they're slippery with autumn leaves). Around the front buffers (there's probably a name for the red-painted part) there is a coupling mechanism, a pipe to run air brakes, and another pipe to provide steam to heat attached passenger carriages.
11thEarlOfMar 5y ago
Almost on topic... When we were kids, my brother studied a railroad atlas any time he wasn't in school or church. This thing was a monster, large book with hundreds of pages of maps. Literally county by county across the Unites States, all railroad lines and yards. I'd go to sleep Friday night while he sat in an overstuffed chair, studying. I'd wake up at 7:30 AM Saturday... he hadn't moved. Still there, a few pages further into the atlas. As an adult, he worked for the Illinois Central as a hump yard operator. Later the Iowa Pacific, and ultimately found himself doing customer service for a small line in Texas, mainly shipping sand. His job frequently included finding 'lost' cars somewhere in the US, on any line that happened to be in that car's route. He was really good at it. One notable call had him searching railroad yards in Missouri. He had a strong hunch that the misplaced car was on a spur where that yard stored cars that had lost their way. But he needed to confirm. He could have called that yard, but getting the right person to check logs or go hunt was always a hassle. So... He Googled up the yard, zoomed in on the spur and noted that Google helpfully displayed several businesses in a strip mall backed up to the spur. Mike dialed up 'Patty's Nail Salon' and the call went something like: "Hi Patty, this is Craig with the Iowa Pacific. I'm tracking down a misplaced car and I have reason to believe it is sitting on the spur outside your back window. Would you mind checking for a car with ID 123876?" Extended pause.... "I'll be right back!" Sure enough, there is was.
- mapmap 5y ago
  This is a great story, thank you for sharing. Do railroad atlases still exist?
  - cardiffspaceman 5y ago
    You can get a somewhat expensive set of maps from Kalmbach media. When I was a teenager we had one book of maps from the same publisher, and it covered all of the USA. Now it seems like it takes multiple books and I can't find the one for California in their catalog. The intended market is rail fans and people who build model railroads. For reference: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/ https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/
  - pmyteh 5y ago
jonnycomputer 5y ago
Sites like that are the heart of the real potential of the internet. Not this meta crap.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  It's also why I come to HN: for the random.
jasonpeacock 5y ago
> All locomotives more than 18 years old. Proof on file in pursuance of Title 18, USC2257 I love this site already.
CPLX 5y ago
That parchment paper backdrop brings back extremely vivid memories. Glad to see there’s still some examples floating around.
wolfgang42 5y ago
I was having a strange feeling I’d seen this site before, but only the style, not the content. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I remembered the page on the Paris pneumatic clock network: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.h... (discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19441300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19441300) The entire museum section is well worth a read, though a bit of a rabbit-hole: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm
- rwmj 5y ago
  The N-wheeled cars page has also been discussed on HN before: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwheelcar.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwhee... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19786560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19786560
EdwardDiego 5y ago
I love the explosion in diversity of designs as everyone tried new things before settling on what worked best, the stealth chimneys, preheaters, turbine engines. It's an Industrial Age Cambrian Explosion.

Unusual Locomotives

118 points by ggoo 5y ago

euroderf 5y ago

There must be someone, somewhere, obsessively making working models (3-D printed?) of some of these.

dajtxx 5y ago
Of course. We make miniature working models, powered by coal and steam. If you just meant the weirder types of loco, then yes to that too - someone will be making one. Turbine locos are not unknown and the Model Engineer magazine has had a long series on turbines in general going for a while now. 3D printing is only used for dummy detail parts. We mostly can't afford the type of printing required to make working bits. Laser cutting, water jet cutting and CNC machining are more prevalent at the moment.

mikewarot 5y ago

The Hesston Steam Museum has a Shay Geared Locomotive, and I've always looked at those bevel gears out in the open, and wondered what OSHA would say about it, but compared to logging, it's probably the least of the worries.

mannykannot 5y ago
With its crossheads, connecting rods and valve gear, a conventional steam locomotive has many external moving parts, which is part of their appeal - plus, of course, the whole thing is a moving part. Some things just cannot be hidden away and you have to be careful - propellers, for example. The Roaring Camp railroad above Santa Cruz had a Shay locomotive in service when I visited a few years ago. https://www.roaringcamp.com/ https://www.roaringcamp.com/

Waterluvian 5y ago

I have a ridiculous question about the “backwards” trains. What makes them backwards?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
masswerk 5y ago
If you are referring to backwards locomotives, the alternative name, cabForwards, should convey the idea. It's the usual arrangement of a locomotive, but reversed, where what is usually found at the front is at the back and vice versa.
- Waterluvian 5y ago
  Right but what’s different between that and just running any other locomotive in reverse?
  - masswerk 5y ago
    I guess, the general layout of the cab? – As I understand it, these locomotives where popular for routes including long tunnels, where the crew would have suffered seriously from the exhaust. If you intend to run the locomotive generally cab-forward, you'd probably adapt the layout and also add a proper wind screen.
    - Waterluvian 5y ago
      Oh. Derp. That makes complete sense. Thanks for helping me cross the finish line.
  - Symbiote 5y ago
    From memory, from things my father and grandfather told me (both trainspotters), being taken all over Britain to preserved railways as a child, and from searching. Most locomotives for medium to long routes have a locomotive with a boiler in front, the cab/footplate where the driver and fireman work in the middle, and a tender of coal and water behind them [1]. Going backwards, there's even less view for the driver as the tender is square but the boiler round. The large wheels are the driving wheels, and they need weight on them for good adhesion. That's also why they're huge, to increase the contact area with the rail. The fireman needs to be between the tender and the firebox (under the boiler), to shovel coal in. They'll use most of the coal in the tender on a long journey, around 9 tons to go about 350 miles (550km). If you put the cab at the front, you either need some way to get the coal, or a second cab for the fireman -- but then a difficulty in communication. By the time appropriate innovations to avoid these issues were invented, steam was being replaced by diesel and electric power anyway. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A2#/media/File:Hugh_llewelyn_60532_(5371150220).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Peppercorn_Class_A2#/medi... Addendum: realize it isn't a given that people know the words, as you probably didn't have a trainspotter father. On that picture, the cylindrical black then green part is the boiler, full of long copper pipes over almost the full length. It's above the firebox, which is between the large driving wheels. The pistons are at the front, just under the "Blue Peter" nameplate, connected with coupling rods to the driving wheels. The small, front wheels provide stability (somehow, this is the answer I had age 7 or so). The cab is the bit with 60532 on it; there are forward-facing windows as well as to the side. There are green poles on either side of the entrance. There's the entrance to the firebox in the middle, plus valves and levers to control the amount of steam/water etc (i.e. speed). The tender has British Railways on the side, and is a separate part, semi-permanently coupled to the engine. It carries coal for the fire, and water to boil for steam. This is a long-range, powerful locomotive. Short-range ones could use smaller versions of all this, which could mean the coal/water being carried around the boiler, rather than in a tender. If you look closely at the driving wheels, you can see the brakes (acting directly on the rims) and the sanders (apply sand to the rails just in front of the wheels, to increase adhesion if they're slippery with autumn leaves). Around the front buffers (there's probably a name for the red-painted part) there is a coupling mechanism, a pipe to run air brakes, and another pipe to provide steam to heat attached passenger carriages.

11thEarlOfMar 5y ago

Almost on topic... When we were kids, my brother studied a railroad atlas any time he wasn't in school or church. This thing was a monster, large book with hundreds of pages of maps. Literally county by county across the Unites States, all railroad lines and yards. I'd go to sleep Friday night while he sat in an overstuffed chair, studying. I'd wake up at 7:30 AM Saturday... he hadn't moved. Still there, a few pages further into the atlas. As an adult, he worked for the Illinois Central as a hump yard operator. Later the Iowa Pacific, and ultimately found himself doing customer service for a small line in Texas, mainly shipping sand. His job frequently included finding 'lost' cars somewhere in the US, on any line that happened to be in that car's route. He was really good at it. One notable call had him searching railroad yards in Missouri. He had a strong hunch that the misplaced car was on a spur where that yard stored cars that had lost their way. But he needed to confirm. He could have called that yard, but getting the right person to check logs or go hunt was always a hassle. So... He Googled up the yard, zoomed in on the spur and noted that Google helpfully displayed several businesses in a strip mall backed up to the spur. Mike dialed up 'Patty's Nail Salon' and the call went something like: "Hi Patty, this is Craig with the Iowa Pacific. I'm tracking down a misplaced car and I have reason to believe it is sitting on the spur outside your back window. Would you mind checking for a car with ID 123876?" Extended pause.... "I'll be right back!" Sure enough, there is was.

mapmap 5y ago
This is a great story, thank you for sharing. Do railroad atlases still exist?
- cardiffspaceman 5y ago
  You can get a somewhat expensive set of maps from Kalmbach media. When I was a teenager we had one book of maps from the same publisher, and it covered all of the USA. Now it seems like it takes multiple books and I can't find the one for California in their catalog. The intended market is rail fans and people who build model railroads. For reference: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/ https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/
- pmyteh 5y ago

jonnycomputer 5y ago

Sites like that are the heart of the real potential of the internet. Not this meta crap.

JKCalhoun 5y ago
It's also why I come to HN: for the random.

jasonpeacock 5y ago

> All locomotives more than 18 years old. Proof on file in pursuance of Title 18, USC2257 I love this site already.

CPLX 5y ago

That parchment paper backdrop brings back extremely vivid memories. Glad to see there’s still some examples floating around.

wolfgang42 5y ago

I was having a strange feeling I’d seen this site before, but only the style, not the content. I couldn’t put my finger on it until I remembered the page on the Paris pneumatic clock network: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/airclock/airclock.h... (discussed on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19441300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19441300) The entire museum section is well worth a read, though a bit of a rabbit-hole: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/museum.htm

rwmj 5y ago
The N-wheeled cars page has also been discussed on HN before: http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwheelcar.htm http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/nwheelcar/nwhee... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19786560 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19786560

EdwardDiego 5y ago

I love the explosion in diversity of designs as everyone tried new things before settling on what worked best, the stealth chimneys, preheaters, turbine engines. It's an Industrial Age Cambrian Explosion.