I would like to know what there primary use was for? With there smaller driver’s if they were good puller’s on a grade or did they need helper’s? Does any one have one and how is there performance? HO scale.
Thank’s Larry
As I understand, the US built a number of the 2-10-0s for Russia, but halted delivery when the revolution of 1917 broke out. They were originally at a 5 ft gauge (???) and had to be regauged to the US 4’8"1/2 gauge.
Having relatively small drivers and a two wheel lead truck, their usage was primarily for freight drags, some switching, and of course local freight service. They couldn’t go very fast, but had decent pulling power.
I rode behind one at the Illinois RR Museum at Union Illinois years ago, and I believe it is still in operation. For HO, Bachmann Spectrum has one in various road names.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
Over 800 were delivered to Russia, but 200 were in the process of being shipped when the Russian Revolution broke out…it is those approx. 200 “russians” that then were bought and used by US railroads.
The Erie bought 75 of the “Russians”…16 of those later went to the Susquehanna.
Very distinctive engines:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nysw/nysw-s2495ajz.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nysw/nysw-s2481ajz.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nysw/nysw-s2433ajz.jpg
Sadly none of the Erie-Susquehanna Russians survive today…anyone know what others survive? I believe there are a few, but I dont know where.
Scot
I believe Bachmann Spectrum is the only Russian Decapod model available in HO scale. I have 3 of them with SoundTraxx sound decoders installed, and other club members also have some.
The models are not very good pullers because they have a plastic boiler and are fairly lightweight. On our club layout, they can pull fewer than 10 free-rolling cars up a 2 percent grade, but the drivers begin to slip and cannot make it upgrade with more than that.
The only surviving operational prototype I know of is at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, near Chicago. This is the one modeled by Bachmann, and was used on the Saint Louis, San Francisco (SLSF), or Frisco. Decapods were purely freight locomotives and did not have a very high top speed. They were designed for use in Russia to pull 5-foot gauge freight trains, and are a pre-Bolshevik Revolution (1917) design. Prototypes were built by Baldwin and ALCO.
Strange, this one seems to be used for passenger service. I wonder if it was an excursion train?
Here’s an interesting link: http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=218307
The PRR’s treatment of this wheel arrangement is an interesting story - they certainly had a large number of them on their roster.
Probably NJ Commuter service…NYSW used to run a lot of commuter trains…or could be a railfan excursion…the NYSW Russians stopped operating in 1947.
Yeah, PRR designed their own personal version of just about every wheel arrangement imaginable! [:D] And they had a huge fleet of “home grown” decapods…the latest and greatest were the I1 class, nicknamed “Hippos”…several of them were still operating on the New York state branches as late as 1957.
One PRR Hippo survives, in Buffalo, NY:
http://www.trainweb.org/wnyrhs/4483Frame1Source1.htm
Scot