At the end of the revenue runs for steam engines on the Union Pacific, one or more BigBoys were fitted with Franklin steam booster motors on the trailing truck giving them a boost in horsepower rating to 7500hp. I don"t recall where I read this information or I would add the source. Anyway It would be good to see an HO scale representation of this variation for all the right reasons. Of course any other scale would be welcome to see as well. What say you?
Darn! I couldn’t get the jpg file to transfer to the post from my pictures. Can anyone tell me the steps to success?
Blackpatch 10
Open up a Photobucket account.
Upload pictures to your photobucket account.
Link pictures to your photobucket account from these forums.
David B
Note that if the images, or the source from where they are taken, are/is copyrighted, you must have permission from the publisher or the holder of the copyright to post an image here. If the image is owned by you, or licensed, you can post it here without reference in keeping with the Law.
If you would like to link to an image held on another site, simply post the url by copying it and pasting it here in the text box. When you press the space bar afterwards, it will activate it as a hot link. You can also use hyperlinks.
-Crandell
Ooh lets see. I think typical N scale big boys are around 300-400 bucks w/decoders, haven’t seen one advertised as being DC only, so I imagine because it would be special it would be 50-100 dollars more…so nope, I’d never get one. The one 0-8-0 I would like is $175 DCC and I hope to find one in DC only so I will spend only about a hundred. But it would be cool to see one.
On a side note, anybody know any tech info on the Big Boy/Challenger’s? I mean, they weighed a 1 000 000 pounds or more can’t imagine how much power that would take to push around let alone haul a bunch of cars behind it.
The information found under “Wheel Arrangements” in the top banner here should go a long way to helping out with your questions.
-Crandell
Well, I tried the link posting and got the picture posted instead. The shifting sands of silicon did me in again. Ssshhh!! Don’t tell anyone that I admitted to anything like that.
Blackpatch 10
I hope all is well with you since this is a loss of reality story. Horse power is not related to tractive effort and the UP did not use them on any Big Boys even in our minds.
Maybe a Big Boy model with C C trucks under the tender with traction motors and batteries or solar panels would sell well.
CZ
I thought the trailing truck looked a bit bulky in that pic. I found some interesting information via Google in regards to the Franklin boosters being used on the UP. I will have to dig a little deeper on this one. I wasn’t even sure what a Franklin booster was until now, but I guess the concept makes sense.
Edit: After looking at some pics of other Big Boys, the 4019’s does not look any different than the others. I also couldn’t find any solid evidence of the UP using the booster on the Big Boys. From what I have read about the Franklin boosters thus far, it seems that it should be something that should be fairly distinguishable. Does anybody have a good pic of one so I know exactly what I am looking for?