Incidentally there is more to those beams and links on the ‘original’ than meets the eye, and Prof. Milenkovic is just the person to analyze them for us!
This is not ‘aping’ of older beam mining engines. Note the absence of precision turning or milling/planing in that era – good crossheads for the cylinders would have been a relative impossibility. The beams give quartered and cross-equalized thrust to the wheels from upright cylinders of amazingly long stroke and thin piston-rod diameter. See all the tension rods used to keep alignment? Be interesting to see this described from a linkage expert’s perspective…
Grasshopper engines on the early B&O are similarly rigged, likewise to make the things work in practice with 1820s-level techniques.
There is not much more to add to your explanation apart from that the links and beams form a version of a Watt’s linkage (sometimes called a watts linkage). It is essentially a four-bar linkage
Hey, there are only three “bars” or links? Yes, the fourth link is “ground” to which two of the other links are fixed, forming a closed loop of joints and links.
Watt’s linkage does a good job approximating straight-line motion with a simple (?) mecha
These old British Locomotives are really interesting, but I’d like to add a photo of one of the first steam engines built entirely in the United States:
A replica of the South Carolina Canal & Railroad’s “Best Friend of Charleston” built in 1830 by the West Point Foundry of New York. [ The original was destroyed in a boiler explosion in 1833 when a fireman blocked the safety valve closed. ] About 1928 the NRHS Chapter of Charleston had a replica built, and exhibited there. In 1957 the repl;ca was transported to Memphis, Tn. in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the compleation of the Memphis& Charleston RR (1857). The celebration was called IIRC "The Marriage of the Waters’; symbolized by pouring Ocean water into the Mississippi River { at that time the original station still stood on what was then Bellevue just North of Madison Ave.) The M&CRR became a part of the Southern Rwy(now: NS) line . In abt 2005, the NS took the ‘Best Friend’ to Chattanooga, Tn where it was refurbished, and ‘campaigned’ by the NS as part of a 2 year lease fron City of Charleston.
In 1969(Winter?) after the Flying Scotsman arrived in Boston; I was in Birmingham, Al and got to see her up close. Met Alan Pegler there at the Southern Rwy Steam Shop ( Where the #611 and #1218 were then based(?)). At that time she still wore the number 4472.
But they had Americanized her for operation here: A big high-powered headlight(Pyle?), Janey knuckle coupler, ‘cow catcher’ and steps, really shiney chromed bell, and a deep steam whistle, on the right side of the smoke box; aqpparently, someone thought that the original BR whistle wasnot ‘impressive’ enough?. she also had a train of IIRc 6 cars: 2 exhibit cars. three BR coaches and a pullman observation car. There was also a water car behind the regular tender; I thiought it was interesting because it had a walkway through the car. It was pretty impressive. I often wondered what the British fans thought of the ‘Americanization’ of it? It was quite a traveled trainset (IIRC some 15,000miles in US and Canada before going back to England. I have n idea as to how far it ran in Australia ? But that was with a differen ownership, after Mr. Peglar bankrupted…
P.S. Here is alinked site with a couple of photos of the #4472 in about 1972 in California.
One of the reasons the Scotsman trip went bankrupt was that the new Harold Wilson government didn’t think it was a good idea to have a steam powered train used to show off the latest in British products and technology as the train was a travelling British trade show to help with its costs. Wilson pulled the plug and the train was sort of impounded in San Francisco. Pegler had to 'work his passage" back to the U.K. on a cruise ship.
I well recall the cow catcher, knuckle coupler, headlight and whistle. I was in the York museum in 2004 and had a look at it in the shop when it first arrived there. The boiler tubes had been removed and I saw that they were rotted to hell from oxygen pitting that in several areas had perforated the metal. A pivot on the drive of it was totally worn out and I could move it back and forth on its worn out bushing. The guy that let me into the workshop had the attitude of “what the hell did we get into here?”
Recall that it was in the area of 1962/63(?) that British Rail had marked all the ‘ilk’ of the steam power for ‘scrapping’. It was either that or ‘preservationists’ could come forward and bid on the ‘hulks’ for their use in ‘whatever’ direction they wanted to take those examples of BR Steam.
I do not know the complete history of ‘the story’ of Alan Pegler and ‘his’ #4472, the Flying Scotsman. One can assume that the 1969 dating of the arrival of the 4472 by ship in Boston,Mass. would have been preceeded by a ‘questionable’ [as to the depth of the 4472’s repairs to make her 'roadworthy(?). Would have required a time period of at least, possibly 2 years(?).
Mr. Pegler brought the 4472 to America9and then Canada) as a representative for British Trade; her consist was all British cars, 2 coaches and an obseration car; there were three cars which contained the ‘show’ for the British Trade mission. When the British Government 'pulled the status of teade mission…those cars were apparently, returned to the U.K.(?). Mr. Pegler was then on ‘his own’. I remember that they went from the Houston Tx area to Canada(?). Pegler was running out of his own money, so the 4472 and train journeyed to California some time in 1972(?). It was put into storage at a U.s. Military facility, near San Francisco(?).
This was to ‘avoid’ legal ‘entanglements’ for Mr. Pegler; he returned to Britain on a ship, IIRC a P&O liner,(?) as art of the’crew’(?) Sometime, in 1973/74 he sold the entire train and 4472;
I found some interesting reading concerning the USS Texas, from the time it began ife as a museum ship.
I forget where, but I read several years ago the ship had deteriorated so badly the US Navy threatened to repossess the ship if the state of Texas didn’t get serious about taking proper care of it. It’s a little known fact that museum and memorial ships like Texas are still US Navy property, and are only on loan to the various organizations they’re trusted to.
The ‘Texas’, IIRC is moored near the area of the Memorial for the ‘Battle of San Jacinto’ monumnent; East of Houston{actually appears to be in almost a tidal swamp land?]
Do not forget the Unknown C.S.S. submarine that was found in a bayou near N.O.L.A. It sat at various around New Orleans 'ril about 1997 when it was moved to the State Museum in Baton Rouge.
There is a ‘Virtual’ submarine’experience’ at the WWII Museum in NOLA. ‘The last voyage’ of the USS Tang.
At BR LA on the riverfron one can visit the Fletcher class destroyer USS KIDD [named for the admiral killed on the USSArizona 7Dec1942. It is one of two ships of the USN authorized to fly the flag “Jolly Roger”.
Out in Oklahoma, at Muskogee, one can visit the submarine at the War Memprial Park in Muskogee. The USS Batfish (& Museum). The difference with this displayed unit, is that it is now on dry land.[sigh]
There’s also the BB 55 USS North Carolina; its moored near Wilmington,NC (Harbor(?). Have not been there is a number of years, but during the summer they used to have a ‘battle’ display at dusk when they had a secnario where the guns were ‘fired’ and there was an attendant ‘sound and light’ show. (?) It was pretty impressive.’
I think that was the case with the British Rail Class 55.
In the Royal Australian Navy, we were tougher than that. We set up a workshop to overhaul the 18 cylinder Deltics and the nine cylinder turbocharged versions (exclusively, I think). These were used in our “Bird” class minesweepers, a pair of the 18 cylinder engines providing propulsion and the nine cylinder powering the magnetic mine sweep. Effectively they didn’t have anything that could be considered a “power assembly” and when the engines were overhauled, they were stripped to individual components, all of which were carefully examined and replaced if not up to specification. I think an overhaul was scheduled for every 3000 hours. The Deltics were basically aluminium castings, with steel pistons, cylinder liners, rods and crankshafts, all held in phase by an amazing gear train at the power take off end.
The aluminium was favoured since the ships were required to have a loww magnetic signature as a defence against magnetic mines, having a wooden hull on aluminium framing and largely aluminium superstructure. In those days, beer cans were steel and were the most magnetic item on the ship…
The “Bird” class were ex Royal Navy, and apparently they had been built with conventional Crossley engines but were refitted with the Deltics before transfer to the RAN. I have no idea why someone would have requested that.
HMAS Anzac, on completion of a replenishnent at sea flew the flag of the “Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club”, which was a skull and crossbones with the skull wearing an Australian Army “slouch” hat with the side clipped up. I can’t recall the background colour, but it wasn’t black.
The symbol was used in the 1974 movie “Stone” and is seen at this link on posters…
I didn’t take Prof. Milenkovic for a troll, but this is vergin’ on it… [:)]
A Deltic no more has ‘power assemblies’ than a FM OP engine does; in fact a Deltic is so named because it is a triangular congeries of three inline OP engines sharing 3 crankshafts. It would be very interesting to see and read the technical manuals Peter has.
As with the FM engine, there are no cylinder heads and no valves or valve gear. On the other hand, as in the FM engine there is no good way to get pistons (or liners) out past the cranks without a certain amount of disassembly … I’d think both of cranks and some of the gearing they drive. The engine is not as tall as an OP of comparable bore and stroke, but wider of course, and as with a modern W-engine you can get a lot of displacement into a relatively short engine length. This with no peculiar geometry of articulated master rods as in a radial (or Cooper-Bessemer diesel) or dotty mechanical contrivances as in a diesel Doxford or a Commer-knocker.
This gets me thinking about stainless Clevelands and the like … reading between the lines this tells me the rods and cranks in these engines were a non-ferromagnetic alloy.
I have little doubt the Deltics had considerably more shp for the same engine-bay space and weight than the Crossleys they replaced… at least they did not mount them vertically with a generator at the bottom for electric drive. [D)]
I recall that one of the minehunter proposals of the 1990s was a ship built entirely of non magnetic stainless steel. I recall comments that this was referred to as the dream of the Executive Officer, among whose responsibilities would have been maintenance of the ship’s paintwork.
The RAN puchased an Italian design entirely made of fibreglass. I was at a tedious meeting on software standards for engineering data, and at the conclusion of the meeting we were taken into an adjacent building where HMAS Huon (or at least its outer shell) was located. I didn’t know that the ship had arrived in country and while only a relatively small ship, it looked big inside a building. The other unexpected thing was that the ship was fully painted, even to the red kangaroo on the stack. It was effectively the biggest plastic kit I ever expect to see…
There was also an equally big (obviously) mould for producing the (one piece) hulls for the follow on ships.
These had aluminium Isotta Fraschini diesels, which were hung from the deck above in an attempt to reduce the shock impact from a mine explosion.
The engines on the F4F Wildcats were also started by cartridge, with an example of the starting mechanism on display at the San Diego Aerospace Museum. One account of the Dec 7, 1941 attack was a pilot going through several cartridges before getting the engine to start.
On a related note, my dad served on the AM-281 “Quest” on its last deployment. The ship was powered by a pair of Alco 539’s and the one concession to reducing magnetic signature was a concrete hull.
