I recently brought a small 2-6-0 to my train club for a brief run. Another member looked at it and said the side rods were not synced on both sides and told me it must be something that happened when it was built/shipped. The side rods are not in exactly the same position, comparing one side to the other. This little engine seems to chug along without difficulty; no binding or jerkiness. Am I getting my leg pulled by this guy?
Thanks.
I’d say yes, you are. [:D] A steam engine’s drivers should be 90 degrees rotated from the ones on the other side – or, as they say, “quartered” (because one side should be a quarter-rotation ahead/behind the other). If they were lined up, as that goofball suggested, once the pistons reached full stroke the rods would quickly bind, with no way to push/pull them back for the next rotation.
Goofball??? LOL.
Take care! Mr. Otte. [:D]
Frank
That remark had to have come from one of those diesel fanatics!!
Note that he’s talking here about real steam engines needing quartering to run. A model incorrectly built with the siderods the same on either side would run fine.
BTW on an articulated steam engine, the two sets of drivers are independent so it’s possible both sets of drivers could have the front and rear drivers in synch - say the left side siderods both down at the same time. But each set of drive rods would still be quartered with the siderods on the opposite side of that set of drivers.
I would want to know what the man intends by the word “synched.” Maybe he couldn’t recall the correct term while making up his comment on the fly and settled for synched, but intended “quartered.”
If he meant that when the main crank on the left side was at BDC, the one on the other side of the loco should also be at BDC or TDC, he was either pulling your leg (did he have a grin he couldn’t suppress or a glint in his eye?), or he really doesn’t know much about steam locomotives.
This may be like the time the apprentice mechanic was sent to the tool crib to get a left-handed monkey wrench.
Nearly all US railroads had the Right side lead by 90degrees. The 800# gorilla was the PRR that used a left side lead.
And the PRR did it because most of their mains were double track or more. The lead rods are heavier on the rails, and they wanted that extra loading away from the edges of the subgrade.
As for why rods have to be quartered, and why the lead rods develop more downforce, there was a long discussion about that some time ago. Someone who’se a better net navigator than I might have the link.
SOME (not all) model steamers might run with zero quartering. But they won’t be prototypical. Prototype side rods have articulating joints, so they can only transmit force parallel to the rod.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with properly quartered drivers)
Since most of the time, only one set of drivers is actuall powered by the electric motor in a model steam engine, all of the other drivers must be quartered in order for the locomotive to work at all. So, it IS important that model locos to have drivers in quarter!
Thanx for the responses. From the vote totals it looks like he’s wrong. Now I’m motivated to look at my other steamers to see which are quartered (new term for me - so I am learning) and which are not.
All will be quartered if not they will not work!
Or the sailor who was sent for two fathoms of shore line. (Line being sailor talk for a rope)
Is that anything like "muffler bearings’ or “rubber lobed camshafts” ?
Or the guys that wonder where the transmission and driveshaft is on a diesel
How about striped paint
That’s what made the Pennsy the Standard Railroad of the World. [:P]
Sounds like he spends too much time watching “Thomas and His Friends”…
Actually, I’ve heard that the PRR’s quartering practice was the same as that of England.
On thinking about this, I wonder whether we may have some confusion over terminology. Remember that the quartering has to be exactly the same for every pair of drivers in a coupled set of drivers. If an 0-8-0 has 3 axles with the crankpins set at 90 degree angles, but one axle set at 85 or 95 degrees, you will have a serious bind. If that is the kind of problem we are discussing, then it should be clear that nobody was pulling the O.P.'s leg, and the problem needs attention.
But since he says the engine runs smoothly without any binding, I suppose everything is probably quartered correctly.
Tom
All of the driver sets have to have identical offsets - but three-cylinder engines had their rods ‘thirded’ - the outside rods were 120 degrees apart. The counterweights on the drivers of the axle driven by the inside cylinder would have their counterweights out of line with the crank pin, to allow for balancing the main rod and crank between the frames.
A model loco can run just fine with the drivers mis-quartered as long as all of them are mis-quartered the same. A prototype loco would suffer from a VERY uneven torque curve if the same thing was done in 1:1 scale.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Hello All,
Being left handed there is such a thing as a left handed monkey-, crescent-wrench or spanner.
It has to do with the cut of the threads or twist of the knurled adjustment screw.
There are also left handed scissors, shears and tin snips.
However, when I went into my local auto parts store and got the young guy at the counter I asked him for a set of feeler gauges. When he produced them I asked him, with a straight face, for a left handed set. As the poor kid scrambled on his computer for the correct part number, the old guy standing behind him smiled wrily.
I’m still looking for a squeegee sharpener and a bucket that can hold a gallon of steam- -[;)]
Hope this helps.