Just in front of the cab is a large, almost square protrusion with a square dome. It appears to have a very early air bake system attached to the side. I would appreciate if anyone knows what this is or knows where a better view may be.
Wikipedia and historical sites say these were made by Brooks about 1893. They later went to the Algoma Central and became numbers 25 and 26. They were scrapped in 1917.
That’s a sand box just ahead of the cab. You can see that it has a sand pipe leading down to the rail just like the one from the forward sand box. It may indeed have an odd shape, but it’s clearly a sand box.
Or are you in fact referring to the Belpaire firebox, which “Ragnar” has explained?
For a scale drawing of a similar engine, with the Belpaire firebox box but with only one sand box, see page 121 in “The Model Railroader Cyclopedia, Volume 1: Steam Locomotives.”
The air compressor is a two-stage type made by New York Air Brake. New York was Westinghouse’s only serious competitor in the railroad air brake field, and New York equipment was completely compatible with the more common Westinghouse brake equipment.
Thanks for the insight. This one seems so much larger than other ones. I am going through the GN links now and I can see this looks like a sister to one of thier first 4-8-0 back in 1890’s.
Looks like The Model Railroader Cyclopedia is hard to find. I was referring to both. The line was reported to have 5-8% grades and went belly up after running one locomotive over the line (it went in the ditch).
The MR Steam Cyc hard to find? Hardly! Go up to “shop” in the menu bar above and look under “Model Railroader”: “Books”: “Modeling Reference.” It’s right there.
Hum. So that’s what they looked like. Although other mastadons crossed the border on US owned roads, apparently these were the only two OWNED by a Canadian road. I have seen prettier engines. In HO, a Mantua 12 wheeler chassis with an even older AHM ‘Casey Jones’ boiler would make a fast kitbashing project. That 2nd sand dome is something I wouldn’t spend too much time analizing, they probably found it in their spare parts box, and you can find one in yours too. My steam encylc. is just about worn out…a 1st edition…really got my money’s worth out of that ol’ boy…
That is a Belpaire firebox. The idea is to increase the reflective surface and get more heat into the water and more steam. Bowser makes an HO PRR 2-8-0 in metal that will outpull the real thing. IT has a metal boiler that you can remove quite a lot before breaking through and could make a fairly close model with some effort.
While the Pennsy and the GN were certainly the railroads in the US that had, by far, the most locos with Belpaire fireboxes, there were others.
The UP had at least one: OWR&N (UP) 707, a 2-8-0 built by Brooks in 1898 (on the roster until 1946)
St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern (never heard of that one) had #1805, a 4-8-0 built by Brooks in 1901. The railroad had at least 14 others.
The Burlington had #550 that was a 4-4-0 built by Rogers in 1893. It also had #687, the FIRST 2-6-2 (I guess we know which prairie they’re talking about now). It was built by Baldwin in 1900.
Then there’s Illinois Central’s #640, a 4-8-0 built by Brooks in 1899.
This is certainly not a complete list, just my quick scrounges.
Brooks was a big fan of the Belpaire firebox, and GN was a big fan of Brooks. I would think that’s how GN picked up this particular characteristic. Or could it be vice-versa?
I’ll also note that the Pennsy’s style of Belpaire looked different than the Brooks/GN style. Hence, I figure that Pennsy picked it up from someone else. Maybe Bill Belpaire himself? (kidding)
Once you cross the various oceans that separate the North American continent from the rest of the world, you discover that Belpaire fire boxes were quite common - even ubiquitous.
As for the obviously homemade sand dome, short line shop crews have produced some really strange sand boxes and steam dome shrouds. One of the narrow gauge 2-8-0s originally built for the Black Hills Central spent several years with a dome that looked like a can topped with an oversize funnel!
Pennsy used what I would describe as a modified Belpaire firebox on most of their engines. I’m away from home at the moment, otherwise I would post drawings to show the differences.
I would like to see those differnces. This one is very much a GN type. There are several Pennsy models out there and few GN with the Belpaire that I can find.
I finally got my copy of the Cyclopedia, and do not know how anyone could model steam without it. I feel like I have been living in a cave!
The G1 illustation is a 99% look-a-like for this engine minus the extra sand dome. Even the tender has the same shapes. It is too bad the photo is of a G3. My searches for a G1 photo have not yielded anything yet.
I have been unable to find any engine close to these dimensions with a Belpaire so I am going to attempt a major kitbash on this. It will not be exact but should be presentable.
I have a Mantua 4-8-0 chassis. I will try to either make the boiler from scratch or modify one to create the Belpaire. I am new to this level of modeling but so far am enjoying it. Even if it does not turn out better to try and fail than to have never tried. At least I will learn.
I do not think this sand dome was added by the railroad. Looking at the history of the road it was closed befoe a single train was run. Only one of the two engines ran the line and it went in the ditch within sight of where it started. I cannot tell if it was the one in the picture. After that everything was sold and the railroad disolved.
The records lead me to believe these engines were delivered new from Brooks so it is a good chance Brokks made up this arrangement for some reason.
