I’ve heard some steamers had boosters on their tenders, thats where it must have been on the U-4a
Southern 4501, then the N&W “J” “A” and “Y” in that order
Sure enough.
Booster (and Elesco heater!) later removed:
Here is a side view of a similar tender booster that survives at IRM:
Forgot about tender boosters.
On the subject of boosters, that tender booster has smaller drive wheels than even the smallish wheels on that 0-8-0, which is a low speed drag, hump, or transfer engine. People can correct me on the actual application, but we can be sure it was lugging long strings of freight short distances at low speed.
So if the small drivers on the 0-8-0 limit that engine to say, 20 MPH tops, would not the even smaller wheels on that booster with siderods flailing around limit the engine-tender combination to even less, say 10 MPH?
Or because the booster is gear drive on only one wheel and siderod to the other, kind of like the Pennsy S2 turbine that can get away with smaller wheels for a given top speed because you don’t have the unbalanced reciprocating angularity?
So if you can run a gear/siderod combination at higher speed per wheel diameter than a conventional piston-rod drive, why did a high-speed steam piston engine with gear or jackshaft coupling to a siderod drive of smaller but still fixed-frame drivers never catch on? That arrangement was used a lot on early electrics.
It’s kinda both.
The booster is geared drive to the small wheels of the driven axle, has the essential advantage of ‘inside connection’ to its crankshaft, and drives on a centered pinion, and of course disengages and stops/idles before it reaches a critical speed. By the time Franklin stopped making reversible boosters they were nominally good for about 30mph in gear, assuming you had the steam generation capability to sustain that.
Theoretically, the quartered outside connecting rods can be ‘perfectly’ counterbalanced dynamically; the trouble is that the trailing truck is suspended, and the plane of rotation of the rods is outboard of that of the counterweights. Then add all the unsprung mass of the counterweight-and-rod system, hung outboard of the journals, and you have an unpleasant-riding proposition at even reasonably high speed.
I don’t know whether the units applied to the U-4a tenders were reversible. (The patent for the reversible auxiliary locomotive is 1742610, available here.; it came out several years after the U-4as were built)
What is the “steam generation . . . to sustain that”?
In other words, how is a booster different than a second engine set on an articulated, where for examples, a Challenger didn’t have that much more boiler than a Northern?
Are boosters steam hogs because they lack variable cutoff and/or throttles?
Well, the cylinders on most boosters weren’t that big… so I don’t think that they would have been a problem in terms of steam usage.
And also, most steamers that had boosters were built with them, so they would have also been designed around that, and I’m sure the steam usage of the booster unit was taken into control.
My favorite locomotives are,
NYC J3a Hudson their very beautiful steamers in 20th Century Limited paint.
Amtrak F40 in Phase III and P40/2 Phase V
GP38-2.
VGN 2-10-10-2
Would have loved to have seen and heard it in action in WV and VA coal drags in the 1920’s.
The most beautiful and my favorite steamer is any 4-8-4; their lines, balance and symetrey are so above and beyond anyother steam engine - no contest. Bill Reed
There is only one engine and that is the queen of the south Southern1401 in all of her green and black, she was one of the engine that pulled FDR train after he die, and is sitting downtown Washington DC under lights for all to see
SP&S Alco FA and FBs. I was fortunate enough to spend many a mile aboard these “I can pull a mountain if you can hook it up”. Get down and grunt, or run like the wind. The SP&S took good care of their locomotives, and these units showed what even an old Alco could do given good maintenance.
Like Robert Willison, my all-time favorite - the locomotive which captured my heart as a little boy and has held it ever since - is the Reading T-1 steamer, no. 2102. I rode behind her in excursion service back in the early 70s (including one trip round the Horseshoe Curve), and she captured my imagination like NO other engine could. And I love ALL steam locos. But you never forget your first, and 2102 is mine. To watch my DVDs with her on them or to see the YouTube videos where she powers on by and blows that whistle… It makes me misty-eyed. Sheer perfection, the most beautiful machine, in form and function, crafted by man. The thought that she’s sitting unloved and unused and all but forgotten in an engine house at the Reading & Blue Mountain RR breaks my heart. Last I heard, she’s pretty worn out from passenger service in the 80s and early 90s and her return to coal service. She needs a HUGE overhaul, and I guess that the R&BMRR have no interest in investing the time and (more importantly) the money necessary to bring her back to her former glory.
Personally my favorite is the Southern Pacific GS-4. I have drool over them as long as I can remember. I got to see the 4449 at track speed when she came through MN on her way home from Michigan. Best day ever!
My favorite engine is NKP 765 preserved by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. For more information visit www.765.org
Great Northern’s O8 Mikado. She was a brute!
One the diesel front, ye good ol’ SD24 even though GN never had 'em.[C):-)]
If I absolutely HAD to choose one, and only one, favorite, it would be the Southern Pacific Daylight locomotives. They are truly the most beautiful locomotives in the world. I fell in love with the 4449 in the mid-1970s, and I have been enthralled with her awesome majesty and beauty ever since.
THANK you, Angs McDonald! (SP President 1932-1941. The “Coast Daylight” was his idea.)
The UP 844 is simply awesome. And I love the SP 2472 – the epitome of what a non-streamlined steam locomotive should look like.
C
Alco c430 is a great looking loco.
How can anyone chose any other locomotive aside from the Classic GP30.
Designed and built in America. Classic lines unique to this model only. Still unique today and used by a class 1 as a slug and many times in the lead for locals. One could even argue style for wind deflection to help with drag.
I could spend my retirement trying to chase these down. I understand many live on in the shortline world in the Midwest and Larry’s has most of the classic Warbonnets left over from the days of ATSF fast freights.
Thank you electromive for this classic style.
For all those that saw the 2102 in action…god bless the 2102