[ARC5] Locomotives

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

On 20 Dec 2012 at 22:19, Neil wrote:

> For this reason, the crank pins on the left side of the locomotive are
> offset 90 degrees from those on the right, so at start-off only one
> side actually gets the train moving until the wheels have rotated a
> few degrees.

What always fascinated me about big steam locos was the undoubted weight 
of the driving gear, especially the connecting rods: those things had to weigh 
tons, and all that weight flailing up and down must have put tremendous 
loads on various bearings.

And the pounding the tracks would have had to take must have been really 
something.

I know the drivers had weights attached to them that counterbalanced the 
weight of the rods, yet even so, physical forces cannot be ignored, only 
somewhat compensated for.

I have always suspected that the use of steam-turbines was an attempt to 
mitigate some of this. Too bad that idea never went very far on the railroads. 
The Navy made good use of turbines though.

As I remember it, the Navy, at least for its destroyers, used Abner Doble's 
method of steam generation.

Ken W7EKB