Railway General Knowledge.

[theageofthetra]

Not sure- its doubtful these highly complex designs survived the war.

 

[Cowley]

I'm going to have a go at a question, please don't shoot me down if I have this wrong, I read it in a magazine recently. What is unusual about the buffer stop at the end of the small bay siding in Crediton station? It has no buffers actually on it by the way.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm going to have a go at a question, please don't shoot me down if I have this wrong, I read it in a magazine recently. What is unusual about the buffer stop at the end of the small bay siding in Crediton station? It has no buffers actually on it by the way.

Well, a buffer-less buffer stop has to be a little bit unusual -- seriously, I'm afraid I have no idea !

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Is it the one where the bay isn't actually in the bay platform? The track in the platform itself was lifted and they left the other line instead?

 

[Cowley]

Well it's actually something to do with the size of the piece of wood at the end of the siding/bay whatever you want to call it.

 

[AlterEgo]

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Well it's actually something to do with the size of the piece of wood at the end of the siding/bay whatever you want to call it.

is it a bench?

 

[Cowley]

No, not a bench, more a remnant.

 

[TheEdge]

Is it made out of the remains of a wooden plank wagon?

 

[Cowley]

Is it made out of the remains of a wooden plank wagon?

No not that, it's worth knowing who originally leased and provided the stock for the line from Exeter to Crediton while the LSWR were trying to complete their routes in the area.

 

[Ash Bridge]

As the line was originally built to Brunel's broad gauge as far as Crediton, could the buffer stops perhaps be constructed from a remnant of this former type of track?

 

[Cowley]

So close Ash Bridge but it's to do with the size of it.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It's not a buffer beam from a broad gauge locomotive or carriage is it?

 

[Cowley]

It's not a buffer beam from a broad gauge locomotive or carriage is it?

I think that's close enough. The wood is a remnant of the original broad gauge buffer stop (so I've read and from what I've been told), the track runs up to it against an unused bit of platform but the wood continues across dead space to the right for some distance.
Your floor Peter.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Around 1915 a steam locomotive was built with a 2-8-8-8-4 wheel arrangement. Who built it?

 

[Cowley]

The only companies I can immediately think of are Alco and Baldwin. Alco?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Not Alco I'm afraid.

 

[theageofthetra]

Baldwins made a few Triplexes- The Virginian? - most were not a success as even with the massive US loading gauge the boilers of that time just couldn't produce enough steam

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Yes, it was Baldwin.

Your floor.





( Sorry Cowley, you jumped the wrong way! )

 

[Cowley]

Dammit.

 

[theageofthetra]

As steam was fading on BR, in 1967 a steam locomotive was built in York- what was its name and where does it run?

 

[Calthrop]

River Mite of the Ravenglass & Eskdale?

 

[theageofthetra]

Correct- your floor.

 

[Calthrop]

I'll ask it to be made "open floor", please.

 

[theageofthetra]

What was the largest non-articulated steam locomotive ever built & why was it one of the only successful duplex designs?

 

[Cowley]

I think it's the Pennsylvania railroad's S1, a mighty streamlined 6-4-4-6. Only one made. In service it was said to have beaten Mallards speed record more than once. It was successful because unlike most Duplex designs it didn't suffer from surging problems and was liked by crews. It did suffer from wheelslip problems though.

 

[theageofthetra]

Not that one. This was heavier. The S1, although stunning, as with most duplex had insufficient weight on the driving wheels and suffered chronic slip. The one I am after solved this.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There was a 4-4-6-4 Duplex built in 1944/45 for the Pennsylvania RailRoad in the USA of which 26 were produced but I'm not sure they could be counted as successful as they only lasted six years. As far as I am aware that was, however, the largest production run of a Duplex design which might be the category under which you are looking for?

 

[theageofthetra]

Nearly correct - it was the PRR & the wheel arrangement is correct- need to name the class and what made them successful compared to the other Duplex or Triplex types. They didnt last long in service more due to the very rapid dieselisation in the US than any design flaw. I have also just noticed that this class were the most powerful steam locomotive class to ever be static tested.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

OK... my source was Steam Railway issue 456 ( which is where i also got my own recent question from ) so I remembered reading about it; unfortunately it doesn't give the class or any discussion of success or otherwise.

Therefore I would need to Google in order to find out more, which would obviously disqualify my answer so I will have to leave it for someone else and trust that they themselves are not Googling it...

 

[theageofthetra]

Ok as Peter pretty much got the correct loco you can have the floor.

I am surprised Steam Railway magazine didn't mention the feature which made it successful (in comparison to other duplex/triplex anyway).

It was the PRR Q2 class of 1944/5 with as Peter said a 4-4-6-4 wheel arrangement. It weighed 276.4 tonnes & had been static tested at a massive 7987 hp.

Most other locos of this type suffered chronic wheelslip due to there being no way of reducing steam into an individual wheelset that was slipping- also the huge boilers & grates required long pony trucks which reduced the weight available for traction.

The Q2 finally solved this by having a kind of 'traction control' which would detect wheelslip in an individual wheelset and shut off steam as required.

It was however no better in service than other less complicated types and they had higher maintenance costs hence why they had such short lives.

This period in US railroad history often threw out some very complex and clever designs to deal with the huge demands of war production but most had tragically short lives and almost none survive.