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The Canadian National smoothside lightweight passanger cars were painted CN olive green and black with a black roof and black ends. Sides were green from the bottom of the window up and black from the bottom of the window down. Yellow stripes at the top, between green and black just below the window and at the bottom. CANADIAN NATIONAL was in yellow and centered above the windows. The individual car name was yellow centered in the black area of the car and yellow and red crests at all four ends centered in the black area of the car side. (Use CDS dry transfers) (Use Scalecoat CN Green #72).
Sleeper cars are in the E series (4 sections, 8 duplex roomettes, 4 double bedrooms). Selected names are: Erikson, Edson, Elgin, Emerald, Emperor, Enterprise, Essex, Euclid, and Eldorado.
The "Cape" series had 2 double bedrooms, 2 compartments and a lounge. Selected names in this series are: Cape Race, Cape Breton, Cape Chignecto, and Cape Porcupine.
A good reference book is Canadian National Railway Story by Patrick C Dorin.
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In 1953, CN placed orders for 302 cars, including a single order with Pullman for 92 sleeping cars, 17 parlor cars and combination parlor and meal service cars, 12 combination sleeping and meal service cars and 20 full dining cars. The remaining 161 cars were coaches ordered from Canadian Car and Foundry. CN then determined this was not enough and at the end of 1953 ordered an additional 57 coaches from Canadian Car and Foundry and 30 baggage cars from National Steel Car Corporation in Hamilton Ontario.
The 218 coaches built by CC&F were identical, however the sleepers were of various designs. Besides the 4-8-4 "E" series there were 20 "Green" series cars (6 roomette, 4 double bedroom, 6 open section). 15 of these were leased to Pullman for international service and had Pullman in yellow on the four top corners of the car. Individual names include: Greenmount, Green Point, Green Lane, Greendale, Green Harbour, and Greenway.
Another type, the "Bay" series (10 roomettes, 5 double bedrooms) also had some leased to Pullman. Individual names in this series are: Buckley Bay, Hudson Bay, Glace Bay, and Thunder Bay. There were a total of 6 cars in this series, of which 4 were leased to Pullman and had Pullman in yellow in the top 4 corners.
All "E" series cars were operated in Canada.
The "Cape" series also had cars leased to Pullman with Pullman in yellow on the four top corners of the car.
Also, in 1950, Canadian Car and Foundry built 20 "I" series sleepers according to plans and specifications supplied by Pullman Standard. These were lightweight smoothside 24 duplex roomette cars with 6 wheel drop equalizer trucks. Individual names include: Indigo, Ingelow, Innes, Iroquois, Inverness, Iris, Isabella, and Irvine.
All the cars (389 total) ordered in 1953 came with 4 wheel trucks.
As for sources, Canadian Railroad Modeller is the only magazine available in Canada, and have not done any articles on CN passanger cars (yet) and I don't know if they will. The book Canadian National Railway Story is where I got the above information, but it does not provide plans, just small pictures.
Another book with good pictures of these cars that I remembered and looked at last night is More Classic Trains by Arthur D Dubin (published by Kalmbach). Interestingly, this book also has a section on CP but does not show any of the smoothside lightweight passanger cars owned by CP.
Yes, the solid green (often called "candy apple green") color is the scheme on the CSX ex-D&H GP39-2's. The D&H 7400-series units are the former Reading ones, and they were delivered in the green paint. They've gotten many different D&H paint jobs, and the CSX didn't BUY them - they RECLAIMED them! CSX was the owner of the lease, and when the lease came up, they were power short and just took 'em back and renumbered them into the 4300-series. It's pretty funny, too - the three units that were rebuilt by M-K Mountaintop that were repainted into Lightning Stripes lasted little more than a year... shame... The colors haven't changed much, though!
The "Bee Line" service scheme is indeed the yellow/green scheme. The "Bee Line" slogan only appeared on the C630's and U30C's, if memory serves me correctly (any GP's get this?).
Quite simply the Co-Bo arrangement was used to reduce the maximum axle load and therefore inprove the route availability. The engine is at the three axle end of the locomotive.
I can only assume that the weight distribution of the Metro-vics was such that a Co-Co arrangement would have resulted in the wieght being distributed too much to one end (i.e. the axle loads at one end would have been much less than at the other). This is not permitted on BR as it can cause derailments at speed. There are many other regulations regarding very very basic variations like this, including the difference between wheel diameters on the same truck and between trucks under the same vehicle etc.
I will limit my discussion to lightweight smoothside cars and stainless steel fluted cars.
Some individual names are Ash Grove, Beech Grove, Cedar Grove, Maple Grove, Oak Grove, Spruce Grove, Walnut Grove, Palm Grove, Willow Grove (noticing a similarity yet?).
The name "CANADIAN PACIFIC" was centered above the windows and car individual name was centered below the windows. If you get the CDS, there will be a small picture included showing where everything goes. There is a great picture in the 1993 Canadian Railway Scenes calander of the smoothside lightweight cars.
The book Canadian Pacific Railway, by Patrick C Dorin and Nicholas Morants', Canadian Pacific are great reference books.
There was an excellent series of articles in the Canadian Railway Modeller magazine on kitbashing to make these cars:
Sep-Oct 1991: "Chateau" series sleepers and "Park" series dome/observation cars Nov-Dec 1991: The dome/buffet and "Manor" series sleepers Feb-Mar 1992: Articles on the "Coach" and "Dining Cars" May-Jun 1992: Article on the Steam Generator carIn the fifty's there were beaver shields on the four ends of the car. Selected names of "Chateau series cars (8 duplex roomettes, 3 double bedrooms, 4 open sections) are: Chateau Cadillac, Chateau Dollard, Chateau Laval, Chateau Montcalm, Chateau Viger.
Selected names of "Manor" series cars (4 roomettes, 5 double bedrooms, 4 open sections) are: Abbott Manor, Bell Manor, Carelton Manor, Fraser Manor, Mackenzie Manor, Wolfe Manor.
Southern Pacific does it all the time.There are other railroads that put engines in the middle of the train (actually not right in the middle) but I do not know which.
If I am not mistaken, the mid helpers are put more towards the front of the train. Example:
F = Freight Car D = Diesel Engine C = Caboose (optional) DDDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDDDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFC or DDDDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDDDDDDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDDCPlease do not count the Fs, but a good ratio is 40/60 if the train has 100 cars. Last week a friend of mine was at the Tehachupee (sp?) loop in southern California and he said that a coal train went by with 10 engines, with 6 midhelpers.
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The <+> SBB CFF FFS (Swiss state railways) will be doing this in the future at mountain lines (with the new 460 loco). Basically, they simply couple two freight trains together. The 460 uses the ep line (installed in modern cars for braking) to transmit digital signals -- much like digital model railway.
So you can soon see piggyback trains like this:
LLCCCCCCCC..CCCCCCCCLCCCCCCCC..CCCCCCCC <-- direction (L = loco, C = car)on the Gotthard line.
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The reason for mid train locomotives is to reduce drawbar pull on the headend. It is not uncommon for a coal train to approach 350,000 lbs of pull. Freight cars in general are only designed to take 250,000 lbs.
Where the units are in the train is determined by tonnage and power. The purpose is to make the remotes pull more tonnage than pushing on the cars ahead of them. On a loaded coal train there is not much problem, but on a mixed frieght with a lot of light top heavy cars, the remotes can push the cars in front off the track.
Remotes also help equalize train brake responce time since there is a a air charging/discharging source in the train.
Diesel-electric locomotives have motors attached to each axle. Normally power is supplied to the motors causing the wheels to pull the train. However, due to the magic of electromagnetics, if the wheels are turned by an external force (such as gravity pulling a train down a hill) the motors will run as dynamos, generating electricity. Since energy is conserved, this electric power has to come from somewhere, which in this case is the kinetic energy of the engine. In simple English, running the motors as dynamos will put a drag on the engine, which can be helpful when running a very heavy train down a long grade.
The amount of electric power generated is substantial, and it has to be used up somehow to cause a drag on the wheels. This is done by using a bank of resistors which convert the electricity to heat which is then radiated away. On some EMD locos these resistors appear as a bulging grille near the center of the roof although the SD50/60/70 series had enough hood room to put them behind the cab. CP Rail's SD40-2Fs are also without the bulge. Alco, GE, FM, and BLW locos with dynamics have extra grills somewhere on the loco, but no bulges like the EMD "blister". On older Alcos (like RS3's) and on the Baldwin DRS/AS types, these grills were in the short hoods.
Model shells are often offered with these external indications of dynamic brakes, although they of course have no function. A given prototype locomotive is usually available with dynamic brakes although some allow both options.
The question is this: Is that a reflection of the actual railroads? In other words, is it true that Euro railroads do NOT serve many industries directly? Is traffic mainly freight station to freight station (the legs to and from the railroad filled in by trucks)?
Industrial spurs and sidings are very much an important aspect of European railroads, at least in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
I think one reason layout books favor passenger operations is that this is the aspect of railroading that the average European can most readily identify with. In central Europe, almost all cities of reasonable size have a substantial amount of passenger service. And, even in the smaller cities, you may find as many as four or five different types of passenger trains calling each day.
On a layout, a passenger station still provides for quite a bit of operation, since there are through cars that go over from one train to another, and some trains split or merge at junction points. A stop by a long-distance train will also be timed to coincide with stops by one to four (or more) local trains, some of which may be just as long as the long-distance train, and others of which may be comprised of a single self-propelled rail car.
Unusual events, which can, of course be duplicated on a layout, can lead to interesting compositions. For example due to a last-minute failure, a railcar may be replaced with a locomotive and a single coach. Having been short of motive power at peak times in the last few years, Austria has even pressed into service some electrics which are officially classified as museum stock.
Also, many passenger trains -- particularly locals -- may also carry express and mail cars, which can lead to some interesting switching.
Note that the major European structure builders (Vollmer, Faller, Kibri, Pola, etc.) do supply a range of industries, so these are not left off layouts completely. I think it's basically a matter of emphasis. In many U.S. areas you never even see a passenger train, so people in those areas are more likely to focus on freight-only operations.
As for freight stations: You can think of them as multiple industries within one site. At a single freight station you can spot a wide variety of freight cars, waiting to be loaded or unloaded -- a wider range at least than would normally show up at any single industry.
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In Switzerland and Belgium, this is certainly true. Near Geneva, for instance, there is a recent industrial area which is directly served by the SBB-CFF. It makes for interesting switching at the nearby CFF station of "Vernier-Meyrin" (soon to become a freight only station - shame on them).
Here I have collected the trains of the world that are faster than 200 km/h. If possible, I have included the train composition in angle brackets: T = locomotive; A = first class car; B = second class car; C = club/dining car; D = luggage car; R = restaurant car.
[Editor's Note: The top speed has been reduced to 250 km/h as Mark Brader informs me that the original 280 km/h is a futures number.]
The old scheme has grey roofs. The car body is dark green with a light green stripe down the windows. Either side of the light green stripe has a yellow pin stripe separating it from the dark green background. Lettering was in yellow. The light green was rounded off near the front on the engine. Atlas's FP-7's are painted in this scheme.
In the mid 50's when airlines were beginning to draw passengers the NP decided it needed a new look. They added dome cars to their trains and contracted Raymond Loewy to come up with a new modern look. The bottom 1/3 of the cars (and engines) were painted a light misty kind of green, at the top of the light green was a white stripe about two inches wide (except on the front of the locomotive where it expanded to about 6"). Above the white stripe was a very dark green (supposedly the color of blue moonlight on pine trees). The dark green was the predominant color. It extended from just below the windows up and including the roof. Lettering was in black on the light green lower part of the car. The "North Coast Limited" was in white over the windows on the dark green part. The railroad name was also placed over the door at the end of the car. (i.e. "CB&Q", "NP", and "SP&S")
The rules vary from prototype railroad to railroad, as well as how ambitious the yard crew is and/or how strict the yardmaster is when the train is originally made up. Generally a rule book outlines how the train must be set up (to comply with various federal and local safety rules, such as distributing weight, keeping hazardous material away from the crew) and how the train should be set up (minimum number of switches and/or "respots" of existing cars, minimum amount of time blocking other trains). Model railroaders get to invent their own rules and procedures (appropriate for the period and location being modeled). A number of model railroad books have chapters of creating such rule books for your empire; The V&O Story and Realistic Operations for Model Railroads come to mind. The recent series of articles on Saluda Grade in RMC contained extracts of the lengthy rules that govern just that short stretch of railroad.
The "standard reccomendation" is for All About Signals, published by Kalmabch, *.5 * 11, paper, BUT they seem to have let it go out of print. For a specific road, the Operating Rules of that road are the final authority (or, in some cases, the Employee TT). The AAR does have a set of reccomended standards, but each road meets its own needs.
V0.3 Modified to include searchlight/colorlight aspects used by NORAC. Does not include Position_Light, Modified_PL (I), or modified_PL (II), or Color_Position_light. Quasi sorted by rule number.
Some indications and meanings. Derived from PennCentral practice, there is some, though not complete, commonality across RRs. Transit systems tend to be even more individualistic. This is DRASTICALLY simplified, to keep the length managable. US Interlocking Signalling is generally described as "speed signalling" in that each aspect conveys an unambiguous speed at which the trains should operate. This interacts with the "block signalling, to display "zero" (STOP_AND_STAY) when the block signalling requires it. Speeds FULL, LIMITED, MEDIUM, SLOW are defined in the Employee TT, for each stretch of track and for each class of train.
The indication may involve one, two or three heads, either "high" or "dwarf" (low mounted, trackside). While indications are similar and related, they need not be identical. BN means aspect used by BN. CCOR means aspect used by Consolidated Code of Operating Rules, which governs many Western US railroads. The BN or CCOR Indication/rule may vary slightly, but i feel the "sense" is the same. N is NORAC rules, a common set covering Conrail, AMTRAK, etc. Trying to keep this manageable. NOT AUTHORIZED FOR USE IN OPERATION OF TRAINS. Rule numbers are from NORAC, 1991.
C Three Head High Signal C Two Head High Signal.
C C
C C Two Head "dwarf" Signal | (etc....)
| C (Same indication/rule) |
N BN CCOR PC Aspect Name Indication
X X X G G CLEAR Proceed at maximum
R R authorized speed (281)
R | G
| | G G
X X X R R MEDIUM CLEAR Proceed at medium speed
G G (usually, half maximum)
R | G (283)
| | R(f)
X X X Y Y APPROACH Approach next signal
R R prepared to stop. (285)
R |
| |
X X X R R MEDIUM APPROACH Proceed at MEDIUM speed
Y Y prepared to stop at
R | Y next Signal. (286)
| | R(f)
X R R SLOW CLEAR Proceed, not exceeding
R G SLOW speed, usually 15
G | G MPH. (287)
| | R
X R R RESTRICTING Proceed not exceeding
R Y SLOW speed, expecting to
Y R | find track occupied,
| Y | switch thrown against
you, etc. (290)
X X X R R STOP_AND_PROCEED The "#" indicates the
R R presence of a "number
R | # plate", which makes it
# # R # Stop and Proceed,
| | R R expecting to find track
occupied. (291)
X X X R R STOP_SIGNAL Stop_and_Stay (292)
R R
R | R
| | R R
So far, so good. The indications are fairly intuitive: High/Medium/Low
speeds map to head positions. These (mostly) govern through interlockings,
where allowable speed varies depending on the design of the switch, which
path, etc.And this was the original (ca 1900 situation). But there arose a need for more indications....
N BN CCOR PC Aspect Name Indication
Y(f) Y Y ADVANCE APPROACH Proceed expecting to
R Y Y find next signal at
R R | APPROACH. (281D)
| | |
X Y Y APPROACH MEDIUM APPROACH next signal
G Y G at MEDIUM Speed. (282)
X R G |
| | |
R MEDIUM APPROACH SLOW MEDIUM speed, APPROACH
X* Y next signal at SLOW
G speed.
| NORAC: MEDIUM MEDIUM speed APPROACH
APPROACH MEDIUM (!) next signal at MEDIUM
speed. (283A)
n/a R MEDIUM ADVANCE Proceed at MEDIUM Speed
Y APPROACH next signal at APPROACH.
Y (Following signal at
| STOP. I find the rule
explanations ambiguous.)
n/a G G
Y Y ADVANCE APPROACH Proceed, Approach next
R G | MEDIUM Signal at MEDIUM Speed.
| Y |
(note how arcane these are getting...)
Y Y Y APPROACH SLOW APPROACH next signal
Y R X R at SLOW Speed. (284)
R G G
| | |
SLOW APPROACH SLOW speed, APPROACH
X Y next signal prepared
R stop. (288)
I have omitted the "flashing" aspects (mostly) , which move the speed allowed up one "increment": thus "medium clear" would become "limited clear".
The PC "course" most of this is lifted from, in a couple places, just gives up and says "this violates the memory rules, just remember it." In the face of such expert advice, who am I to quibble?
I have omitted much related info, to keep this of managable length.
A few (more) notes on switches. Signals are located in advance of the switch which they "protect", to allow the crew time to get the train to the right speed. Trains do not respond rapidly to control inputs. Thus, signal location is determined by authorized speed and grade, among other things.
Switches can affect signals indications in several ways:
Some of the signals will be under remote control from an interlocking "tower" or CTC (Centralized Traffic Control) board. The operator typically selects "clear" or "stop". The aspect presented in the field will be determined by local conditions: switch design, location of trains, setting of switches, etc.
Not much, really. Rail is weighed in pounds per yard, which correlates with rail height in an irregular way. Code is rail height, measured in 1000ths of an inch, so code 100 rail is 0.1 inch high. You can prototype rail tables from the AREA standards or the Maintenance of Way Cyclopedea (look in any good engineering library and you should find both!)
What is the difference and which weight/code would be protypical for:
a) a heavy trunk line
From memory, code 100 is prototypical for heavy Pennsylvania Railroad mainline rail from the 1930's, where I believe they used 152 pound per yard rail. I think that some modern mainlines use a thin cross-section 120 pound rail that is almost as high.
Code 83 is closer to prototypical mainline rail for most HO modelling purposes. It is a fair approximation of 120 pound per yard rail.
b) passing tracks on said trunk line
c) branch line tracks
Use code 70 or code 83 rail. Code 70 is a good approximation of 90 to 100 pound rail.
d) industrial spurs
e) harbor and city railroading
It depends on the commodity being hauled and the traffic level. Code 70 is reasonable on any heavily used spur, but code 55 and even code 40 are not-unprototypical for rarely used spur tracks. particularly if they are old or if they were originally used for interurban or trolley lines.
It's worth noting that prototype railroads had already religated their 60 pound per yard rail to branch lines before the turn of the century, and most of this rail was retired from service in the 1890's. I can show you a number of railroad culverts in eastern Iowa with dates around 1895 that are built with stone sills bridged with 15 foot lengths of surplus 60 pound rail. These bridges survived into the diesel era!
Operationally, if you run equipment with NEM flanges (just about anything made in Europe), you'll have few problems on code 83 and code 100 rail, but code 70 and smaller will pose problems with the flanges hitting the spikes.
This problem is even worse with smaller rails! With code 40, even NMRA flanges are sufficiently oversized that they tend to hit the spikes, so you've either got to use scale wheelsets (NWSL makes fine scale HO wheels), glue your rail down or use solder and PCB ties.
Yes, Triple Crown Services is using containers. The Atalanta-Alexandria service that I see going through Charlotte, NC is now using 45, 48, and 53 foot containers instead of Roadrailers. I have not seen any TripleCrown trailers, but the 53 footers are on truck chasis, because they won't fit any of the container flats. 45 and 48 footers are carried on standard COFC flats or articulated well cars.
I haven't seen any doubles yet on the TCS, but I have started to see doubles on other trains going north of Charlotte. I don't know if they've received the clearances fixed all the way to Alexandria.
NS is also running double stacks between Charlotte and Columbia, SC. I have heard that the doubles are running to Charleston, but I haven't been down there.
The yellow tenders were gas turbine tenders which used to hold 'bunker C' fuel oil. (They hold water now.) At present, the only available models come with scale brass gas turbine locomotives.
The Weehawken terminals were the main passenger terminal, and I think freight also, of the West Shore Railroad. Whether that is the company that built them or whether they took over an already existing terminal, I do not know. The line came into Weehawken through a tunnel under the Palisades, and terminated in a large yard and terminal there. From Weehawken, passengers rode ferryboats into Manhattan; freight rode on car floats - barges propelled by tugboats. The West Shore circa the 1880s extended as far as Buffalo (the company's full title was New York, West Shore and Buffalo), parallel to and in many places within sight of the New York Central line. It attempted to compete with the Central, but could not make a living at it. It was eventually bought up by the New York Central, but in common with most of that road's acquisitions maintained a semi-autonomous existence. From Schenectady west, most of the line is now abandoned and has been for many years, though bits and pieces survive as industrial spurs, a bypass around Rochester, etc. From Schenectady to New Jersey, it is Conrail's principal freight access to metropolitan New York. Selkirk Yard is on the West Shore and Conrail's access to New England is via the Alfred E. Smith Bridge that leads out of Selkirk across the Hudson.
In modern times (since 1950) the West Shore passenger service shrank back from Albany to Kingston (including connecting trains on the "Ulster and Delaware" to Oneonta) and finally to West Haverstraw, which until the mid fifties (?) was the terminus of an extensive commuter service. The large green ferry boats and the tugs and barges emblazoned with the New York Central emblem were common sights on the Hudson River. I believe that there always has been a freight connection from the West Shore Line to Jersey City, and dating I guess from Penn Central times (at least since Conrail), this has become the destination of the freight coming down the West Shore - the former Pennsy yards in Jersey City that is (Greenville I think, and Oak Island.) Weehawken as I understand it (though I've never been there to see) has pretty much "dried up and blown away", railroad-wise at least. There is periodic talk of re-establishing a terminal there for commuter trains, which would seem to make some sense, although I'm sure they'd get more business if they were routed into Hoboken or Penn Station. Clearly there is a market for commuter service in the area between the New Jersey and New York (now called the Pascack Valley Line) and the Hudson River, and probably even as far north as Kingston.
The New York, Ontario and Western used trackage rights on the West Shore from Cornwall to Weehawken, and its trains shared the Weehawken terminal until the O&W was abandoned in 1957.
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Recommended reading on Weehawken: Carl Condit's two volume work, The Port of New York: A History of the Rail and Terminal Systems vol. 1: from the beginnings to Pennsylvania Station and vol. 2: from the Grand Central electrification to the Present (University of Chicago Press).
See the various chapters dealing with the New Jersey side of the river; maps of the various lines and their terminals are included.
Almost all engines were painted black.
As for the few exceptions:
Steam engines came in three basic varieties: reciprocating pistons, geared drives, and experimental turbines. All work by boiling water to make pressurized steam, and the energy in this steam is used to move the engine.
While the earliest American engines burned wood for fuel, most steam engines initially used coal, and towards the end of the steam era, oil was used primarily to get around air pollution regulations.
In Britain, coke was the usual fuel in the early days of railways. This was a result of Government regulations dating at least as far back as 1829 that locomotives must "effectively consume their own smoke". Coke, being free from impurities, generated very little smoke and was hence the fuel of choice.
Other fuel choices included: peat, turf, and even electricity (as in electric elements heating the water to steam)
The fuel was burned in the firebox and the hot gases were channeled along a series of parallel tubes to transfer the heat of the gases to the water, thereby generating steam.
In a reciprocating piston design the pressurized steam is sent into cylinders, which were usually mounted on the outside front end of the frame. For those engines with externally mounted pistons, the main rod connects from the piston to drive wheel by means of a half-crank - a protuding knob on the wheel. Other wheels are connected to the drive wheel by side (or coupling) rods attached to a half-crank on each wheel.
For those engines with the cylinders located internally (ie: inside the frame) the main rod connected to the drive wheel via a crank axle.
The main rod and half-crank converts the linear motion of the piston to the circular motion of the driving wheels. There are many variations on this design, such as using multiple cylinders to increase the amount of energy extracted from the steam but they all fall into the category of improvements to the basic design.
Note that once the steam has been used it is exhausted to the atmosphere, which is why the tender on a steam locomotive is mostly water and a relatively minor amount of fuel. Note that this design with lots of exposed moving parts is also significantly sexier than a diesel electric... [Original author's opinion]
In Britain, a special "condensing engine" were used in the original underground railways. In these, the steam was led back to the water tanks to condense, although it could also be routed to the open air for above-ground work.
A geared locomotive follow the same principles as outlined above, except that the main rods drive a crankshaft instead of a half-crank on the wheel.
There are three basic designs for geared steam locomotives: Shay-type, Heisler-type and Climax-type. Shays are named by their inventor E. Shay and consist of two or three vertical steam cylinders driving a crankshaft (just like a straight four cylinder gas engine does) that runs horizontally along the length of the locomotive. This crankshaft is geared into the small drivers (usually around 30'' - 40'' in diameter) to produce forward and backward motion. The steam cylinders were located on the right side of the locomotive as was the rest of the drive train.
Heisler-type uses two steam cylinders in a V formation to turn a crankshaft that also runs horizontally along the length of the locomotive. This shaft is in turn geared into the driver axles instead of the drivers themselves as in the Shay. The Shay had the shaft, gears and universal joints exposed on the right side (when facing forward) of the locomotive. The Heisler had the shaft, gears and universal joints running down the center of the locomotive.
Climax-type uses two steam cylinders that were sloped forward but parallel to the locomotive to driver the shaft which was geared into the driver axles (similar to Heislers).
Although the Shay's exposed drive train might lead one to believe it was more susceptible to damage, it was also the engine's greatest plus. Almost no early logging railroads and only a few of the largest later ones had terminal facilities in the sense that a common-carrier railroad did. Usually when the drive train broke, it was on a 6% incline, in a curve during an early snow in October. The exposed drive train in this situation was easier to fix than the `protected' drive train of the other types.
All three styles had small drivers (30''-40'' in diameter) and very low gearing (top speed for a geared locomotive is usually < 15 mph) to achieve their ability to climb mountains and turn very tight radii. Shay's were supposedly able to make curves that would shine their driving light into the back of the cab (that is a joke). All three styles were very forgiving of poorly laid track and would stay on the rail much better than a rod engine.
A Heisler is a type of geared steam locomotive. The pistons move diagonally (think of the arrangement of a longitudinaly mounted V8 engine in a car, only there are only two pistons in a Heisler). These pistons power a drive shaft under the center of the loco, which via gears drives four wheel trucks at the ends.
The Heisler has the unique property of having been designed by an actual diploma'ed engineer, where all the others were kludged up by mechanics.
Roaring Camp & Big Trees (near Santa Cruz, CA) has several woodburners, including a Shay and a Heisler. Mt. Rainier has one. Most logging locos were woodburners, for fairly obvious reasons...
The Willamette was a Shay. E. Shay had a patent on his locomotive, thus they were built exclusively by Lima until the patent ran out. Then Willamette built some on the West Coast.
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You are correct that Lima had Shay patents, and that Willamette later built similar locomotives. However, A Willamette is NOT a Shay. "Shay" is a brand-name, like Ford or Toyota. You wouldn't say that a Pontiac is a Chevrolet, even if they are functionally identical mechanically and share a lot of the same parts.
...
The Lima company had a trademark on the name "Shay". No other company could sell a similar locomotive and call it a "Shay". "Lima" was the name of a company (and probably also a brand name), *and* "Shay" was also a brand name.
I agree that the Willamette locomotives were visually and operationally (nearly) identical to Shays.