The future of rail could be this 75-year-old steam locomotive

Hi All

Not sure if anyone has seen/mentioned this before, i came accross it by accident

The future of rail could be this 75-year-old steam locomotive | DVICE

Neil

 

Keeping an eye on this one from this side of the Atlantic . Maybe the guys from the 5AT project could get involved , if they are not already .

 

It was said a Bullied pacific would steam on refuse - I wonder if one really would run on wood.

 

130mph? Some pretty wild optimism I think. I've seen this elsewhere: its notable that the university engineering department don't seem to be involved, only the mad greenies.

 

Very optimistic, and in my opinion I don't think these people really know what they're talking about. I doubt what they plan to use as fuel will burn anywhere near as hot or as effectively as coal. And 130mph? Really? I don't think so....

 

Hopeful doesn't cover it, this is sheer degraded lunacy, trying to provide a solution for a problem that has already been solved.

Steam power lives on - just we call it electrification. One specially built power station burning refuse, powering hundreds of electric locomotives, is far more economic and environmentally sensible and friendly than hundreds of steam locomotives burning costly briquettes.

 

Or nuclear ? far more environmental friendly.. just got to keep it safe

 

A very handsome engine - anyone got any information about it?

 

Thanks Martin.

 

Indeed. Or tidal, or solar, or wind, all sorts really. I get the impression someone said 'let's use a steam engine! Now, let's think up an excuse...' rather than 'We have a problem. A steam loco is the most sensible answer.'

 

If you bullied a Bulleid who knows what would happen.
When 34081 visited the NYMR it ran out of coal on one occasion and the crew scavenged for brushwood etc. to keep the fire going. She made it back to Grosmont.

 

So what is "biocoal"? How much energy does it take to make?

I was once told that Clan Line would "make steam on a few oily rags"!

 

130MPH seems a figure plucked straight out the air, surely the running gear on that thing would fly to bits at such a speed assuming you could ever get it there in the first place, with a few notable exceptions, American loco's were not noted for speed and that doesn't appear their equivelant of an A4 anyway.

 

Believe they are going to upgrade it with modern equipment ie bearings, etc -- and some loco s were noted at speeds of 100mph & more - so not quite a far fetched notion - but as always time will tell , hope they make a go of it .

 

Trouble is modernising a FG locomotive is not the way to achieve anything like a major advance, you soon run into limitations imposed by the existing design. The people involved in this have not read David Wardale's book by the look of things and those commenting on it have, in the main, gained their views of the steam locomotive from very fanciful sources and have not heard of the Norfolk and Western.
The USA has very little electrification and perhaps, just perhaps, someone is getting concerned about the true cost of all the diesel American railroads use. The real cost has been estimated as some eight times what these railroads actually pay.
As for a maximum speed of 130mph, it is achieveable particularly when you look at the historic expertise that the Americans had in chassis and motion design but a heavy freight locomotive capable of some 10,000hp would be more useful.
Speed might well make the sale, it certainly sold the "superpower" concept, yet it is horsepower that pulls the train. The railroads were persuaded to buy thousands of locomotives that were not suited for the purposes that the 'roads were putting them to.
If a group wished to get serious they would build a heavy freight/mixed traffic type. Articulated to provide sufficient adhesion and then they would have to be very bold. They would not revert to the American articulated pattern but would look more to the products of Gorton and use a Garratt since this offers far more freedom in terms of firebox design and indeed boiler design. Nothing new here, this arguement has happened before. It may well do again. No one will learn.

 

Our late great engineer Andre Chapelon made preliminariy studies (194of a 4-6-0 type with a speed limit of 155 mph(yes!!) with a theorical power of 3600 hp!!!! (re-yes!)
regards
Noel

 

I give up - well, almost. You have come close to answering your own question. If you want to restrict your firebox design put some wheels under it. Include ashpan design if you are burning solid fuel, many classes of conventional design suffer from inadequate ashpan design - over compromised might be a better term. You are wanting maximum utilization, so stopping to clean the ashpan out every few hundred miles is not on the agenda.

Well posted steamdream and thanks, however you will not stop folk posting who believe that steam traction is incapable of being improved over and above those types they worshipped (and continue to worship) as ABC clutching trainspotters.

 

Reminded me of the 'Back to the Future' loco !!!!

Presto log - Futurepedia - The Back to the Future Wiki

Hope this is in the real world though and perhaps the speed should be 130 kph (80mph), which is more realistic.