Tech Questions about Fairlies/Garratts

I would like to add to the record that BP (and other Garratt Builders I expect) had options available for a regulator for each engine. This was never taken up by any purchaser, presumably due the extra cost.

 

Would it be a mod worth considering on the NGG16's after experience with the Fairlies, or would minimal improvement not justify the cost/manpower ?, certainly the last time I went on the WHR (about 3 years ago in Autumn), 143 was nearly slipping to a stand between Canaervon & Dinas.

 

Caernarfon-Dinas was notorious for leaves on the line. And it's 1 in 40...

 

That's very deceptive, I assumed it was one of the flatter bits being the ex standard gauge and the difficult stretch was Rhyd Ddu - Beddgelert.

 

I don't think it's quite as steep as that, somewhere between 1-50 and 1-60 I was told by a WHR driver a few months ago.

 

A soft exhaust can simply result from having a modern efficient exhaust arrangement, e.g. kylchap, kylpor. Which I think at least one of the Garratts is fitted with. Only the GWR and trainspotters subscribe to the notion the louder the exhaust the better

The apparent synchronisation is interesting - there is no engineering reason for it, indeed all the engineering considerations suggest they should only synchronise by accident and not for long.

 

You could be president of the class 66 fanclub with statements like that

 

Ah yes. The GWR. Got its Act of Parliament three years after the Festiniog and started running trains two years after the FR, IIRC.

 

Well, if you want to play that game, how long did it take for the Ffestiniog to drag itself into the 19th century and use steam?

Only joking, both railways have a long and illustrious history and many 'firsts' to their name.

 

The Dinas/Caernafon Section is most certain 1:40, in many places, even if not the whole way, but it certainly is hard and all uphill. I have felt it many times. Try doing it with K1 or an FR loco and you will defiantly have more respect for it. The 16s if prepared right make it look easy (unless its raining and there are leave falling. and then they flounder.) Leaving Cfn with Prince and three bogies, going straight to full fuel settings and juggling the injector against the pressure all they way can result in prayers being offered on ones knees in the middle of the footplate. I have done it. I challenge you to try it. I wouldn't have it any other way mind.

 

I first experienced the synchronized running in China with the double headed QJ's at the Ji-Peng pass. This is a configuration of identical engines being totally independent (see remark below) from each other. However the two locomotives are pulling the maximum adhesion available. MOST of the time the beats of the two engines are synchronized. On the odd occasion you could hear them out of sync. What you could hear then was that one of the engines (or maybe even both) were catching up on each other. All this was relatively easy to hear due to the limited rev's the engines were doing.

My assumption is that due to the fact that the force output on a steam engine is not all the same over a full cycle of the wheel both engines more or less want to be at the same pulling force at a certain point in time. If one engine is out of sync with the other some form of micro slippage will occur until the power output of the engines will be similar.

In the end there is a physical connection between the two independent engines namely the draw hook between the loco’s and the train.

All I can say is that most “double configurations” (WHR Garratt's, FR Fairlies, double headed QJ's) which had the same diameter of cast wheels (disregarding the outside diameter of the wheel) I have heard more or less synchronize for most of the time. Especially when hard working.

 

My worst trip up was with 143 and took 55 minutes from Caernarfon to Dinas on an autumnal morning. And yes, the sanders were working!

 

I was a guest driver on 87 yesterday and can confirm that the exhaust synchronises very quickly and remains that way, as it did on my previous trips.

 

I do quite like 66's . Better than endless glorified DMU's and EMU's, anyway. But it wasn't me who originally pinpointed the GWR's enthusiasm for a loud exhaust, it was one of the other CME's. Even the GWR had to go to double chimneys in the end , though - I don't expect they could bring themselves to fit a Kylchap to a Castle. A rematch in about 1962 between a Castle and an A3 might have been interesting.

 

The information's out there guys ..... http://www.whrsoc.org.uk/WHRProject/maps/whole1.gif

 

OK Tony, rephrase, the Garratts make it look easy on a dry rail, we are both of us aware how painful it can be, especially with the old type of sanders