Moguls, Ten Wheelers, and Consolidations VS Belpaire Firebox and upg.

[Lone Cat]

In "End of Steam" article written by William Sherrick, he said that one of many reasons why dieselizations of american railroads began (and finalized) in 50s. is that the post-victorian steam technology 'advanced too fast' .. and many railroads failed (or ignored to) keep pace with it (either because of Victorian RR Tycoon mentality that along their rights of way, they RULES and NOTHING will challenge their 'authority') which caused many railroads to 'cease its improvements on services and accessibility'... something Henry Ford, along with entire automotive industry exploited it to win its competiton against RRs. oh i'm not talkin' about how Henry Ford beat Railroads. I believe that many railroads did keep an armada of 19th century 2-6-0s, 4-6-0s, and the 2-8-0s. Certain railroads (like the SOU) did NOT consider upgraded its infrastructures to support the more advanced engines like the Pacifics and Mikadoes (let alone welcoming the european technology of superpowers like the Mallets), instead they kept buying 2nd hand engines with similar wheel arrangements, sometimes they might buy brandnew ones (sometimes on the behest of USRA), yet SOU did have some Pacifics too!

At the turn of the Century, Steam powers did see the following significant upgrades
- Walshaert / Baker valvegear instead of 70-y/o Stephensons.
- Brick Arches
- Schmidth Superheater
- Belpaire firebox

And new classes of locomotives with new wheel arrangements, (and... the trailing wheels!). it is said that Belpaire firebox made the trailing wheels neccessary. yet i've saw a Ten Wheeler (designed to fit a metric gauge of Royal State Railways of Siam)... purchased in 20s, is fitted with what appears to be belpaire firebox (which it is superior to roundtop ones seen in older locomotives). i'm talking about North British Locomotive Class E steamer built for exports.



Apart of being woodfiring, i think this locomotive has many modern features of that time too!

Belpaire firebox did not available in this secondhand swiss-made consolidations, however.. this locomotive did have Walshaerts valvegear too!
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b153/ ... 56copy.jpg

so it seems that fitting belpaire fireboxes onto a new 2-6-0, 2-8-0 and 4-6-0 is possible (many british railroads, along with the PRR declared that belpaire firebox is DEFAULT features of their new steamers). some railroads simply ignores it, while others simply switched to the Pacifics and Mikadoes. and few others even add some Mallets to its fleet. so..
1. How much does the belpaire firebix upgrades increased the weights of the existing Moguls, Tenwheelers, and Connies?
2. Which choices do you believe it is feasible? supposed that you don't believe that these late victorian locomotives can do any work without any upgrades, and electrifications aren't feasible
2.1 Scrap-em all! reserves only a few but significant locomotive of its class and buy a new fleets of Pacifics, Mickies, and Mallets (
2.2 Just cram every upgrades into the locomotives but don't change its wheel arrangements. i.e. rebuilt ones with belpaires and S.heaters but don't add trailing wheels
2.3 Rebuilt them to the new classes with all upgrades
some choices appeared to require infrastructure upgrades too! i.e. heavier rails, bigger tunnels, sheds and roundhouses, bridge rebuilds (i.e. wood trestle to steel bridges)