Steam Engine question

[RayofSunshine]

Fellas,

Ran across an article which indicated a DECOPOD 2-10-0. I had never heard of this "name" for an engine, although I believe that the Southern Pacific had a number of them hauling coal along the Appalachin Mts.

And there were 2 proto type 2-12-0, which was the property of the Union Pacific. Actually 1 of these are in a museum, probably in Savcramento, CA. Don't know if they gave it a "name". Unlike the SP 2-10-0 which hauled coal, the UP 2-12-0 could not find a market, and did not pass beyond the proto-type phase.

Any comments?

Ray of Sunshine

[wsherrick]

The Decopod is so named because it has ten driving wheels i.e. Decca-ten, pod-feet. It has ten feet on the rails. The Decopod was first built during the mid 1860's about the same time as the Consolidation (2-8-0) came out. Several railroads had them over the years, perhaps the best known were the I Class Decopods on the Pennsylvania Railroad which had several hundred of them. Another well known group of them were built for Russia during WWI for export, but only a few were shipped. Most of them ended up on branch lines and secondary railroads. These "Russian Decs," were scattered all over the country. One is still operating at the Illinois Railroad Museum at Union Illinois. Hope this helps you out.

[RayofSunshine]

Very interesting Wsherrick

So that brings me to a couple other questions. Since there were some 100+ operating on the Penn Rwy, how come there is so little liturature on them? I realize that due to their "length" that they would have to operate on adequately laid curve tracks, which probably started the manufacture of the articulated engines. And to have been first designed in 1860s? Wow! Learn something new every day.

Next. If the designator for the 2-10-0 was Decopod, is there a name given to the
2-12-0? Other than 'steam engine'. LOL

Ray of Sunshine

[WPandP]

A slight spelling correction:

I do believe it is "DECAPOD", since as wsherrick pointed out, it derives from Deca- meaning ten.

[Gwizz]

Ray,

There was some F class locomotives with 12 drivers.
0-12-0, class F Bulgarian locomotive, & a Penn. class that was built in1863.

I remember 2 large locos built that were only used to pull cars up a steep river bank from a steam river boat landing. 1863 would be around this Civil war time period. There was not yet a bridge crossing the river. I don't remember the name of the river. It may have been the Mississippi. But, I don't think the Penn. crossed the Mississippi.

2-12-0 class 1F which was called the Centipede. At least one was built in the US. 20 were built in Austria in 1910, later some in Germany and some in France. The specs. don't give the numbers built in Germany and France.

2-12-4 class 1F2 Bulgarian tank locomotives. 12 were first built then later larger locos with the same wheel arrangement were built.

4-12-2 The union Pacific had 88 of these 4-12-2 locomotives. class 2F1
I believe they were called a Union Pacific 9000. They were the heaviest rigid-frame locos ever built.

Three 2-8-8-8-2 was built by Baldwin for the Erie to work the Gulf Summit Grade.

There was at least one 2-8-8-8-4 called the 1D.D.D2 Triplex. It was built for the Virginian RR. All of these were only marginally successful and didn't last long.
If I remember correctly the tender was carried over the last 8 drivers.

Most info came from the Illustrated Encyclopedia of RW locomotives by Tufnell

[RayofSunshine]

Thanks Gwizz,

There was at least one 2-8-8-8-4 called the 1D.D.D2 Triplex. WOW.

I guess I will have to look around for that Encyclopedia. I am interested in engines, although I don't know their 'name' designations.

Ray of Sunshine

[Gwizz]

I wonder what the 2-8-8-8-4 would look like skinned for RT3.
If I remember correctly a 2-8-0 was later cut out of it.
I don't remember what the rest of it was made into.

I'll look for a picture of it.

PS: I added some info to my above post.

[Wolverine@MSU]

There was at least one 2-8-8-8-4 called the 1D.D.D2 Triplex. WOW.
I guess I will have to look around for that Encyclopedia. I am interested in engines, although I don't know their 'name' designations.

How about an icosikaiterapod or simply icositetragonopod.

[Gwizz]

Wolve

Was that the one where they put 4 coal cars and a caboose over extra drivers.
They claimed it could pull a near vertical grade.

[proudcanadian]

I've seen a couple pictures of the Triplex in a book I have called 'The Heritage of North American Trains'. Let me just say that they're amazing! These things were HUGE!!!! There's actually a third set of cylinders underneath the cab with the wheels stretching back underneath the tender!
According to the book, they were built in 1913 by Baldwin, three for the Erie Railroad and one for the Virginia. They were 105 feet long, and could haul a train 1.6 miles long. Unfortunately, I guess they didn't live up to their expectations, as the Erie ones were scrapped between 1929 and 1933, while the Virginia one was converted to a 2-8-8-0.
I'll see if I can find a picture online.

[WPandP]

I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but it just might be possible to model a Triplex within RRT3...

Here's how I would make the attempt. Start with the N&W Y6 that Bombardiere and I created a while ago; this gives you the 2-8-8-2 starting point. Lose the trailing wheel from this. Then, start modifying the tender, by giving it the same Truck1 as the engine; this will create an effective 2-8-6 wheel arrangement under the tender. However, the mapping of the skin file will be a mess, so it would take a lot of work to hex-edit and reassign the right coordinates to all of the Truck1 triangles (a ton of work, but theoretically possible). Much of the Tender's Truck1 triangles could just be made invisible by assigning coordinates 0,0,0 to them - especially the pilot and the pilot wheels. Then, you'd have an 0-8-6 wheel arrangement under the tender, and from there all you have to do is reduce the rear truck to just 2 wheels.

However, I don't really know if the pieces will align properly for this to work; you might have to play some games with the LengthPoints to nudge things into place. And of course it wouldn't be an accurate model, just something close enough!

So if there is anyone out there who wants win a prize for most creative RRT3 engine mod, feel free to give this a try! I'm leaving this door wide open.

[ostlandr]

The Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern had one of those "Russian" decapods. #80 was known to her crews as "That ****** bolshevik." Wheras the rest of the Shawmut fleet had extra-large air pumps and huge boiler-mounted air resirvors, #80 had a defective air pump and small resirvoirs. Once, the engine was being used to return a string of leased Erie hoppers back to their siding. No matter what, the engineer couldn't get up enough air to release the brakes. Finally in disgust he simply dragged the cut of empty cars the short distance to the Erie siding with the brakes locked.

I can imagine the comments from the Erie shop foreman when he got that string of hoppers back with flat wheels!

The largest locomotive on the PS&N was #81, a 2-10-2 Santa Fe type. Even with blind (flangeless) center drivers, this rigid frame locomotive was totally unsuited for the tight curves on this mountain railroad. She even had to be run tender first in pusher service, or the overhang would derail the caboose. She was known as "The Curve Straightener" and my granddad had to respike the rails on curves after her rare trips to the north end of the line. Finally she was banished to the Southern end of the line, mostly in helper service on the Kasson loop. http://www.smethporthistory.org/clermon ... g.loop.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburg% ... n_Railroad