Ridgways, Beartraps, who cares, George? I heard it differently from Mike, I was always under the impression that it was Lucius Beebe who coined the Beartrap monicker. No matter, it is a name that has stuck.
The important thing is that it worked and did what it was intended to do, catch cinders and knock them down into the tube.
Actually, there is an interesting phenomena that occurs when you actually look down on the Ridgway Spark Arrestor (or Beartrap), the angle and size of wires in the mesh make the covering appear solid. Since the stack forces the cinders straight up and out the stack with the exhaust from the cylinders, the angle is critical to knocking the cinders down the side tube.
As Mike said, it was tried on a couple of Broad Gauge C&S locomotives, and yes, it tooked weird, but only if you are a D&RGW fan... or GW fan, or UP fan or CB&Q fan or CRI&P fan, or NYC fan... etc. To a dyed in the wool C&S fan it looks like home.
Rick
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/2008 09:13AM by Rick Steele.