Re: Flexible boilers

Santa Fe had 55 of the prairie mallets. The 1158-1159 had the accordian boilers. 3320-3323, the last 4 built, had the ball joint. The other 50 had rigid boilers. The arrangement was not successful. Built 1910-1911. 1157, the prototype, was built from two prairie engines, was rebuilt in 1924 to one prairie. The rest of the class was scrapped 1927-1934.

As for asthetics, the locomotives looked good from the side. Long and lean. But the 3/4 view did not compliment them.

Santa Fe's first mallets were 1398-1399. Rigid boilers, 4-4-6-2 arrangement. They were designed for passenger service. Suffered from severe wheel slip on the forward engine. Built in 1909, rebuilt in 1915 to pacific class.

Santa Fe's experimentation with mallets was not good, but someone has to push the envelope for design to advance. When superheated steam was introduced to the railroad locomotive, Santa Fe simpled all of the compounds and moved on. During WW2 they reluctantly accepted the N&W Y-3 class, which were off the roster in 1947.

Fred in Wichita
Cantankerous Geezer



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2008 06:18PM by Fred T.