Everett Lueck Wrote:
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> My intent was not for this discussion to go this
> way, but I cannot say that it has not been
> interesting just the same. It is not NG but in my
> part of the woods, the Crowell and Spencer Lumber
> Co, and the Red River and Gulf RR, which it owned,
> had a 50-60 mile daily haul. Between 1919 and
> 1923, the companies ordered 4 virtually identical
> 4-6-0's from Baldwin. I say virtually identical,
> because the first two, which were for the lumber
> company's main line 50 mile daily log haul were
> superheated and built in 1919 and 1920. The third
> was built in 1922, for the railroad as their
> primary locomotive, and despite a number of real
> improvements, it was built as a saturated engine
> with balanced slide valves to save on maintainence
> costs. In less than 10 months, the railroad went
> back to Baldwin and ordered the fourth engine, and
> it again was superheated. The fuel and water
> savings even on the 50-60 mile haul, was much more
> than the maintainence costs of superheating and
> the single saturated engine was relegated to the
> shorter hauls of like 12 miles rather than the
> longer runs.
Thanks for citing that particular example Everett. There is
most always some kind of trade off for any engineering change
like we have been discussing here, but when properly selected,
Superheat has been a significant improvement to steam locomotion.
Getting back to your original post, I never realized what a dandy
machine those little Alcos were. Because there were used primarily
as passenger power on the Grande, it was too easy for me to dismiss
them. My lapse, I think they were a pretty nice design. Thank you
for the drawing with specs.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2014 03:06PM by Tom Moungovan.