Re: Tall Tale Or True

John Cole Wrote:
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> One of the hallmarks of a good design is that many
> others copy your idea. I would guess that since
> there weren't very many of this design, it didn't
> work very well.

The single fairlie type was a patented design so even if anyone else wanted to build it I'm not sure they could have. That being said probably nobody else wanted to build them anyway since the type had a reputation for rough riding, premature flange wear, and for being hard on track*. Some of them were rebuilt to locomotives of more typical pattern and many were used in low speed or switching service. Few had particularly long service lives.

*Hard wear on track was likely due in part to excessive axle loads; a generic 12x16 Mason single fairle had a maximum axle load about a third again that of a comparable conventional locomotive. The conversion done on the locomotive pictured above would have had the effect of lowering the maximum axle load due to the extra axle; whether that was one purpose of the conversion or merely a side effect is a mystery to me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/2014 04:38AM by James.