Re: Slide valve versus other valve gears

Hi,

Slide valves and piston valves have not too much to deal with valve gear. They are the means to admit steam into the cylinders and which side of the piston.

Valve gear is the apparatus that opens and closing the admission ports in the cylinders.

There are a couple of dozen different types of valve gear.

1) Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear invented by Belgian railway mechanical engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844.

2) Stephenson valve gear was invented by employees of the Stephenson's Locomotive Works during the 1840's.

3) The Baker design originated in the A.D. Baker Company, of Swanton, Ohio; a builder of steam traction engines. The idea came from an employee called Gifford but was developed by the Baker company with the first patents being issued in 1903.

4) Southern valve gear was designed by engineers from the Southern Railway (thus the name).

5) Young valve gear was invented by an employee of the C&NW named O. W. Young. This valve gear was first applied to a steam locomotive on the Grand Trunk in 1915.

Animation for these are at

6) the general class called Poppet valve gears

Caprotti valve gear, British Caprotti valve gear
Hugo Lentz, oscillating-cam valve gear, rotary-cam valve gear
Franklin oscillating-cam valve gear
Franklin rotary-cam valve gear
Reidinger valve gear



There's more to valve gear but this is almost a Pandora's Box of types and styles.

FWIW

Doug vV

--------------------------
Carrie Fisher quotes:

Instant gratification takes too long.

I was street smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.

--------------------------

Luna Lovelace (Harry Potter):

I sleepwalk you know that's why I wear shoes to bed.