Steam engine manufacturing video from the past.

[T.Hoffman]

I saw this video and it amazes me what they were able to do on such a big scale so long ago.

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I think it is fascinating to watch now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx6hmSclbRE#t=366

[R W]

Great Video.
Thanks for posting.

[vpt]

Excellent video! I bet a ton of glowing iron in the dead of summer is a joy to be around.

[WVVan]

I was surprised to see the set of driving cylinders between the wheels. Always thought the ones on the outside were the only ones.

You don't put wheels on a locomotive. You put the locomotive on the wheels.

[Firecracker]

That video is fantastic, you can repost it as much as you like for me. The bit I love is the setting up of the sand moulds for the wheels, the way they are flipped over on the crane creases me up (workers showing off to the camera, surely not?)

VWVan - a lot of the faster passenger locos in the UK were built with inside and outside cylinders. The UK loading gauge is smaller than Europe and the US, so outside cylinders could only be made so large before they start fouling things (bridges, platform edges, other trains). So the only way to get more power is to add more cylinders. As someone who spends his weekends crawling around under the likes of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresley_A4_Pacific (built by a different railway company at the same time as that video) I can say that anything with inside cylinders is fine until something goes wrong. Then the contortionist act starts.

Owain

[Forrest Addy]

I was surprised to see the set of driving cylinders between the wheels. Always thought the ones on the outside were the only ones.

The Brits were pretty crafty. I've heard it said their locos could haul more weight further with a ton of coal than any other in the world.

I think the inner cylinders were the HP of what was a two stage engine. The outers were the LP. 300 lb steam was expanded in the HP cyls to say 100 PSI that fed the LP. If they made the engine condensing they could have nearly doubled efficiency. Almost half the usable power in the steam blew up the stack. 3000 HP triple expansion \engines that fit in a ship or on a power house floor can't be crammed onto a steam loco and still get it through the tunnels. The Carnot cycle rules.

[John Stevenson]

The Brits were pretty crafty. I've heard it said their locos could haul more weight further with a ton of coal than any other in the world.

Which roughly translates to " They were tight bastards "

[MrSleepy]

I was surprised to see the set of driving cylinders between the wheels. Always thought the ones on the outside were the only ones.

Driving cylinders between the wheels goes back quite a way.... George Stephensons "Planet" had them in 1830.

Obviously not as evolved as later designs to come ,but it was next generation when compared to Rocket.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Planet_replica.jpg

Rob

[John Stevenson]

Had to smile when they were putting that plate in the oven and then transferring it to the press where they were using 5 or 6 blokes sat on the handle as ballast.

[Davek0974]

Love it, thanks.

I especially liked the radius shaper, such a simple idea, never seen one before. So much easier than a whacking great tool on my bridgeport, I only cut 12" saddles though

[MrSleepy]

Had to smile when they were putting that plate in the oven and then transferring it to the press where they were using 5 or 6 blokes sat on the handle as ballast.

Funny.... And did you play "spot the bowler"

Bowlers for bosses , flatcaps for the workers

Rob

[The Artful Bodger]

I suspect most all of the locomotives of the broad gauge Great Western Railway had cylinders between the wheels.


Broad gauge locos awaiting scrapping at Swindon, 1893(?).

[T.Hoffman]

In some of the massive machining operations druing the vid, I wonder what sort of tolerances they were holding on stuff that huge...

[Baz]

it amazes me what they were able to do on such a big scale so long ago.

you mean in between building 'little things' like HMS Hood.

(sorry don't know the equivalant US ships.)

[Firecracker]

The Brits were pretty crafty. I've heard it said their locos could haul more weight further with a ton of coal than any other in the world.

I think the inner cylinders were the HP of what was a two stage engine. The outers were the LP. 300 lb steam was expanded in the HP cyls to say 100 PSI that fed the LP. If they made the engine condensing they could have nearly doubled efficiency. Almost half the usable power in the steam blew up the stack. 3000 HP triple expansion \engines that fit in a ship or on a power house floor can't be crammed onto a steam loco and still get it through the tunnels. The Carnot cycle rules.

Not sure about that Forrest, by my library all four cylinders were the same, 16 1/2" x 28" stroke (which I've just discovered disagrees with tiffiepedia). We did try compounding on railway locos here, but for some reason it never caught on (suspect a mixture of 'not invented here', our tiny loading gauge and maintenance). The French OTH, with de Glehn and Chapelon's work, now that's a different kettle of fish.

Owain