Pennsylvania Railroad Class S2
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Pennsylvania Railroad Class S2
The Pennsylvania Railroad's S2 class was a steam turbine locomotive designed and built in a collaborative effort by Baldwin Locomotive Works and Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, as an attempt to prolong the dominance of the steam locomotive by adapting technology that had been widely accepted in the marine industry. One was built, #6200, delivered in September 1944. The S2 was the sole example of the 6-8-6 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, with a six-wheel leading truck, eight driving wheels, and a six-wheel trailing truck. The S2 used a direct-drive steam turbine provided by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, geared to the center pair of axles with the outer two axles connected by side rods; the fixed gear ratio was 18.5:1. Such design was to prevent energy loss and S2 achieved a mechanical efficiency of 97% which means only 3% of steam energy was lost within the propulsion equipment. The disadvantage of direct-drive steam turbine was that the ...
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Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete as demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation. The company has no relation to the E.M. Baldwin and Sons of New South Wales, Australia, a builder of small diesel locomotives for sugar cane railroads. History: 19th century Beginning The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning. Matthias W. Baldwin, the founder, was a jeweler and whitesmith, who, in 1825, formed a partnership with machinist David H. Mason, and engaged in the manufacture of bookbinders' tools and cylinders for cal ...
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Combustion Chamber
A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process. Internal combustion engines In an internal combustion engine, the pressure caused by the burning air/fuel mixture applies direct force to part of the engine (e.g. for a piston engine, the force is applied to the top of the piston), which converts the gas pressure into mechanical energy (often in the form of a rotating output shaft). This contrasts an external combustion engine, where the combustion takes place in a separate part of the engine to where the gas pressure is converted into mechanical energy. Spark-ignition engines In spark ignition engines, such as petrol (gasoline) engines, the combustion chamber is usually located in the cylinder head. The engines are often designed such that the bottom of combustion chamber is roughly in li ...
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Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Census, making it the List of cities in Indiana, second-most populous city in Indiana after Indianapolis, and the 76th-most populous city in the United States. It is the principal city of the Fort Wayne metropolitan area, consisting of Allen and Whitley County, Indiana, Whitley counties which had an estimated population of 423,038 as of 2021. Fort Wayne is the cultural and economic center of northeastern Indiana. In addition to the two core counties, the combined statistical area (CSA) includes Adams County, Indiana, Adams, DeKalb County, Indiana, DeKalb, Huntington County, Indiana, Huntington, Noble County, Indiana, Noble, Steuben County, Indiana, Steuben, and Wells County, Indiana, Wells counties, with an estimated population of 649,105 in 202 ...
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Dynamometer Car
A dynamometer car is a railroad maintenance of way car used for measuring various aspects of a locomotive's performance. Measurements include tractive effort (pulling force), power, top speed, etc. History The first dynamometer car was probably one built in about 1838 by the "Father of Computing" Charles Babbage. Working for the Great Western Railway of Great Britain, he equipped a passenger carriage to be placed between an engine and train and record data on a continuously moving roll of paper. The recorded data included the pulling force of the engine, a plot of the path of the carriage and the vertical shake of the carriage. The work was undertaken to help support the position of the Great Western Railway in the controversy over standardizing the British track gauge. In the United States, the Pennsylvania Railroad began using dynamometer cars in the 1860s. The first modern dynamometer car in the United States was built in 1874 by P. H. Dudley for the New York Central Rail ...
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PRR S1
The PRR S1 class steam locomotive (nicknamed "The Big Engine") was a single experimental duplex locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was designed to demonstrate the advantages of duplex drives espoused by Baldwin Chief Engineer Ralph P. Johnson. It was the longest and heaviest rigid frame reciprocating steam locomotive that was ever built. The streamlined Art Deco styled shell of the locomotive was designed by Raymond Loewy. The S1 had a unique 6-4-4-6 wheel arrangement, meaning that it had two pairs of cylinders, each driving two pairs of driving wheels. To achieve stability at fast passenger train speeds (above 100 mph), articulation was not used. The S1 was completed on January 31, 1939, at Altoona shop, and was numbered 6100. At overall, engine and tender, the S1 was the longest reciprocating steam locomotive ever; it also had the heaviest tender (451,840 lb / 205 tonnes), highest tractive effort () of a passenger steam engine when built and the largest driv ...
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PRR T1
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) class T1 duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 steam locomotives, introduced in 1942 with two prototypes and later in 1945-1946 with 50 production examples, were the last steam locomotives built for the PRR and arguably its most controversial. They were ambitious, technologically sophisticated, powerful, fast and distinctively streamlined by Raymond Loewy. However, they were also prone to wheelslip both when starting and at speed, in addition to being complicated to maintain and expensive to run. The PRR decided in 1948 to place diesel locomotives on all express passenger trains, leaving unanswered questions as to whether the T1's flaws were solvable, especially taking into account that the two prototypes did not have the problems inherent to the production units. An article appearing in a 2008 issue of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society Magazine showed that inadequate training for engineers transitioning to the T1 may have led to exces ...
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Altoona Works
Altoona Works (also known as Altoona Terminal) is a large railroad industrial complex in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It was built between 1850 and 1925 by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), to supply the railroad with locomotives, railroad cars and related equipment. For many years, it was the largest railroad shop complex in the world. History In 1849, PRR officials developed plans to construct a repair facility at a town newly established for this purpose, Altoona. Construction was started in 1850, and soon a long building was completed in the 12th Street area that housed a machine shop, woodworking shop, blacksmith shop, locomotive repair shop and foundry. The 12th Street area facilities were replaced later by the Altoona Machine Shops. The first locomotive was built there in 1866. A total of 6,783 steam, diesel and electric locomotives were manufactured in Altoona between 1866 and 1946. In time, additional PRR repair facilities were located in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Renovo and ...
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Union Pacific FEF Series
The Union Pacific FEF Series consists of forty-five 4-8-4 "Northern" steam locomotive types built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) between 1937 and 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad until 1959. The 45 locomotives were the last steam locomotives built for the Union Pacific. They represented the apex of dual-service steam locomotive development; funds and research were being concentrated into the development of diesel-electric locomotives. Designed to burn coal, they were converted to run on fuel oil in 1946. They pulled a variety of passenger trains, such as the ''Overland Limited'', '' Los Angeles Limited'', ''Portland Rose'' and ''Challenger'', until diesel-electric locomotives took over passenger service. Many FEF Series locomotives were later reassigned to freight service during the last few years of their careers. Four FEF Series locomotives survive today, including No. 844, which remains in operational condition and now runs in excursion service. Tod ...
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Union Pacific
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western, Midwestern and Southern United States. Founded in 1862, the original Union Pacific Rail Road was part of the first transcontinental railroad project, later known as the Overland Route. Over the next century, UP absorbed the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. In 1996, the Union Pacific merged with Southern Pacific Transportation Company, itself a giant system that was absorbed by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. ...
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New York Central Niagara
The New York Central Railroad's Niagara was a "Northern" type steam locomotive named after the Niagara River and Falls. It had a wheel arrangement and is considered as one of the most efficient 4-8-4 locomotives ever built. The first New York Central Railroad Northern was ordered in 1931: No. 800, an experimental locomotive that had its boiler divided into three sections of different pressure. This was another failed experiment in high pressure steam locomotives. By the 1940s, loads being hauled on the New York Central main line from New York to Chicago were as much as the famous J-class NYC Hudson 's could handle. The Chief of Motive Power for the railroad, Paul W. Kiefer, decided to order some 's which could sustain on the run between the two cities, day after day without respite. The American Locomotive Company (ALCO) proposed these locomotives, and although the design owes something to the Union Pacific 4-8-4's, of which Union Pacific 844 is the best-known, the design w ...
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New York Central
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Rochester and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal. The railroad was established in 1853, consolidating several existing railroad companies. In 1968, the NYC merged with its former rival, the Pennsylvania Railroad, to form Penn Central. Penn Central went bankrupt in 1970 and merged into Conrail in 1976. Conrail was broken-up in 1999, and portions of its system were transferred to CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway, with CSX acquiring most of the old New York Central trackage. Extensive trackage existed in the states of New York, Pennsylv ...
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Smoke Deflector
Smoke deflectors, sometimes called "blinkers" in the UK because of their strong resemblance to the blinkers used on horses, and "elephant ears" in US railway slang, are vertical plates attached to each side of the smokebox at the front of a steam locomotive. They are designed to lift smoke away from the locomotive at speed so that the driver has better visibility. On the South Australian Railways they are called "valances". Overview Smoke deflectors became increasingly common on later steam locomotives because the velocity of smoke exiting the chimney had been reduced as the result of efficiency gains obtained by improved smokebox design, such as the Kylchap exhaust and Giesl ejector. Styles Various styles of smoke deflectors have been used by different railway operators. However, many are essentially a variation of one of two designs of ''Windleitbleche'' (wind deflecting plates) developed by the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as ...
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