Under the
Whyte notation
Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth ce ...
for the classification of
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s, represents the
wheel arrangement
In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...
of four
leading wheel
The leading wheel or leading axle or pilot wheel of a steam locomotive is an unpowered wheel or axle located in front of the driving wheels. The axle or axles of the leading wheels are normally located on a leading truck. Leading wheels are used ...
s on two axles, two powered
driving wheel
On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled ...
s on one axle and no
trailing wheel
On a steam locomotive, a trailing wheel or trailing axle is generally an unpowered wheel or axle ( wheelset) located behind the driving wheels. The axle of the trailing wheels is usually located in a trailing truck. On some large locomotives, ...
s. This type of locomotive is often called a Jervis type, the name of the original designer.
Overview
The wheel arrangement type was common on
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
railroads from the 1830s through the 1850s. The first to be built was the ''Experiment'', later named ''Brother Jonathan'', for the
Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1832. It was built by the
West Point Foundry
The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and ot ...
based on a design by
John B. Jervis
John Bloomfield Jervis (December 14, 1795 – January 12, 1885) was an American civil engineer. America's leading consulting engineer of the antebellum era (1820–60), Jervis designed and supervised the construction of five of America's earliest ...
. Having little else to reference, the manufacturers patterned the boiler and valve gear after locomotives built by
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS HFRSE FRSA Doctor of Civil Law, DCL (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railway ...
of England. A few examples of Stephenson locomotives were already in operation in America, so engineers did not have to travel too far to get their initial ideas.
In England, the was developed around 1840 from the
2-2-2 design of Stephenson's first
Long Boiler locomotive
The Long Boiler locomotive was the object of a patent by Robert Stephenson and the name became synonymous with the pattern. Its defining feature is that the firebox is placed ''behind'' the rearmost driving axle. This gives a long boiler barrel, ...
, which he had altered to place two pairs of wheels at the front to improve stability, with the outside cylinders between them.
In the United States, the design was a modification of the design, then in common use. The proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the day, often derailing on the tight curves and rapid elevation changes of early American railroads. For the , Jervis introduced a four-wheel leading truck under the locomotive's
smokebox
A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is e ...
. It swiveled independently from the main frame of the locomotive, in contrast to the English engines which had rigid frames. The pistons powered a single driving axle at the rear of the locomotive, just behind the
firebox
Firebox may refer to:
*Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine
*Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted
*Firebox Records
Firebox Records was a Finnish record label based in S ...
. This design resulted in a much more stable locomotive which was able to guide itself into curves more easily than the .
This design proved so effective on American railroads that many of the early were rebuilt as . The excelled in its ability to stay on the track, especially those with the single driving axles behind the firebox, whose main virtue was stability. However, with only one driving axle behind the firebox, the locomotive's weight was spread over a small proportion of powered wheels, which substantially reduced its adhesive weight. On locomotives which had the driving axle in front of the firebox, adhesive weight was increased. While this plan placed more of the locomotive's weight on the driving axle, it reduced the weight on the leading truck which made it more prone to
derailment
In rail transport, a derailment occurs when a rail vehicle such as a train comes off its rails. Although many derailments are minor, all result in temporary disruption of the proper operation of the railway system and they are a potentially ...
s.
One possible solution was patented in 1834 by E.L. Miller and used extensively by
Matthias W. Baldwin
Matthias William Baldwin (December 10, 1795 – September 7, 1866) was an American inventor and machinery manufacturer, specializing in the production of steam locomotives. Baldwin's small machine shop, established in 1825, grew to become ...
. It worked by raising a pair of levers to attach the tender frame to an extension of the engine frame, which transferred some weight from the tender to the locomotive frame and increased the adhesive weight. An automatic version was patented in 1835 by George E. Sellers and was used extensively by
locomotive builder William Norris after he obtained rights to it. This system used a beam whose fulcrum was the driving axle. On flat and level surfaces, the beam would be slightly raised, but upon starting or on grades, the resistance made the beam assume a horizontal position which caused the locomotive to tip upward.
A more practical solution, first put into production by Norris, relocated the driving axle to a location on the frame in front of the locomotive's firebox. This was done because Baldwin refused to grant rights to Norris to use his patented "half-crank" arrangement.
Cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
ing the weight of the firebox and the locomotive crew behind the driving axle placed more weight on the driving axle without substantially reducing the weight on the leading truck. However, Norris's design led to a shorter wheelbase, which tended to offset any gains in
tractive force
As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion.
In railway engineering, the term tr ...
on the driving axle by reducing the locomotive's overall stability. A number of Norris locomotives were imported into England for use on the
Birmingham and Bristol Railway
The Birmingham and Bristol Railway was a short-lived railway company, formed in 1845 by the merger of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway and the Bristol and Gloucester Railway.
Origin
At Gloucester the latter had formed a junction with the ...
since, because of the challenges presented by the
Lickey Incline
The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed ...
, British manufacturers declined to supply.
Once
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
became available, greater rotational speeds became possible with multiple smaller coupled wheels. Five years after new locomotive construction had begun at the
West Point Foundry
The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and ot ...
in the United States with the
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
''
Best Friend of Charleston
The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the United St ...
'' in 1831, the first locomotive was designed by
Henry R. Campbell, at the time the chief
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway. Campbell received a patent for the design in February 1836 and soon set to work building the first . For the time, Campbell's was a giant among locomotives. Its
cylinders had a bore with a
piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors, hydraulic cylinders and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tig ...
stroke, it boasted diameter driving wheels, could maintain of steam
pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...
and weighed . Campbell's locomotive was estimated to be able to pull a train of at on level track, outperforming the strongest of
Baldwin's 4-2-0s in tractive effort by about 63%. However, the frame and driving gear of his locomotive proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the time, which caused Campbell's prototype to be derailment-prone.
As the 1840s approached and more American railroads began to experiment with the new locomotive type, the fell out of favor since it was not as able as the to pull a paying load. continued to be built into the 1850s, but their use was restricted to light-duty trains since, by this time, most railroads had found them unsuitable for regular work.
![Est 210 Crampton 187](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Est_210_Crampton_187.jpg)
In England, for freight work, four-coupled and six-coupled engines were performing well. However, for passenger work the aim was greater speed. Because of the fragility of
cast-iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
connecting rods, "singles" continued to be used, with the largest driving wheels possible.
For some reason, British manufacturers did not take up the idea of mounting the forward wheels on a
bogie
A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
for some years. There were possibly fears about their stability and with a long rigid frame, greater speed was achieved, albeit at the cost of a very rough ride and damage to the track. The culmination of this approach was seen in the
Crampton locomotive
A Crampton locomotive is a type of steam locomotive designed by Thomas Russell Crampton and built by various firms from 1846. The main British builders were Tulk and Ley and Robert Stephenson and Company.
Notable features were a low boiler and l ...
where, to make the driving wheels as large as possible, they were mounted behind the firebox.
Usage
South Africa
![Dutton's Road-Rail Tractor no](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Dutton%27s_Road-Rail_Tractor_no._RR973.jpg)
In 1923, the South African Railways conducted trials with a prototype petrol-paraffin powered road-rail tractor and, in 1924, placed at least two
Dutton steam road-rail tractors in service on the new narrow gauge line between
Naboomspruit
Mookgophong, also known as Naboomspruit, is a town in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The town is located approximately 42 km north-east of Modimolle and 51 km south-west of Mokopane.
History
It was founded on the farm Vischgat in ...
and Singlewood in Transvaal. The petrol-paraffin prototype and one of the latter had a wheel arrangement.
[Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1945). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter VII - South African Railways (Continued).'' South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, October 1945. pp. 782-783.]
The prototype was a modified
Dennis tractor which was fitted with a removable bogie between the front wheels to lift them high enough to prevent ground contact. A ball pin on the bogie fit into a socket in the front axle, and the bogie could easily be removed or replaced by running the tractor up a pair of ramps, placed on both sides of the track.
[Stronach-Dutton Road-Rail - The Roadrail System of Traction](_blank)
/ref>[''Transport Problems in South Africa - The Dutton Loco-Tractor Advocated as a Solution.'' Article in ''The Commercial Motor'', 24 August 1920. p. 14.][''Important Development Roadrail Transport''. Article in Commercial Motor, 26 September 1922. pp. 168-169.](_blank)
/ref>
The production model was a modified Yorkshire steam tractor, fitted with jacks at the front to allow a separate bogie to be manoeuvred into position underneath the front axle to guide it on the rails. Without the bogie, the vehicle could still be driven on ordinary roads and had the advantage of being able to be detached and run around the train, without requiring special loops for that purpose. For reversing on the track, as when shunting, the rear wheels were modified to be steerable.[Patent: Dutton Light Railway System and Locomotive Therefor, US 1306051 A, Jun 10, 1919](_blank)
/ref>
United States
The first railroad locomotive to operate in Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
was a , the ''Pioneer
Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land.
In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...
'', which was built in 1837 by 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 t ...
for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad
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 Midw ...
in New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. It was later purchased used by William B. Ogden
William Butler Ogden (June 15, 1805 – August 3, 1877) was an American politician and railroad executive who served as the first Mayor of Chicago. He was referred to as "the Astor of Chicago." He was, at one time, the city's richest citizen.
...
for the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad
The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad (G&CU) was a railroad running west from Chicago to Freeport, Illinois, never reaching Galena, Illinois. A later route went to Clinton, Iowa. Incorporated in 1836, the G&CU became the first railroad built out ...
, the oldest predecessor of the Chicago and North Western Railway
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...
. The locomotive arrived in Chicago by schooner on 10 October 1848 and it pulled the first westbound train out of the city fifteen days later, on 25 October 1848.[SteamLocomotive.com - Chicago Area Steam The Illinois Railway Museum](_blank)
(Accessed on 22 August 2016)
References
{{Whyte types
1832 in rail transport