History
of the locomotive - Great locomotives
in the 1930's - Electrical locomotives
in the dawn of XX Century -Operation
of a steam locomotive - Photos
of old locomotives
In 1866, in the factories of Baldwin locomotives, it was constructed the first machine of a new type for the transport of loads , destined for the railroad of the Lehigh Valley, pertaining to a Company that had just finished forming by fusing several small lines, thus it was given to this type of locomotive the name of "Consolidation". These locomotives had four pairs of motor wheels and an auxiliary front set of two wheels, and it's got to be the favorite type of transporting locomotive for heavy weights, for example, in the shipments of mineral coal . The following year the same Company constructed the first of its new type of locomotives for the transport of heavy loads with three pairs of motor wheels and an auxiliary set of two wheels; this new type was known with the name of "the Great Mogul" and this Mogul term later came to be the one that served commonly to designate almost all the great locomotives, although the first Baldwin machine of this type was not remarkable by its dimensions.
The first true Mogul probably was constructed by the Rogers Locomotive Works Company, towards 1863. In 1897, Baldwin constructed a new style of locomotive for heavy loads, destined to the Nippon Railroad of Japan, and, naturally, to this new type of machine it was applied the name "Mikado" .
La locomotive "Atlantic" , 1832 .
This kind of locomotives had four motor wheels, a front auxiliary set of two wheels and another rear one, also auxiliary, of two wheels that were located under the engineer's cab. The fireplace was placed near the back of the motor wheels and on the rear auxiliary set of wheels , so that it could be widened whatever was necessary to obtain the heating surface required by the great boiler. In the forthcoming years, it has been common practice to designate all of these different types of locomotives regarding the number and disposition of their wheels. Thus, the American types with four front auxiliary set motor wheels , four motor wheels and without rear auxiliary set , were designated with the expression "the 4-4-0" , the type "Consolidation" was designated by "2-8-0", and the Mikado by "2-8-0". This way to designate the different types has been simplified later omitting the intermediate scripts.
The figures below show the silhouettes of different locomotives displaying the development of the machine throughout the years:
1831- Locomotive of " Witt Clinton", (see photo )compared with a train of three vehicles, it had a smaller length than the Pacific type.
1863.-.Military locomotive with fireplace to burn firewood; chimney in pear form; weight, 30 tons.
1848.-"Governor Paine" .One of the first machines aspiring to the honors of great speed: 1610 meters in 43 seconds.
1876.- American type, constructed by Baldwin; exhibited in the Exhibition of the Centenary, Philadelphia; weight, 36 tons. The chimneys in diamond form, according to the image above , were the most used. Pay attention in the transversal sections how when increasing the diameter of the motor wheels and that of the boilers, grew the height of the locomotives, and how the fireplace goes lower on the back wheels in the modern locomotives.
1893.- Type American "999", exhibited in the Exhibition of Chicago of 1893. Weight, 62 tons; weight of the dragged train, 205 tons. It obtained the "world-wide record": 1610 meters in 32 seconds
1910 -Type Pacific "Twentieth Century Limited". Weight, 135 tons. "world-wide Record" of capacity to maintain great speed in all the route, dragging II steel wagons of 810 tons of weight, in a march of 110 kilometers per hour .
1905 -Consolidation Type. Weight, 113 tons. The best type for train of merchandise of its time.
1912 - (Pennsylvania "1067") type. Weight, 120 tons. Type that showed a great advance in capacity to maintain great force of drag at great speed
1912 - Pacific type (Erie "2509") Weight of the locomotive: 1.35 tons. The locomotive, that made number 50,000 of the constructed machines by the Company "American Locomotive", made as an experiment, represented the best improvement in plan, materials and construction. The locomotives of this type were destined to trains of passengers.
1914 - Mountain type (C. & 0. "36"). Weight, 165 tons. The greatest and most powerful locomotive for the service of passengers anywhere in the world, in 1914 .
1914 - Mikado Type (Reading "1170"). Weight of the locomotive: 166 tons. Enormous tractive force.
1911 -Mallet type (Virginian "604") Machine of powerful tractive force, employed to raise slopes of 381 meters in 18 kilometers. The motor wheels, divided in two groups.
1 Boiler, 2 steam box, 3 front set of auxiliary wheels, 4 piston, 5 cylinder, 6 joint of the stem of the piston with the connecting rod, 7 lateral bar that connects the wheels, 8-connecting rod, 9-armor, 10- track, 11-rear set of auxiliary wheels, 12- smoke box , 13- tubes, 14- water, 15- armor, 16-wharf, 17- supports, 18- bearing, 19- track, 20- grill of the firebox , 21- mouth of the firebox . |
