3 2
RECENT LOCOMO TIVES.
versally have two doors in front, one over each running-board, throughwhich the men have access to the latter.
It will be noticed that each of the engines has solid-end bushed coup-ling-rods, a practice almost universal in England, and one worthy of imita-tion here.
On the Northwestern engine the check-valves are not shown. On thisline Mr. Webb attaches them to the back head of the boiler, and uses injec-tors alone, which are arranged so as to stand vertical. Feed-pipes are thencarried inside the boiler to a point near the front tube-plate. It is sur-prising that the manufacturers of injectors in this country do not makesome of them to work in this way.
The cylinders of the locomotives illustrated, being inside and inclined,can be brought close up to the front driving-axle, and the trailing-axlebeing behind the fire-box, there is very little over-hang at either end. Thegreat objections which would be made to the engines here would be to theinside cylinders and crank-axles. To fulfill the same conditions which thisengine does, we have adopted substantially the same arrangement of boilerand wheels, but have placed the cylinders outside. This results in con-siderable overhanging weight at the front end, which is carried on a singleaxle or “pony” truck in front of the cylinders, and thus makes our Mogulengine.
The principal dimensions of the English engines are as follows :
Midland
engine.
Southeastern! Northwesternengine. j engine.
Cylinders ..
17)^ x 26 in.
18 x 26 in.
17 x 24 in.
Diameter of driving-wheels. . .
62)4 in.
61 in.
60 in.
Total wheel-base.
16 ft. 6 in.
15 ft. 6 in.
Grate area.
i7}4 sq. ft.
15 sq. ft.
Number of tubes.
221
230
186
Outside diameter of tubes. . . .
1% in.
i^4 in.
1 y% in.
Heating surface in tubes. . . .
1,203 sq. ft-
1,034 sq. ft.
981 sq. ft.
Heating surface in fire-box. . .
no sq. ft.
95.25 sq. ft.
87.3 sq. ft.
Total heating surface.
1313 sq. ft.
1129.25 sq.ft.
1018.3 sq- ft.
Length of grate.
6 ft. 1 in.
4 ft. 10 in.
Width of grate.
3 ft. 4 >4 in.
3 ft. 4 in.
Inside diameter of boiler. . . .
4 ft. 3 in.
4 ft. 3 in.
Weight of locomotive in work-ing order.
84,952 lbs.
70,830 lbs.
63,168 lbs.
HAND YSIDE’S STEEP GRADIENT LOCOMOTIVE.
Fig-s. 130 and 137.
The plan of working steep gradients which has been proposed by Mr.Henry Handyside, of Bristol , England, was described in Engineering ofOct. 13, 1876, to which we are indebted for the description, and also forthe engravings :
The Handyside system of working steep gradients consists in fitting alocomotive with a winding-drum and a suitable length of wire rope, andthen employing it alternately as an ordinary locomotive and a winding-en-gine. Thus, supposing the engine to have arrived at the foo_t of an inclinewith its train, it is unhooked from the latter, the hauling-rope is attached-'to the foremost vehicle, and the engine proceeds up the gradient payingout the rope behind it, the train, of course, remaining at the bottom. Therope having been all paid out, the engine is stopped and “ anchored ” bymeans of a powerful brake arrangement, which we shall describe presently,and the winding-gear being put in motion, the engine hauls up its train, ora portion of it, as the case may be. When the train or portion thus hauledup has reached the engine, it is in its turn “ anchored,” and the engineproceeds up the gradient for another distance equal to the length of ropeavailable, when it is again anchored and the winding recommenced, theseprocesses being repeated until the top of the incline is reached. For re-taining the train or portion of a train in position on the incline during theintervals when the engine is running forward and paying out the rope, Mr.Handyside has devised an arrangement of automatically-acting gripping-struts, which are to be fitted to the last wagon or guard’s van ; but onmost existing inclines the wagons can be safely held by their own brakes,although the automatic strut is of course more convenient.
The Hopton incline, on the Cromford & High Peak line, near Wirks-worth, is now (1876) being worked by the second locomotive which has beenconstructed on Mr. Handyside’s system. This locomotive, of which we givean elevation, is a six-wheeled tank engine with all the wheels coupled andfitted with the winding-gear, already mentioned, at the trailing end. Theengine, which was built by Messrs. Fox, Walker & Co., of Bristol , for theHandyside Steep Gradient Company, has 13-in. cylinders with 20-in.stroke, and the wheels are 3 ft'. 6 in. in diameter, while the wheel-base is9 ft. Syi in. The winding-drum is situated between the frames at the hindend, the rope being paid off from the upper side of the drum, so that, asfar as possible, it is kept clear of the ground. Light wooden rollers are,however, provided at intervals between the rails to carry the rope, whichis 300 yards long and made of steel wire. The winding-drum is driven bya pair of vertical engines with 10-in. cylinders and 9-in. stroke, these en-gines acting through a compact arrangement of epicycloidal gearing, the
arrangement being such that the rope can be paid out without the winding-engines being run. The engine has 67 sq. ft. of fire-box surface, and 481sq. ft. of tube surface, the boiler containing 125 tubes 1% in. in diameter x8 ft. 5 J 4 - i n - long. The total heating surface is thus 548 sq. ft., while thegrate surface is 6.9 sq. ft. Water is carried in a saddle-tank containing430 gallons, and coal in bunkers having a capacity of 10 cwt. The watersupply is found sufficient for two hours of the hardest work. The engineweighs in average working order about 22 tons.
On each side of the engine between the leading and driving-wheels isfitted Mr. Handyside’s brake, already mentioned. In the case of the loco-motive we are describing, this brake is applied by means of a steam cyl-inder, the piston of this cylinder being coupled to an arm on a rocking-shaft, and this rocking-shaft having arms from which the brake is worked,as shown. The construction of the brake itself will be best understood byreference to the detail view, fig. 137, which also shows the section of therails which have been laid down on the Hopton incline to enable the systemto be fairly tested. As shown by the sketch, the brake has three grippingsurfaces, the one being brought into contact with the top of the rail, andthe two others gripping the sides. From the construction of the arrange-ment it follows that when the brake is applied'the top brake-piece firstcloses down upon the top table of the rail and then forms a fulcrum forthe fingers or gripping-levers through which the side pieces are applied.The three gripping-faces are of malleable iron, and are so fixed as to bereadily renewable when required.
As we have already said, the brake just described serves to anchor thelocomotive when it is acting as a winding engine ; but it is also used whennecessary during the descent as a safety-brake to keep the train completelyunder control. Of course on gradients even as steep as 1 in 12, a traincan, if all its vehicles be fitted with brakes, be kept under control by thesebrakes except in very bad weather. There are, however, times when therails are so greasy that the ordinary brakes could not be relied upon toarrest the train, in the event of its being allowed to get up too much speedwhen running down the incline, and in such cases the Handyside brakedoes good service. In fact, at the Hopton incline it would without it beextremely difficult, if not impossible, to control the loads brought down.
The Hopton incline is a quarter of a mile in length, and has a gradientof 1 in 14, while it is straight throughout. Ordinarily the traffic of theLondon & Northwestern Railway Company over it is worked by astationary winding engine, but it has now for some weeks been conductedby Mr. Handyside’s locomotive, which we have been describing. Theengine picks up the up trains at the head of the Middleton incline (agradient which is also worked by a rope and winding engine), does whatshunting may be needed there, then proceeds with its load to the foot of theHopton incline—doing shunting when required at some quarry sidings cnroute —and finally ascends the Hopton incline, delivering up its load atthe top of the gradient, and receiving in turn any down loads which mayhave arrived.
The day on which we had an opportunity of examining the working ofthe engine was one especially unfavorable to the performance of an ordi-nary locomotive, there being an almost constant drizzling rain and the railsbeing in a very greasy condition. The first load delivered to the engine was alight one, it consisting of one wagon of coal and two empties, weighing inall 20 tons. This light train was of course taken up without being divided,the incline being traversed in two lifts and the times occupied in thedifferent operations being as shown in the table below.
The total time occupied in taking up the load was thus 7 min. 35 sec.,of which 4 min. 4^ sec. were occupied in actual hauling. The hauling wasthus performed at the rate of about three miles per hour, while the wholeoperation of lifting, including all stops, was at the rate of about two milesper hour. During the operation the whole of the arrangements acted per-fectly, without a hitch of any kind.
Before starting with a down load some experiments were made withthe engine alone to test the holding power of the steam-brakes. For thispurpose the engine was started from the top of the incline and allowed torun down freely to a given point at which the brakes was applied. Thespeed acquired by the engine was ascertained by measuring by means of achronoscopy the time occupied in' passing over the last 18 yards prior to theapplication of the brakes. In the first experiment in which this observationwas made, the time occupied in traversing the distance just mentioned
was 3.25 seconds, the speed being thus I - 8 — >< —^ = 16.6 ft. per second or
3.25
11.29 miles per hour. From this speed a stop was made in a distance of16 yards.
Differences, orTimes from time of each
start.
operation.
m.
s.
m.
s.
Engine started from foot of incline.
. . 0
0
Engine stopped and “ anchored”..
55
0
55
Engine commenced hauling up load. . . .
2 5
0
3 °
Engine finished hauling. . ;.
■ • 4
OO
2'
35
Engine again started up incline.
.. 4
2 5
0
25
Engine stopped and anchored at top. . . .
• • 5
13
0
48
Engine commenced hauling up load . .
• • s
25
0
12
Load arrived at top of gradient.. .
• • 7
35
2
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