A1
"Tornado"
Inspired by the Herculean efforts of
their predecessors, a group was formed in
England who wished to build a new steam
locomotive from scratch. While many
British steamers were preserved, one
particularly successful group of 4-6-2's
were all scrapped, the "A1" class designed
by Arthur Peppercorn in 1948. This design
was chosen as the basis for the new
locomotive and the group became known as the
A1 Trust. Construction took place in
the city of Darlington, and the locomotive
was named Tornado, and numbered
61063. The original planned
completion date was 27 September 2000. The
project took a bit longer than expected,
with the locomotive being completed in
2008. The locomotive entered
excursion service in early 2009, and was
officially named by Prince
Charles.
Apparently never one to miss an
opportunity, Ing. L. D. Porta developed
and submitted an incredibly detailed ~150
page proposal for improvements to the A-1
which would dramatically increase its
efficiency and performance while
maintaining the "stock" appearance desired
by preservationists. His suggestions
included modifications to the inside
cylinder arrangement, provision of a gas
producer combustion system, enlarged
combustion chamber, increased boiler
pressure, equalizers for the axles (a
common feature in many countries but rare
in Great Britain), and an advanced "Lemprex"
exhaust system. Numerous other detail
improvements were included as well,
showing that Porta had devoted
considerable time to the study of the
design of this locomotive. While the A-1
Trust had already incorporated some of his
suggestions (all-welded boiler, increased
superheat, roller bearings, enlarged steam
passages, and improved valves) they were
hesitant to make some of the more radical
changes to the design.
The locomotive was completed in 2008 and
entered regular excursion service in early
2009. Unfortunately, after some time
in service the locomotive developed
significant problems with the boiler,
including an excessive number of broken
staybolts and cracking of the foundation
ring. After a lengthy investigation
the boiler was returned to its builder (DB
Meiningen of Germany) in 2010 for major
repairs. There was a great deal of
speculation among steam enthusiasts about
the cause of the problems, and whether
they were chiefly a result of workmanship,
design or operation. The Tornado's
boiler was of all-welded construction
whereas the original A1 boilers were of
hot riveted construction (standard at the
time- 1948). While Meiningen is very
experienced with the fabrication of welded
locomotive boilers it may be that some
details were not designed properly in the
adaptation of an existing riveted boiler
design to a new all-welded one. At
any rate, the boiler repairs were
completed in the summer of 2011 and the
locomotive was returned to service and has
apparently been free of problems since
then.
See The
A1 Steam Locomotive Trust page for
much more information on this locomotive
and current news about it.
Successful construction of the A1 led to
a follow-on, even more ambitious project
which is currently underway at the
Darlington Locomotive Works where the A1
was constructed.
Rendering of P2 2007
"Prince of Wales"
A new class P2 2-8-2 locomotive, no.
2007, "the Prince of Wales", is currently
under construction. The frames,
wheelsets, cab, smokebox, boiler cladding,
and many other components are finished or
nearly so. Interestingly,
significant design changes were made in
this locomotive compared to the original
examples, including the fitting of roller
bearings to all axles, changing from Lentz
to British Caprotti valve gear (as used on
Duke of Gloucester), and using the same
boiler design as the A1. The
original P2 boilers were externally
identical to the A1 boilers, but the A1s
operated at higher pressure and included a
combustion chamber. Use of the same
boiler on the A1 and the P2 will allow
them to be interchanged, if necessary,
during overhauls. Unlike the US,
boilers were often interchanged during
locomotive overhauls in Great
Britain. Known problem areas in the
original P2 design are being addressed as
well. Many "lessons learned" during
construction and operation of Tornado are
being incorporated into the Prince of
Wales which should result in a new
locomotive that is significantly superior
to the originals.
Unlike US locomotives of the 2-8-2 wheel
arrangement, which were used almost
exclusively in freight service, the P2s
were used on express passenger
trains.
This and many other British new steam
projects can be found on the New Build
Steam section of the Rail
Advent site.
Other Recent New Steam
Projects
In December 2011 received information
from Dr. Christian Hruschka on 2 new steam
locomotives in Germany as well as a
project to build a main line steam
locomotive which was well underway.
The first is the Saxonian I K: The
Saxonian I K was a narrow-gauge 0-6-0 tank
engine, which was first built in 1881. For
more than half a century it was the
typical face of steam on the Saxonian
narrow-gauge railways. Unfortunately the
last locomotive was scrapped in 1964 in
the German Democratic Republic.
From 2006-2009 in Saxonia a unique project
was implemented: a replica of Saxony's
first narrow gauge locomotive. After
three and a half years of dedicated work
the "new" I K No. 54 was officially
inaugurated in Radebeul. Since then the
locomotive is under use on the the Saxon
narrow gauge railways. Railway enthusiasts
and tourists enjoy the rides of the
"new-old" locomotive with great
enthusiasm.
Read more about this locomotive
here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxonia_(locomotive)
Project No. 2 is also located in the
countries of the former GDR. The two towns
of Bad Doberan and Kühlungsborn, both to
be found on the German Part of the Baltic
Sea Coast, are connected with a 900mm
narrow gauge railway, named "Molli". Most
of the traffic was done by three
2-8-2-tank locos, built in 1932 by the
German Reichsbahn and because of that
looking like a narrow-gauge-version of the
BR 86 class.
After the breakdown of communism in East
Germany both towns passed a touristic
boom, and it was clear that on one side
three steam locos could not cope with all
the tourist trains, while on the other
side tourists are not interested in
diesels. So it was decided to take the
plans from 1932 and built a forth one.
Read more about the railway and this
locomotive here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molli_railway
Molli, Constructed by
Dampflokwerk Meiningen in 2009
This 900mm gauge locomotive was built by
DB Meiningen of Germany, and features
extensive welded construction including
the boiler, frames, and cylinders.
Project No. 3 is similar in intent to the
A1 "Tornado" Trust in England. It's the
attempt to bring a mainline Pacific back
to life, a German Reichsbahn 18.1 class,
called - because of its wonderful
architectural design- the "beautiful C"
(during their time at the Wurttemberg
railways the 18.1 was named "C-Class") or
simply the "Wurttembergian Beauty".
The team to construct a new "C" was to
consist of experts from the South-German
railway museum Heilbronn: http://www.eisenbahnmuseum-heilbronn.de/
Unfortunately, I can find no current
information on this project (July 2018)
but I will update the page if any
information turns up.
The Pennsylvania Railroad
T1 Steam Locomotive Trust
In the US, there is a project to create a
new locomotive based on one of the most
advanced and controversial steam designs,
the Pennsylvania Railroad T1
4-4-4-4. These engines used the
duplex drive concept promoted by Baldwin,
in which the drive was divided among two
sets of cylinders. In this case, the
4-4-4-4 was the duplex equivalent of a
4-8-4. The duplex arrangement resulted in
smaller, lighter, pistons and piston rods
which allowed improved balancing of the
running gear and reduced stresses on the
individual components. Additionally, 4
smaller cylinders improved steam
distribution, and therefore power and
efficiency, compared to two larger ones on
a conventional locomotive.
The Pennsylvania Railroad initially
experimented with the duplex concept with
the S1 6-4-4-6, a huge demonstration
locomotive cooperatively built by the
three major US steam locomotive
manufacturers: Baldwin, American (ALCO),
and Lima. This locomotive was shown at the
1939 New York World's Fair. Because
of its immense size, the locomotive was
severely restricted in where it could
operate. While the S1 had some operational
issues, it was considered to be enough of
a success that the railroad wanted to
continue with the duplex concept.
A new, more reasonably sized duplex
design was developed by the railroad and
Baldwin with a 4-4-4-4 wheel arrangement.
Two prototype locomotives by Baldwin in
1942 and then the Pennsylvania Railroad
built another 50 locomotives after
WWII. 25 of these were constructed
in the railroad's shops and the other 25
at Baldwin. In addition to duplex
drive, these locomotives were fitted with
Franklin Railway Supply Type A oscillating
cam poppet valves. These valves had been
successfully tested on a modified K4
4-6-2, and the railroad was so impressed
with the performance improvement that they
valves provided, they insisted (against
Baldwin's advice) that they be applied to
the new class of locomotives. The
locomotives incorporated one-piece cast
bed frames, roller bearings on all axles
and rods, light weight alloy rods, and
extensive use of aluminum for
non-structural parts. These were some of
the most striking-looking steam
locomotives ever built with streamlining
designed by industrial design Raymond
Loewy.
Unfortunately, the locomotives suffered
quite a few teething problems as they
entered service. The engines were reported
to be very slippery both at low and high
speed, as one set of drivers could lose
traction. The Type A poppet valves used
miniature sets of Walschaerts valve gear
enclosed in boxes housed within the
locomotive's frames where they were very
difficult to access. The high speed
slipping issues occasionally resulted in
damage to the valve gear which exacerbated
the problems. Broken valves became a
problem. The railroad gradually began
addressing these problems. The
equalization of the axles was changed in
an effort to address the sliperiness and
this seems to have been largely
successful. One engine had its cylinders
sleeved to reduce their diameter, thereby
reducing the tractive effort and making
the locomotive less prone to slip. More
fatigue-resistant materials were used to
fabricate replacement poppet valves which
reduced the valve breakage problem. One
locomotive was refitted with Franklin Type
B rotary cam poppet valves which dispensed
with the difficult-to-access valve boxes
in the locomotive frames. Another was
retrofit with piston valve cylinders,
eliminating the poppets altogether.
Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania was also
purchasing diesel electric locomotives at
this time and those locomotives proved
very successful. The T1's had acquired a
bad reputation and were gradually
displaced from service by the new diesels
and even older steam locomotives. The
T-1's were all out of service by 1952 and
scrapped by 1955. None of the class was
preserved.
For years, it had been rumored that the
T-1's attained VERY high speeds in
service, but most dismissed these claims
as pure railroad lore. Interestingly, the
late Bill Withuhn was able to uncover
records from Franklin verifying these
claims. After the locomotives had been in
service for some time, the valve breakage
problem mentioned above became widespread
with virtually every T-1 having suffered
broken valves. Franklin was both surprised
and embarrassed by this problem, as they
had warranted the valves for normal
operation up to 100 MPH and limited
operation up to 125 MPH. Detailed analysis
of the valves themselves as well as
breakage and maintenance records yielded
no clues. Finally, Franklin noticed that
the broken valve occurrences seemed to be
concentrated on the high-speed line
between Crestline, OH and Fort Wayne, IN
where speeds of up to 100 MPH were
authorized. A Franklin representative was
dispatched "undercover" to ride these
trains and record their speeds using a
stopwatch and the railroad's mileposts.
Over the course of a month, two runs of
135-142 MPH over several miles, done with
short trains of six or seven cars while
making up lost time, were documented. When
he returned to the home office, the
representative's written logs as well as
his watch were examined and verified to be
accurate. Franklin was in a touchy
situation as they did not want to blame
the railroad's engineers even though they
were clearly exceeding the warranted speed
for the valves. It was realized that even
at the warranted speed of 100 MPH,
occasional slippage could result in
excessive rotational speed. Franklin
wanted to devise a bullet-proof fix if
they could. They spent considerable effort
with an outside research laboratory
analyzing the problem, including testing
existing and alternative materials for the
valves. After months of effort, they
basically concluded that there was no way
to make the valves reliable above a
rotational speed corresponding to 130 MPH,
at least with the materials then
available. While normal operating speeds
were well below this value, slipping on
high speed runs was likely to continue to
result in breakage. The problem was not
resolved before the T-1's were relegated
to lesser service and eventually
withdrawn. This information is documented
in Bill's book "American Steam
Locomotives, Design and Development,
1880-1960" (page 376).
Founded as a non-profit public trust in
2013, the T1 Steam Locomotive Trust is a
group that is recreating this extinct
American steam locomotive. The new
locomotive will be numbered 5550,
following the last production T1 that was
numbered 5549. It is estimated that
the complete project will cost $10M
US. As of 2018, the group has raised
$700,000 US and has fabricated a number of
key components required for the new
locomotive. These include several driving
wheels, the cab, the streamlined "prow",
most of the boiler exterior shell, and the
rear flue sheet. Many other parts are on
order or in the process of being
re-designed. The new boiler will be
of all-welded construction. The locomotive
frame, which was originally a one-piece
casting incorporating all four cylinders
and other components, is being redesigned
by JAKTOOL. The new frame will likely
consist of several separate castings which
will be welded together, which will
actually provide a superior frame to the
original. The new locomotive will use
rotary cam poppet valves, similar to T1
5500. The group has been in contact with
the group operating the Duke of Gloucester
locomotive in the UK, which is also
equipped with rotary cam poppet valves.
Lessons from that group's experience in
recreating the valve system for that
locomotive as well as operating it for
over 30 years in excursion service will be
incorporated into this new locomotive. The
sole remaining rotary cam poppet valve
equipped US locomotive, USATC no. 611, was
also examined in detail. 611 featured a
unique installation of Franklin Type B-1
poppet valves, which simplified locomotive
operation by effectively automating valve
cutoff control. See the Patents page for
more information on this system.
In 2017, the Trust acquired the last
remaining "Coast to Coast" 16 wheeled
tender, which was originally used behind a
PRR M-1 4-8-2. The upper structure
of this tender will be modified to match
that of the original T1s. It is
estimated that the acquisition of this
tender saved the group about $3M in
fabrication costs.
Read more at the project's website:
https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org
and Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_5550
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