1.
Swiss locomotive and railcar classification
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It started out as a uniform system for the classification and naming of all rolling stock, powered and unpowered, but had been replaced and amended by the UIC classification of goods wagons. The Swiss classification system was created by the Swiss federal railways department, in 1902, when the Swiss Federal Railways was founded as a government railway, that new railway also became bound by the system. The Swiss system is less precise than those other systems in the way it deals with axles, because it refers only to numbers, rather than to arrangements, of powered axles. The Swiss system is more a method of classifying locomotive. The classifications for which the Swiss system provides have always been adapted to new requirements. The last modification to the system occurred in 1968, with the publication of the Directory of the Rolling Stock of the Swiss Private Railways by the Swiss Federal Agency for Transport. For carriages and wagons, the system was progressively replaced from 1968 by the UIC international wagon classification system. However, all of Switzerlands powered rolling stock initially retained its Swiss type classification or class designation, the standard gauge private railways of Switzerland soon followed the example of the Swiss Federal Railways, and agreement was reached as to the allocation of number ranges. The narrow gauge railways have largely retained the old system for locomotives, railcars and passenger carriages, here is a description of the classification system as it operated up to 1989, and as it still operates in respect of narrow gauge private railway motive power. There is no provision for combining the codes A, B, C, D, E, G, R and T, the combination of H and G is possible. HG would therefore be a narrow gauge locomotive, with a mix of adhesion, since 1966, in respect of railcars and tractors, he or hm has meant pure rack rail drive, and eh or mh has meant a mix of adhesion and rack rail drive. Steam powered tank locomotives were given an E, and the maximum speed of the locomotive was designated with a lower case letter. Thus, an Ea 3/6 was a locomotive with vmax >80 kilometres per hour. With steam locomotives, separate driving mechanisms were displayed, so, for example, a Mallet locomotive was named G 2x2/2 or G 2/3+2/2, and not G 4/4 or G 4/5. Up until 1920, standard gauge locomotives were given the letter F. The class later designated as Be 5/7 was therefore originally named Fb 5/7, the designation R was originally intended for locomotives with an axle load of under 16 tonnes. These lightweight locomotives exert less stress on the rails when they negotiate curves, with the introduction of the Re 4/4II, the axle load limit was dropped following extensive testing. Several locomotives were given approval for higher cornering speeds, to which their type designation had not yet been adapted
2.
Beyer, Peacock and Company
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Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway Locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Gorton, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966 and it received limited liability in 1902, becoming Beyer, Peacock and Company Limited. In 1854, the German born Charles Beyer resigned as engineer at Atlas works. It was Beyer that was responsible for success of production at Atlas. He had trained under the guidance of the inventor of cotton mill machinery. Richard Peacock resigned from his position as engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield. Confident in his ability to secure orders to build locomotives, Beyer’s resignation presented Peacock with a partnership opportunity. However, this was not a company and all partners were liable for debts should the business fail, in a mid-Victorian economic climate of boom and bust. Beyer could raise £9,524 and Peacock £5,500, Beyer and Peacock were founder members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Unfortunately, Geach died, the loan was recalled and the project nearly died. To the rescue came Thomas Brassey who persuaded Henry Robertson to provide a £4,000 loan in return for being the third partner, Beyer appointed and worked closely with Hermann Ludwig Lange, in 1861. A native of his town, Plauen, Saxony, Langer trained as an engineer in Germany, became chief draughtsman in 1865. Four New South Wales Government Railways AD60 Class Beyer-Garratt Patent locomotives are preserved being the most powerful locomotives in the southern hemisphere when introduced. Gorton Foundry was on the side of the railway line to the Manchester, Sheffield. Between 1855 and 1966, the company built nearly 8,000 railway locomotives, several of their 1874-built steam locomotives for the Isle of Man Railway remain in daily use. A Gorton-built South African Railways GL class Beyer-Garratt locomotive is on display in the Museum of Science, in addition to building steam locomotives, Beyer, Peacock & Co. The foundry was at Openshaw near Manchester, England, and was built in 1854, the site was chosen because land was cheaper than in the city and had good water supply from a local reservoir. Beyer had designed the works so it always allowed room for expansion, in its 112-year history no buildings needed to be demolished as the works developed
3.
0-4-0
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Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 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 connected by a gear wheel. The notation 0-4-0T indicates a locomotive of this wheel arrangement on which its water and fuel is carried on board the engine itself. In Britain, the Whyte notation of wheel arrangement was often used for the classification of electric and diesel-electric locomotives with side-rod-coupled driving wheels. The UICs Bo classification for electric and diesel-electric locomotives indicates that the axles are independently motored, the term Four-coupled is often used for 0-4-0 locomotives. Four-wheeled is also used, but this term can also encompass other wheel arrangements. 0-4-0 locomotives were built as tank locomotives as well as tender locomotives, the former was more common in Europe and the latter in the United States, except in the tightest of situations such as that of a shop switcher, where overall length was a concern. The earliest 0-4-0 locomotives were tender engines and appeared as early as c, 0-4-0 tank engines were introduced in the early 1850s. The type was found to be so useful in locations that they continued to be built for more than a century. Richard Trevithicks Coalbrookedale, Pen-y-Darren and Newcastle locomotives were of the 0-4-0 type, the first 0-4-0 to use coupling rods was Locomotion No. 1, built by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825, Stephenson also built the Lancashire Witch in 1828, and Timothy Hackworth built Sans Pareil which ran at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. The latter two later worked on the Bolton and Leigh Railway. A four-wheeled configuration, where all the wheels are driving wheels, the type was therefore mainly used for switchers and shunters. Because of the lack of stability, tender engines of type were only built for a few decades in the United Kingdom. They were built for a period in the United States. The possible tractive effort of an 0-4-0 within normal axle load limits was not enough to large loads. By 1900, they had largely been superseded for most purposes by locomotives with more complex wheel arrangements. They nevertheless continued to be used in situations where tighter radius curves existed or the length was an advantage
4.
Boiler
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A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil, the heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central heating, boiler-based power generation, cooking, and sanitation. The pressure vessel of a boiler is usually made of steel, stainless steel, especially of the austenitic types, is not used in wetted parts of boilers due to corrosion and stress corrosion cracking. In live steam models, copper or brass is used because it is more easily fabricated in smaller size boilers. For much of the Victorian age of steam, the material used for boilermaking was the highest grade of wrought iron. In the 20th century, design practice instead moved towards the use of steel, which is stronger and cheaper, with welded construction, which is quicker and requires less labour. It should be noted, however, that wrought iron boilers corrode far slower than their steel counterparts. This makes the longevity of older wrought-iron boilers far superior to those of welded steel boilers, cast iron may be used for the heating vessel of domestic water heaters. Although such heaters are usually termed boilers in some countries, their purpose is usually to produce hot water, not steam, the brittleness of cast iron makes it impractical for high-pressure steam boilers. The source of heat for a boiler is combustion of any of several fuels, such as wood, coal, oil, electric steam boilers use resistance- or immersion-type heating elements. Nuclear fission is used as a heat source for generating steam, either directly or, in most cases. Heat recovery steam generators use the heat rejected from other such as gas turbine. 18th century Haycock boilers generally produced and stored large volumes of very low-pressure steam and these could burn wood or most often, coal. Flued boiler with one or two large flues—an early type or forerunner of fire-tube boiler, fire-tube boiler, Here, water partially fills a boiler barrel with a small volume left above to accommodate the steam. This is the type of boiler used in nearly all steam locomotives, the heat source is inside a furnace or firebox that has to be kept permanently surrounded by the water in order to maintain the temperature of the heating surface below the boiling point. Fire-tube boilers usually have a low rate of steam production. Fire-tube boilers mostly burn solid fuels, but are adaptable to those of the liquid or gas variety. Water-tube boiler, In this type, tubes filled with water are arranged inside a furnace in a number of possible configurations and this type generally gives high steam production rates, but less storage capacity than the above
5.
Cab (locomotive)
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On steam locomotives, the cab is normally located to the rear of the firebox, although steam locomotives have sometimes been constructed in a cab forward configuration. The former arrangement is now the norm in North America for all types of diesel or electric locomotives, in Europe, most modern locomotives are cab units with two cabs, one at each end. However, the locomotives powering some high speed European trains are normally cab units with one cab, on self-propelled rail vehicles, the cab may be at one or both ends. In addition to the controls, a cab will typically be fitted with windshields, rectangular side windows, crew seats, heating. By about 1850, high speed Crampton locomotives operating in Europe already had a much needed windshield giving some protection to the footplate area, some other early locomotives were even fitted with a cab as part of a rebuilding program, an example being the locomotive John Bull. In Germany, the cab was introduced by the Saxon railway director. However, until 1950 the railway directorates of the German-speaking countries continued to believe that a standing posture was essential to maximise crew vigilance and this unsatisfactory situation changed—with few exceptions—only with the construction of the German standard electric locomotives, which for the first time were equipped with crew seats. Meanwhile, the maintenance of crew vigilance became possible by technical means through the use of Sifa devices, cockpit Control car Control stand Driving Van Trailer Push–pull train This article is based upon a translation of the German-language version as at April 2010
6.
Driving wheel
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On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotives pistons. On diesel and electric locomotives, the wheels may be directly driven by the traction motors. Coupling rods are not usually used, and it is common for each axle to have its own motor. Jackshaft drive and coupling rods were used in the past but their use is now confined to shunting locomotives, on an articulated locomotive or a duplex locomotive, driving wheels are grouped into sets which are linked together within the set
