1.
Kitson and Company
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Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The company started in 1835 as James Kitson at the Airedale Foundry, off Pearson Street, Hunslet, Todd had been apprenticed to Matthew Murray at the Round Foundry in Holbeck, Leeds. Initially, the firm made parts for other builders, until it was joined in 1838 by David Laird, a farmer who was looking for investments. That year saw the production of the companys first complete locomotives, either for the North Midland or the Liverpool, however, Todd left almost immediately to form Shepherd and Todd, and the company was known variously as Kitson and Laird or Laird and Kitson. The order for six engines by the Liverpool and Manchester began with 0-4-2 Lion, around 1860, it was withdrawn from service and sold to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, where it was jacked-up off its wheels and used for pumping water. In 1930 it was restored and remains in preservation at the Museum of Liverpool, in 1842, Laird, who not receiving the financial return he expected, left the partnership. Kitson was then joined by Isaac Thompson and William Hewitson, the company becoming Kitson Thompson and Hewitson, in 1851 the company exhibited an early tank locomotive at The Great Exhibition, and was awarded a gold medal. In 1858 Thompson left and the firm became Kitson and Hewitson, then, finally, Kitson, from 1855 many Indian railways became major customers. From 1866 Kitsons produced a large proportion of the Midland Railway double-framed goods engines designed by Matthew Kirtley, at some time prior to 1884 the factory employed Charles Algernon Parsons OM KCB FRS who was engaged in building rocket-powered torpedoes. After leaving Kitsons, the brilliant Parsons went on to invent the Steam Turbine, in 1886 Kitsons assisted its representative E. Jeffreys in the preparation of five designs for the Victorian Railways, each with standardised components which were interchangeable between the classes. The locomotives were a large 0-6-0 and a suburban 2-4-2T, the Kitson designs influenced the Victorian Railways for many years. Kitson built an order of 4-6-0s for the Cordoba Railway in Argentina during 1889-91. From 1876 to 1901 the firm built over 300 steam tram engines and steam railmotor units. An innovation was the locomotive design proposed by Robert Stirling based on the Meyer locomotive. The first three were built in 1894 for the Anglo-Chilian Nitrate & Railway Company in Chile, with two in 1903 for Rhodesia and three in 1904 for Jamaica, over 50 were built, some 2-8-8-0 and 2-8-8-2, the last being in 1935. There were also some 0-8-6-0s designed for rack railway working in the Andes, Kitsons were busy during World War I but trade dropped off in the 1920s. The experimental Kitson-Still 2-6-2T steam diesel hybrid locomotive, combining power with internal combustion, was tested on the London. This hauled revenue-earning trains for the LNER but Kitsons could not afford to develop it into a viable form
2.
Whyte notation
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The notation counts the number of leading wheels, then the number of driving wheels, and finally the number of trailing wheels, groups of numbers being separated by dashes. Other classification schemes, like UIC classification and the French, Turkish and Swiss systems for steam locomotives, in the notation a locomotive with two leading axles in front, then three driving axles and then one trailing axle is classified as 4-6-2. Articulated locomotives such as Garratts, which are two locomotives joined by a common boiler, have a + between the arrangements of each engine. Thus a double Pacific type Garratt is a 4-6-2+2-6-4, for Garratt locomotives the + sign is used even when there are no intermediate unpowered wheels, e. g. the LMS Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2. This is because the two units are more than just power bogies. They are complete engines, carrying fuel and water tanks, the + sign represents the bridge that links the two engines. Simpler articulated types such as Mallets, have a frame under a common boiler where there are no unpowered wheels between the sets of powered wheels. Typically, the frame is free to swing, whereas the rear frame is rigid with the boiler. Thus a Union Pacific Big Boy is a 4-8-8-4, four leading wheels, one group of eight driving wheels, another group of eight driving wheels and this numbering system is shared by duplex locomotives, which have powered wheel sets sharing a rigid frame. No suffix means a tender locomotive, T indicates a tank locomotive, in European practice, this is sometimes extended to indicate the type of tank locomotive, T means side tank, PT pannier tank, ST saddle tank, WT well tank. T+T means a tank locomotive that also has a tender, in Europe, the suffix R can signify rack or reversible, the latter being Bi-cabine locomotives used in France. The suffix F indicates a fireless locomotive, other suffixes have been used, including ng for narrow-gauge and CA or ca for compressed air. In Britain, small diesel and petrol locomotives are classified in the same way as steam locomotives. This may be followed by D for diesel or P for petrol, thus 0-6-0DE denotes a six-wheel diesel locomotive with electric transmission. Where the axles are coupled by chains or shafts or are individually driven, thus 4wPE indicates a four-wheel petrol locomotive with electric transmission. For large diesel locomotives the UIC classification is used, the main limitation of Whyte Notation is that it does not cover non-standard types such as Shay locomotives, which use geared trucks rather than driving wheels. The most commonly used system in Europe outside the United Kingdom is UIC classification, based on German practice, in American practice, most wheel arrangements in common use were given names, sometimes from the name of the first such locomotive built. For example, the 2-2-0 type arrangement is named Planet, after the 1830 locomotive on which it was first used, the most common wheel arrangements are listed below
3.
0-6-2
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The type is sometimes known as a Webb or a Branchliner. While some locomotives with this arrangement had tenders, the majority were tank locomotives which carried their coal. Finland used two classes of 0-6-2T locomotive, the Vr2 and the Vr5, the Vr2 class was numbered in the range from 950 to 965. Five of them are preserved in Finland, no.950 at Joensuu, no.951 at Tuuri, no.953 at Haapamäki, no.961 at Jyväskylä, the Vr5 class was numbered in the range from 1400 to 1423. No.1422 is preserved at Haapamäki, between 1890 and 1898, four 0-6-2 tender locomotives were placed in service by the Cape Copper Company on its 2 ft 6 in gauge Namaqualand Railway between Port Nolloth and Ookiep in the Cape Colony. Acquired to meet the needs of the upper mountainous section of the line. The first three of these locomotives were described as the Clara Class, while the fourth was included in this Class by some. Between 1900 and 1905, six more Mountain type 0-6-2 tender locomotives were placed in service by the Cape Copper Company, later described as the Scotia Class, they were similar to the earlier Clara Class locomotives, but with longer boilers, longer fireboxes and larger firegrates. In 1892 and 1893, the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek placed twenty 3 ft 6 in Cape gauge 0-6-2T locomotives in mainline service, since the railway classified its locomotives according to their weight, these locomotives were known as the 40 Tonners. Three classes of 600 mm gauge 0-6-2 locomotives were supplied to German South West Africa between 1904 and 1908, in 1904, the Otavi Mining and Railway Company acquired fifteen tank locomotives from Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik in Germany. Two of them survived to be taken onto the South African Railways roster in 1922 and they were never classified and were referred to as the Jung locomotives. Ten Class Ha tank locomotives were supplied by Henschel & Son in 1904, one survived the First World War into the SAR era. Fifteen Class Hb tank locomotives were supplied by Henschel between 1905 and 1908, the last six locomotives were delivered as tank-and-tender engines, equipped with optional coal and water tenders. Six of them survived into the SAR era, in the United Kingdom, the type was only ever used for tank engines and was first used by William Barton Wright of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1880. The arrangement was soon used by F. W. Webb of the London. Many locomotives of type were also used to haul coal in the South Wales Valleys by the Great Western Railway. J. Billinton between 1894 and 1904, the Great Eastern Railway Class L77 of 1914, designed by Alfred John Hill. The Great Northern Railway N1 and N2 Classes, designed by Nigel Gresley between 1906 and 1921, Gresley later improved upon the GER class with various versions of his London and North Eastern Railway N7 class, built between 1925 and 1928
4.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
5.
Cylinder (locomotive)
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The cylinders of a steam locomotive are the components that convert the power stored in the steam into motion. Cylinders may be arranged in different ways. On early locomotives, such as Puffing Billy, the cylinders were often set vertical, the next stage, for example Stephensons Rocket, was to drive the wheels directly from steeply inclined cylinders placed at the back of the locomotive. Direct drive became the standard arrangement, but the cylinders were moved to the front, the front-mounted cylinders could be placed either inside or outside. The reason for this difference is unclear, from about 1920, outside cylinders became more common in the UK but many inside-cylinder engines continued to be built. Inside cylinders give a stable ride with less yaw or nosing. Some designers used inside cylinders for aesthetic reasons, the demand for more power led to the development of engines with three cylinders or four cylinders. As the cylinders are double-acting this gives four impulses per revolution, on a three-cylinder engine, two arrangements are possible, cranks set to give six equally spaced impulses per revolution – the usual arrangement. For a given tractive effort and adhesion factor, a locomotive of this design will be less prone to wheelslip when starting than a 2-cylinder locomotive. Outside cranks set at 90 degrees, inside crank set at 135 degrees and this arrangement was sometimes used on three-cylinder compound locomotives which used the outside cylinders for starting. This will give evenly spaced exhausts when the engine is working compound, two arrangements are also possible on a four-cylinder engine, all four cranks set at 90 degrees. With this arrangement the cylinders act in pairs, so there are four impulses per revolution, most four-cylinder engines are of this type. Pairs of cranks set at 90 degrees with the pair set at 45 degrees to the outside pair. This gives eight impulses per revolution and it increases weight and complexity, by requiring four sets of valve gear, but gives smoother torque and reduces the risk of slipping. This was relatively unusual in British practice but was used on the SR Lord Nelson class, such locomotives are easily distinguished by their exhaust beats, whicb occur at twice the frequency of a normal 2- or 4-cylinder engine. The valve chests or steam chests which contain the slide valves or piston valves may be located in various positions, if the cylinders are small, the valve chests may be located between the cylinders. For larger cylinders the valve chests are usually on top of the cylinders but, in early locomotives, the valve chests are usually on top of the cylinders but, in older locomotives, the valve chests were sometimes located alongside the cylinders and inserted through slots in the frames. This meant that, while the cylinders were outside, the valves were inside, there are many variations in the location of the valve gear
6.
Valve gear
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It can also serve as a reversing gear. It is sometimes referred to as the motion, in the simple case, this can be a relatively simple task as in the internal combustion engine in which the valves always open and close at the same points. A further benefit may be obtained by admitting the steam to the cylinder slightly before front or back dead centre and this advanced admission assists in cushioning the inertia of the motion at high speed. Instead, a system of eccentrics, cranks and levers is used to control a D slide valve or piston valve from the motion. Generally, two simple harmonic motions with different fixed phase angles are added in varying proportions to provide a motion that is variable in phase. A variety of mechanisms have been devised over the years. Both slide and piston valves have the limitation that intake and exhaust events are fixed in relation to each other, lap is provided on steam edges of the valve, so that although the valve stroke reduces as cutoff is advanced, the valve is always fully opened to exhaust. However, as cutoff is shortened, the exhaust events also advance, the exhaust release point occurs earlier in the power stroke and compression earlier in the exhaust stroke. Early release wastes some energy in the steam, and early closure also wastes energy in compressing an otherwise unnecessarily large quantity of steam and these inefficiencies drove the widespread experimentation in poppet valve gears for locomotives. Intake and exhaust poppet valves could be moved and controlled independently of each other, a very late British design, the SR Leader class, used sleeve valves adapted from internal combustion engines, but this class was not a success. In stationary steam engines, traction engines and marine engine practice, in stationary engines trip valves were also extensively used. Valve gear was a field of invention, with probably several hundred variations devised over the years. However, only a number of these saw any widespread use. They can be divided into those that drove the standard reciprocating valves, those used with poppet valves, slip-eccentric - This gear is now confined to model steam engines, and low power hobby applications such as steam launch engines, ranging to a few horsepower. The eccentric is loose on the crankshaft but there are stops to limit its rotation relative to the crankshaft, the engine is pushed forwards to put the eccentric in the forward gear position and backwards to put it in the backward gear position. There is no control of cutoff. These included the Teutonic, Greater Britain and John Hick classes, gab or hook gear - used on earliest locomotives. Allowed reversing but no control of cutoff, one component of the motion comes from a crank or eccentric
7.
Railway coupling
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A coupling is a mechanism for connecting rolling stock in a train. The design of the coupler is standard, and is almost as important as the gauge, since flexibility. The equipment that connects the couplings to the stock is known as the draft gear. The different types of coupling do not always have formal or official names and these couplings followed earlier tramway practice but were made more regular. The vehicles are coupled by hand using a hook and links with a turnbuckle that draws the vehicles together, in Britain, this is called a screw coupling. Vehicles have buffers, one at each corner on the ends and this arrangement limits the slack in trains and lessens shocks. The earliest buffers were fixed extensions of the frames. This coupling is still the standard in European countries, the link-and-pin coupling was the original style of coupling used on North American railways. After most railroads converted to semi-automatic Janney couplers, the link-and-pin survived on forestry railways, while simple in principle, the system suffered from a lack of standardisation regarding size and height of the links, and the size and height of the pockets. The link-and-pin coupler consisted of a body that received an oblong link. During coupling, a worker had to stand between the cars as they came together and guide the link into the coupler pocket. Once the cars were joined, the employee inserted a pin into a hole a few inches from the end of the tube to hold the link in place. This procedure was exceptionally dangerous and many brakemen lost fingers or entire hands when they did not get out of the way of the coupler pockets in time. Many more were killed as a result of being crushed between cars or dragged under cars that were coupled too quickly, brakemen were issued with heavy clubs that could be used to hold the link in position, but many brakemen would not use the club, and risked injury. The link-and-pin coupler proved unsatisfactory because, It made a connection between the cars, with too much slack action. There was no design, and train crews often spent hours trying to match pins. Crew members had to go between moving cars during coupling, and were injured and sometimes killed. The links and pins were often pilfered due to their value as scrap metal, john H. White suggests that the railroads considered this to be more important than the safety issue at the time
8.
Tractive force
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In railway engineering, the term tractive effort is often used synonymously with tractive force to describe the pulling or pushing capability of a locomotive. The published tractive force value for any vehicle may be theoretical—that is, the term tractive effort is often qualified as starting tractive effort, continuous tractive effort and maximum tractive effort. The product of μ and m is the factor of adhesion, Starting tractive effort, Starting tractive effort is the tractive force that can be generated at a standstill. This figure is important on railways because it determines the maximum weight that a locomotive can set into motion. Maximum tractive effort, Maximum tractive effort is defined as the highest tractive force that can be generated under any condition that is not injurious to the vehicle or machine. In most cases, maximum tractive effort is developed at low speed, due to the relationship between power, velocity and force, described as, P = vF or P/v = F tractive effort inversely varies with speed at any given level of available power. Continuous tractive effort is often shown in graph form at a range of speeds as part of a tractive effort curve, the period of time for which the maximum continuous tractive effort may be safely generated is usually limited by thermal considerations. Such as temperature rise in a traction motor, specifications of locomotives often include tractive effort curves, showing the relationship between tractive effort and velocity. The shape of the graph is shown at right, the line AB shows operation at the maximum tractive effort, the line BC shows continuous tractive effort that is inversely proportional to speed. Tractive effort curves often have graphs of rolling resistance superimposed on them—the intersection of the rolling resistance graph, once in motion, the train will develop additional drag as it accelerates due to aerodynamic forces, which increase with the square of the speed. Drag may also be produced at speed due to truck hunting, if acceleration continues, the train will eventually attain a speed at which the available tractive force of the locomotive will exactly offset the total drag, causing acceleration to cease. This top speed will be increased on a due to gravity assisting the motive power. Tractive effort can be calculated from a locomotives mechanical characteristics, or by actual testing with drawbar strain sensors. Power at rail is a term for the available power for traction, that is. An estimate for the effort of a single cylinder steam locomotive can be obtained from the cylinder pressure, cylinder area, stroke of the piston. The torque developed by the motion of the piston depends on the angle that the driving rod makes with the tangent of the radius on the driving wheel. For a more useful value an average value over the rotation of the wheel is used, the driving force is the torque divided by the wheel radius. Modern locomotives with roller bearings were probably underestimated, european designers used a constant of 0.6 instead of 0.85, so the two cannot be compared without a conversion factor
9.
Union of South Africa
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The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of four previously separate British colonies, Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony and it included the territories formerly part of the Boer republics annexed in 1902, South African Republic and Orange Free State. The Union of South Africa was a dominion of the British Empire and it was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with the Crown represented by a governor-general. The Union came to an end when the 1961 constitution was enacted, on 31 May 1961 the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth, under the new name Republic of South Africa. Unlike Canada and Australia, the Union of South Africa was a state, rather than a federation. A bicameral parliament was created, consisting of a House of Assembly and Senate, during the course of the Union the franchise changed on several occasions always to suit the needs of the government of the day. Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg were given financial compensation, the Union initially remained under the British Crown as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. With the passage of the Statute of Westminster in 1931, the Union and other dominions became equal in status to the United Kingdom, the Monarch was represented in South Africa by a Governor-General, while effective power was exercised by the Executive Council, headed by the Prime Minister. Louis Botha, formerly a Boer general, was appointed first Prime Minister of the Union, heading a coalition representing the white Afrikaner, prosecutions before courts were instituted in the name of the Crown and government officials served in the name of the Crown. Some extremist Nationalist organisations, like the Ossewa Brandwag, openly supported Nazi Germany during the Second World War, the Afrikaner-dominated Government consequently withdrew South Africa from the Commonwealth. Natal, which had an English-speaking majority, voted against, following the referendum result, some whites in Natal even called for secession from the Union. Five years earlier, some 33,000 Natalians had signed the Natal Covenant in opposition to the plans for a republic, subsequently the National Party Government passed a Constitution that repealed the South Africa Act. The features of the Union were carried over with little change to the newly formed Republic. The decision to transform from a Union to Republic was narrowly decided in the referendum, the South Africa Act dealt with race in two specific provisions. Second it made native affairs a matter for the national government, the practice therefore was to establish a Minister of Native Affairs. Several previous unsuccessful attempts to unite the colonies were made, with proposed political models ranging from unitary, Sir George Grey, the Governor of Cape Colony from 1854 to 1861, decided that unifying the states of southern Africa would be mutually beneficial. He believed that a united South African Federation, under British control and his idea was greeted with cautious optimism in southern Africa, the Orange Free State agreed to the idea in principle and the Transvaal may also eventually have agreed. However, he was overruled by the British Colonial Office which ordered him to desist from his plans and his refusal to abandon the idea eventually led to him being recalled
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