4-6-4 vs. 2-8-4 question.

hello guys and gals.........

the santa fe # 5011 class 2-10-4 has axle load of 77,400 pounds per driver and 380,300 pounds on 5 driver axles per (www steamlocomotive.com) but i added it up and should be 387,000 pounds (77,400 times 5 = 387,000) .

the woman who loves toy trains

Tiffany

Evidently I missed your boiler explosion question, or I didn't go back far enough.

Care to repeat it?

EdKing

I understand that the DM&IR jennies you talked about were smaller because the iron ore was so very heavy much more so than coal that a smaller car was more able to stand the pounding of the trip. Also there is an article I read about the M4`s and M3`s being loaned to the D&RG and doing stupendous things in the tracks of the rocky mountains with steep grades. 

Let's see:  PRR owned stock in N&W, so Philly had to know what they were building.  Why didn't they buy fron N&W?  Or at least used their blueprints?

Or a oil fired cab foreward Y on Donner Pass!

Schuman: In regards to the DM&IR 2-8-8-4's loaned out to the Rio Gande during the winter months of WW II, they, in most likelihood, did nothing more then the Rio Grande's own L131/L132 2-8-8-2's, which were extremely powerful locomotives. In fact, when constructed (1927 + 1930), they were the most powerful locomotives in the world. One of the Missabe Yellowstones lost her air (#224) coming down the Big Ten curves, and turned over. All the Rio Grande locomotives were equiped with LeChatelier water brakes, wherein a bit of boiler water was admitted into the cylinders and was compressed, creating a braking dynamic. Missabe #'s 224 and 225 were the last DM&IR Yellowstones to run - on fantrips the same day, July 3, 1961. I had the good fortune to be on the 224's trip.

Ed King: It would be hard to evaluate the profit performance of the Missabe articulateds, as the Missabe was a wholey owned subsidiary of US Steel, and don't believe an annual report was issued for the company. Now I will bet they were capable of producing greater gross ton miles per trip, but also bet the Missabe didn't turn them as rapidly as the N&W and get them back on the road producing more ton miles. Also, the Missabe's profile was perhaps more conducive to higher tonnage trains. So, maybe 6 of 1, half dozen of another?

Tiffany,

The 5011 Class has a total of 380,300 lbs on the drivers.  This figure is based on the railroad's locomotive diagrams, so it's about as solid a number as you can get.  The main driver (#3 axle) has 77,400 lbs, or something close to that.  The copy diagram I have is not very legible.  Each driving axle is different from the others.  As a result, the average weight per driving axle is 76,060 lbs, but no given axle has exactly  that much weight on it.

Mark S: Thanks for the great info, I would loved to have been on one of those last fantrips trips of the Yellowstone, something I don`t think I would ever forget . It is interesting to me that those massive locomotives are usually not a part of the chatter of railfans, when they were clearly one of the  behemoths of the steam world. I do understand there is one in very good shape that could be made to run.

Thanks

Bob Schumann

Too bad there never was a "steam off" between these engines.

Sure, Ed.. Thanks!

My question was about 1204's boiler explosion after the wreck at Nolan. 

 If the engine was laying on it's side, how could putting the injector on cause the explosion? Would the injector still be able to prime enough to get some cold (relatively) water into the boiler??

Dave

Hello feltonhill.......

Thank you for clearing this up as it made more sense now .

the woman who loves toy trains

Tiffany

The 1204 explosion is covered, with photos, in the book on the A.  But it was not lying on its side; it was upright with its nose down the fill.

For a little while.

EdKing

Thanks, Ed. I'll have to re-read that part, I thought it was on it's side... Makes sense now.