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A friend of mine who we share common hobby interest, was married to a woman who was the daughter of Lawrence Emmons Buckwalter, who was the son of TV Buckwalter, supposedly the actual inventor of the roller bearing used on rail road car axles attributed to Timken, the company he was working for at the time.  Lawrence was an avid builder of a Lionel empire, with many homemade items, was a stickler for prototype operations, switching and signalling, and used things like order cards to track freight, all back in the 1940's-50 time frame.  I was given one of his creations, the pictured 2-14-2.  It is highly detailed with small items, several hand made.  While Russia thought it could one up the US by making a 14 driver loco, 2 more than UP's 12 driver, the Russian version was a dismal failure compared to the successful UP loco. Hopefully I will be able to get this cleaned and lubricated and back in action.  10 of the drivers are blind, so hoping it will handle my 72 inch curves, but I am sure it will overhang to not allow any passing train on an adjacent track in the curves.

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 Russian locolotive

This is the prototype, Class AA-20.   Wikipedia lists it as a 4-14-4, not a 2-14-2, and is likely correct, since the curved shape that appears under the rear of the steam chest appears to be the second leading wheel.   With only two cylinders, it was definitely under powered, which is why it's recorded top speed was only 43 mph.   

 

Last edited by Dan Fender

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