Steamer Size Surprise

SHOWOFF!

Rats, ya got me Mario. I was about to steal your idea and take a new avatar photo of myself standing in front of all of them too 

Seriously though the Y6b is practically a dwarf, thanks mainly to those relatively tiny drivers. Just never thought twice about it.

I don't think the y6 is "big" the same way that a bigboy or allegheny is big. The y6 however is arguably one of the most powerful.....of course.

If you compare your y6 to your class j just below it,  to their prototypes, the y6 is only 8 feet longer than the J. Your models appear to reflect that.

Heres the j dimensions.  http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/?page=nw

Heres the y6.  http://www.steamlocomotive.com/chesapeake/?page=nw

Seaboard Air Line had a variety of turntables, from 54' to 105'.  The TT in Portsmouth was only 68' and the longest wheelbase engine they could turn was their class P 4-6-2 Pacifics.  I've often wondered what did they do with their larger engines and I finally found a US topo map that showed they had a Wye at the east end of the yard.

Here's a link to these maps for the US:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/t...89938261050::NO:RP::

Nice display Nick   I've seen photos of men standing besides the drivers of a steamer and either the men were of short stature, or the photos give you an idea of the massive size of the locos.

What was the largest wheel diameter on a steamer?  Seaboard had 72" wheels on their class P Pacifics.

Very nice display.

 Thank you,

Mike 

Ha your lucky you dont have a PRR S1 Duplex.. There just over 36"long!..Longest model steam engine also world largest real steam engine that was ever built...That in would make your other steamer look like dwarfs.

I have alot of big steam including a Sunset 2-rail Y6b.  It is not that long as the engine had 57" drivers.  My Virginian 2-10-10-2 is even shorter because of the little tender.  This has 56" drivers and reflects the early 1900s philosophy of high tractive effort at the expense of horsepower or speed.  The Y6b weighed roughly 300 tons engine alone and was a real puller at low speeds as well, while the Virginian AE weighed 342 tons-engine alone.  The N&W Jawn Henry was over 161 long-just engine and tender (not including the auxiliary water tender).  The engine alone was 112 feet long and weighed 818,000 lbs!.  I am getting a Sunset 2-rail one in June and I am not sure where I will put it on my shelf because my shelves barely contain the Big Boys (33 inches long).

Nice display, Nick.

As you said, tender size is often the determining factor in length. My SF 2-10-4 used every millimeter of length on my turntable while a cab forward had a bit of room to spare. Even when all are full scale, articulateds didn't always have the greatest overall length.

Jim

I have a relatively small layout, 13' X13' in my garage, and I can just about get all of the articulateds to run on a 6-6.5 ft radius track.  Forget about a roundhouse on this tiny layout.  The Jawn Henry will have to sit in a separate carrying case in the dining room! 

Here are the overall lengths and actual wheelbases of the N&W locos as stated by the N&W;

Class J:

Over pulling faces - 109' 2 1/4" 

Wheelbase  - 95' 4 3/4"

Y6b:

Over pulling faces - 114' 10 1/2"

Wheelbase - 103' 8 1/4"

Class A:

Over pulling faces - 121' 9 1/4"

Wheelbase - 108' 3 1/4"

Once again, I have to take exception with the way Steve has listed his information in the link above for the Y6/Y6b. There he states that the overall wheelbase of the Y6b is a full 11' longer than the Y6. I believe he has used the figure for the overall length of the Y6b instead of the actual wheelbase.

Any minor differences in length/wheelbase would come from differences in type of tender and/or type of trucks used on the tenders. For example, Commonwealth trucks have a wheelbase 4" shorter than Buckeye trucks.

Thank you for a very interesting thread.  You have a great collection.  And you inspired me to actually go measure my scale locos for length to compare then. 

The most satisfactory steam locos for me are those that are around 27 inches (tender and loco combined) - big enough to have some "gravitas" and yet they don't have too much boiler stick-out on 72" curves (or, for O-54 locos, on 54). 

As far as I know, the longest O-gauge steamer is a scale PRR S-1 (35.5 inches).  I have one on order - it will be too large to look good but I'll run it a bit and I want it to display.   I've posted a few pictures below of my "power wall" display to show the size of some of the biggest versus others.  I included the big UP Turbines because they were designed with tenders, too, and more important, were designed at the end of the steam era, when RRs were still trying to put all the power eggs in one basket by making gigantic locos - before the modular multi-diesel concept" took over.  I've included the longest diesel I have, the DD35, at 22.5 inches for comparison.  The longest locomotive single thing (unit between couplers) I have is the central unit of the coal turbine, at 24.5 inches.

Lee - I see you have a Beep helper getting ready to push that turbine. Sometimes you need just a little more power.

I love BEEPS, but can't leave them alone and end up modifying most.  That shown is one of only four I have that are unmodified: put there because I was running out of shelf space and the Veranda didn't leave a lot for anything else.  I have about twenty BEEPS altogether but most have been bashed or modified, etc.  Delightfully fun locos.

Nick and Lee:

Outstanding display cases.....and contents.  Very well done!

I noticed something comparable when I finally obtained a Lionel UP FEF (in black) a few months ago.  My UP 844 is almost the same length as my Lionel Nickel Plate 2-6-6-2 Mallet.  And yes - a lot of that difference is due to the Tender....but the loco isn't too far off either...and the 54" vs 80" drivers make for some additional contrast. 

It drives home the point that the 844 was capable of going up and over the Rocky, Wasatch, and Sierra Nevada mountains....haulling passengers or freight equally well.  In contrast, NKP 941 and bretheren hauled long but slow coal trains through the northern Appalachians or headed up freight trains on the relatively level coast line of Lake Erie.  Different use/application, different time, different locomotive.....all part of the evolution of the steam engine.

Along the same lines of what Lee mentioned, I don't really run the 2-6-6-2 that much.  The engine overhang just looks odd on my O-72 curves, IMHO.  But I do think that the loco might look cool on a dynamic running base in my office.

The 844 does seem a bit cramped on the 0-72 curves but I'm enlarging my layout to O-96 soon (I hope.)  There are a number of videos on YouTube where guys are actually HighBalling their 844s on O-96 curves at what seem to be 60 scale MPH or more...and everything seems "right".

My scale NKP Berks by Lionel and MTH both seem right at home on O-72 curves. 

My diesels and scale NKP & NYC Hudsons see the inner loop with O-63 curves most often.

Personally, I enjoy running the scale 2-8-4s and 4-8-4s the most.....not that I don't enjoy some variety now and then.

Diamond Scale OT 105 turntable.  Weaver Pennsy M1b long haul tender.

Nice display cases. Nick, where did you get yours? Or did you make it yourself? Thanks.