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Thanks for posting that! You simply can NOT watch too much video on the South African Railways 4-8-4s, especially the Red Devil. There are many more excellent videos of the Red Devil on YouTube, especially when she was in regular freight service, between Kimberly and DeAre (sp). That fantastic poppet valve exhaust sound is truly wonderful.
I got acquainted with The Red Devil trough Wardale's fascinating book"The Red Devil and Other Tales From The Age of Steam" It turned my head around as far as what constitutes narrow gauge steam. To me she looks like a Niagara and those smoke lifters give her that jutting prow, a red coat of paint and she's become my perennial favorite.
I agree, I can't get enough of her and that poppet valve music.
Id buy a model in any scale if I could find one. I second that fascination with SAR 4-8-4 types.
Have you watched South African Class 25s: The Final Years? Put out byVidrail. If you havent seen it, you'd love it.
She looks like she is in need of a little TLC in this video.
There is a lot of steam leaking from the piston rod packing for both the pistons and the valves.
I can't resist one more for good measure..around the 2:40 mark, she sounds like a steam powered sewing machine.
Yes, she is a leaky old teapot. I also have been interested in South African steam since I picked up a copy of the book South African Steam Safari and its associated video, back in the 90s. Very interesting locomotives and operations.
Sure about the poppet valves? On the closeups, it looks like conventional Walschaerts to me. I believe the valve gear and piston valves were considerably improved over the Class 25s, though
Originally Posted by feltonhill:
Sure about the poppet valves? On the closeups, it looks like conventional Walschaerts to me. I believe the valve gear and piston valves were considerably improved over the Class 25s, though
Right you are, and I stand corrected. She SOUNDS like "poppet valves", but with her improved/modified valve gear and new design piston valves, her exhaust sound changed a bit over the rest of the 25C/25NC class 4-8-4s.
Anyone know if this Class 25 3454 was scrapped? I was unaware of it.
"Following Wardale’s departure from the SAR, the Beaconsfield shops carried out a minimal modification on an NBL built ex Class 25 condenser, number 3454 that had been converted to a free exhausting non condensing Class 25NC named "BI Ebing".
Modifications on this locomotive consisted mainly of equipping it with a dual Lempor exhaust system and extending its smoke deflectors upwards and curved around the smokebox. In order to save the cost of extending the smokebox, the chimneys were installed side by side instead of in tandem like on the earlier Wardale locomotives. Apart from the blastpipe and chimneys, no other modifications were incorporated.
The modified no. 3454 was put to work in February 1985. Results as reported by locomotive crews and shed staff were noticeable savings in coal and water consumption compared with a standard Class 25NC, although the amounts were never quantified. The locomotive was also noticeably more sure-footed than the Class 26, which tended to slip every time it started.
A video:
