NYC Hudson question

thx712517 Aug 28, 2015

  1. thx712517

    thx712517 TrainBoard Member

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    So in Staufer's "Thoroughbreds" about the NYC Hudsons he mentions that the J1 had all the goodies available at the time minus a combustion chamber. It was lacking until the J3a super Hudson. If I remember correctly both the H10 2-8-2 and A1 2-8-4 were equipped with combustion chambers, so why did the J1 lack this feature? No real explanation in the book about it.
     
  2. fitz

    fitz TrainBoard Member

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    Good question, to which I have no answer. The H-10s and A-1s were actually built before the J-1s. One possible explanation was that the freight engines were built by Lima, and they were pioneering the "super power" concept. Alco may have had a different philosophy at the time, such as their 3-cylinder approach. Sure wish Paul Keifer was still alive so we could ask him about his J-1 design. I seem to remember it was quite successful without a combustion chamber, so the J-3 just made it better. I also wish we had one of each to crawl around on today.
     
  3. thx712517

    thx712517 TrainBoard Member

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    That's what surprises me. Central knew about the combustion chamber with their earlier designs, so you'd think their flagship passenger engine would have it from the start. Since they added it on the J3 it seems to negate lack of space as an explanation. I did enjoy reading a bit about the Selkirk front end. Apparently they had a stationary boiler at Selkirk and used it to test draughting ideas. I wish there were more details on what they accomplished.
     
  4. LEW

    LEW TrainBoard Member

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    The NYC was tight with their money sometimes. The chamber cost more when engines went in for repairs. I read where the H-6 mikes went in for boiler
    work the chamber was removed. In the case of the H-10, A-1 it paid off for what the engine was built for. With the Hudson it did what they wanted it to do
    without the chamber, as the engine needed more power the easy way was to add the chamber. This way they made a good engine better without coming out with a new design. LEW
     
  5. fitz

    fitz TrainBoard Member

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    LEW, thanks for your insight and as usual, very astute comments on these subjects. How are you doing, my friend?
     
  6. LEW

    LEW TrainBoard Member

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    Fitz,doing just fine. The Historical Society at Shirley,IN. painted the depot B4 yellow which is almost orange trimmed in white. The depot was built in 1893.
    I worked the color up about 4 yrs.ago and as with everything ,after the depot was painted a farmer was found that has painted his barns this color since
    1939 and has a barn painted the color at this time. The colors are so close a next to match is the only way you can tell the difference. The man is good enough
    to let me a small amount to mix a match. They also have a B4 caboose to rebuild and a speeder motor car that will be rebuilt to look like the ones used around here until about 1960. LEW
     

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