SP/SSW The birth of a 1:1 steam locomotive

Carl Sowell Aug 3, 2021

  1. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    sd90ns,

    Yes, that is an air horn seen above left compressor. I do not know, for sure, but I have always thought they were piston pumps. They sounded like those on the cabforwards and wheezed with each stroke. Not sure if they were steam powered, in all the pictures I have which includes all 12 engines, there is no evidence of steam exhaust or leaks on the front of loco.
     
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  2. sd90ns

    sd90ns TrainBoard Member

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    Carl,

    If not steam, then what? Electric?
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Steam. The photos in your posts #7 and #14 clearly show the pipes into and out from those duplex pumps.
     
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  4. fitz

    fitz TrainBoard Member

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    Magnificent looking locomotives from Lima, they just exude power. Thanks for this thread, Carl.
     
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  5. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    Here are the final 4, lots of detail.

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    Be well,
    Carl
     
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  6. sd90ns

    sd90ns TrainBoard Member

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  7. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    sd90,

    cool picture. We've come a long way baby!
     
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  8. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    "Dang! I keep forgetting that gauge is in the lower LEFT, not lower RIGHT of the "dashboard"!

    :D

    Doug
     
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  9. sd90ns

    sd90ns TrainBoard Member

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    If you think about it, the steam locomotive was the first piece of real "Technology" most people ever came into contact with.
    Prior to the steam engine/locomotive pretty much everything that people used or encountered was a version of something that had been around forever in one form or another.

    George Washington could travel overland no faster than an Egyptian Pharos from 3,000 BC, then suddenly . . .
     
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  10. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    But think of the technologies that had to be developed prior to being able to generate the idea of harnessing steam to provide power for a method of travel.
     
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  11. sd90ns

    sd90ns TrainBoard Member

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    Metallurgy is the first thing that comes to mind a "science and technology" literally millennium in the making and spread across half the world.
    The steam engine and the locomotive pretty much came instantly and out of nowhere when compared to the above.

    It has been pointed out more than once that there has been more technological development and scientific discovery in the last 150 years than in the previous history and pre-history of mankind.
    The first steam locomotives showed up in the 1820's and we were on the moon less that 150 years later.

    This has also boon pointed out to be at the heart of many of humanities problems. We had 100,000 years as a "Hunter gatherer" and a few decades of "Being able to blow ourselves up".

    We simply haven't had nearly enough time to evolve into it.
     
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  12. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    Our societal conventions have yet to catch up to the frontiers that our grasp of technology has moved society into.
     
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  13. Doug Gosha

    Doug Gosha TrainBoard Member

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    Of course, somebody had to discover wood and coal burns and that water turns into a gas when it gets hot enough.

    Doug
     
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  14. sd90ns

    sd90ns TrainBoard Member

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    It's not simply "societal conventions" that haven't kept up, our brains and basic thinking patterns haven't evolved enough to handle modern society brought about by technological advancement.

    It is the equivalent of running bleeding edge software on a TRS-80.
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2021
  15. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    That would be safer - TRS-80 would not have the storage space for the software let alone the computational power to make the software do anything.
     

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