Any Garratt fans?

virtual-bird Aug 21, 2005

  1. virtual-bird

    virtual-bird TrainBoard Member

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  2. Chris333

    Chris333 TrainBoard Supporter

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  3. Grey One

    Grey One TrainBoard Supporter

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    I think they are ugly brutes but I love the techi aspect to it and would have at least 2 if they were relyable and I could
     
  4. LongTrain

    LongTrain Passed away October 12, 2005 In Memoriam

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    While I think any Garratt is way cool, the little teakettle class Garratts are just too cutesy for me. I have a Shay for that, and one is plenty.

    I do like the big South African 4-6-4+4-6-4's, and the other big Garratts of the "Rhodesia" and Zimbabwe rails. 4-8-2+2-8-4's are brutes, and I'm sure a "Red Devil" would sell out quickly on the international market. I know I'd sell other stuff to raise the money to buy one!

    My favourite is the AD60-class on the New South Wales, though. An Ozzie Big Boy [​IMG] - a 4-8-4+4-8-4! Now there's a brute!

    Dennis Rittson's RailPage album is the place to go for great action shots. Here is the 6029 at Forbes:

    [​IMG]

    Yeah, I love the big African Garratts, but I like the ozzie garratts more.

    There were 4 of the AD60's preserved. They were the first with such superpower advances as massive cast steel engine beds, with integrally cast cylinders. Dude? A 4-8-4 under each end of the boiler?

    Designed to drag coal over the Blue Mountains, the light axle loading also made them at home on lighter rail in the wheat fields, and their flexibility made them useful on all kinds of other goods traffic. With a 4 foot 7 inch wheel, they could get up and run, too.

    You can have your UP "Big Boy".....'Druther have an AD60, any day.

    EDIT: And to answer a question from last week, here is your prototype for a loco with "truck-mounted couplers".... :D There is a hook-em-up on the outward end sill of both of the engine beds, and they both pivot under the girders of the main frame. :cool:

    [ August 21, 2005, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: LongTrain ]
     
  5. traingeekboy

    traingeekboy TrainBoard Member

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    Very interesting. You should post that in the international railways section of trainboard. There is a pretty lively dialogue over there these days.
     
  6. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    I love those Garratts, they exude POWER! :eek:
    They were what the ERIE Triplex should have been if it had been designed thirty years later with better steaming capability. :cool:
     
  7. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    We had some garratts here in the UK, but we also built hundreds of 'em for other countries, especially South Africa.

    The SAR ones are awesome! [​IMG]
     
  8. virtual-bird

    virtual-bird TrainBoard Member

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    Like this? [​IMG]
    http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/agarratts.htm

    Plans to make one in 1,5" scale 7.5" Gauge

    http://www.livesteaming.com/AD60%20Garratt%20Construction.htm


    want one in HO
    http://www.djhengineering.co.uk/loco/prodloco.asp?ProdID=3321
    1240 UK Pounds!!!

    Specs on them here
    http://www.skyrocket.de/locomotive/data/nswgr_ad60.htm

    Another HO model
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    [ August 21, 2005, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: virtual-bird ]
     
  9. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Garretts are fine. My impression, just from those seen in video, is when rolling down the line, they look "busy." Like something is really happening!

    :D

    Boxcab E50
     
  10. William Cowie

    William Cowie TrainBoard Member

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    I grew up in South Africa with those brutes around us all the time. Of course, at the time we just took them for granted, and considered them ungainly LOL

    It's interesting that mallets were popular in the USA and not many other places, while the reverse is true for the Garratts. Both achiEve the same goal, articulation, but in totally different ways.

    By the way, LT, the Red Devil is not a Garratt.

    [​IMG]


    It started life as a Class 25C 4-8-4. The Class 25C had massive tenders that took the exhaust steam and condensed it back to water to be re-used. This allowed the loco to keep hauling its express passenger through the desert without stopping for water. Retrieved something like around 80% of the water, IIRC.

    In time the recycling gear was removed and the tenders replaced with either vandy-type tenders on the very long C tender chassis, or simply replaced by more normal tenders. The Red Devil is one of the latter. It's a unique loco, and sufficnetly different from the Class 25 that they created a new class just for the one loco, hence the Class 26 designation.

    Those 25C's are in my humble little book flat-out the most beautiful locomotives ever built.

    [​IMG]

    The Santa Fe 4-8-4's are the closest US approximation, and they'll do in a pich [​IMG] but they ain't 25C's! :D
     
  11. LongTrain

    LongTrain Passed away October 12, 2005 In Memoriam

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    Ah yes, the SAR class 25 banjo-faced condenser locos, some of whose tenders were longer than the part with the cab, cylinders and drive wheels. I didn't know about the class 26. I thought it was a 25NC.....

    Sorry 'bout that. Memory is not what it used to be.......

    There was at least one class of African Garratt where several were done up in crimson and lined out and lettered in regal gold, and another pair that received royal blue paint.

    The red ones I was thinking of were EAR "Class 59" 4-8-2+2-8-4 #5928, "Mount Kilimanjaro", #5904, Mount Elgon, and #5916, "Mount Rungwe". Perhaps other 59's also wore that deep, blood red, but I only have picures of those 3.

    I have no picture of the pair of Rhodesian Railways (RR) Class 15's that got the royal (blue) treatment for a visit from the British Royal Family in 1947, nor do I have their numbers. I do believe they were original "15th series" locomotives of the double-Hudson type: 4-6-4+4-6-4. For the later 15A class, a number were constructed by Franco-Belge in France. Evidently the post-war Garratt business was so good, it outstripped Beyer-Peacock's capacity....

    Franco-Belge also constructed a number of 231-132BT class "double-Pacifics", both for the PLM, and for the Algerian State Railways (CFAE). In the one picture I have, these appear to be silver-gray above the catwalks, and dark gray or perhaps brown below. Like the RR and EAR locos, they also had semi-streamlined tanks, but more cylindrical than wedge-shaped.

    Thanks for the correction..... [​IMG]

    [ August 22, 2005, 01:41 AM: Message edited by: LongTrain ]
     
  12. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    William, I also love the 25C and the 15F - and most other SAR locos!

    I seriously considered building a South African layout some years ago, but could not decide on the scale/gauge, as there was virtually nothing available. I collected quite a bit of information including some basic drawings of several locomotives.

    But never got around to making a start, which I have regretted several times since. :(
     
  13. William Cowie

    William Cowie TrainBoard Member

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    Alan, now that you've decided to model in HO that's a much more viable option. There are several nice Garratt brass kits available in "that" scale... :D
     
  14. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yeah William, but I was never sure what to do on the scale/gauge ratio. SAR trains run on 3' 6" track, so most models are compromises. :(
     
  15. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    3' 6"? I didn't know that. What little footage I have seen on video, the gauge looks broader. Anyone have a good web site for some history, etc. Guess I need to learn a little more!

    :D

    Boxcab E50
     
  16. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A lot of the SAR locomotives were built here in the UK (also some in Germany). They ran 10ft wide locos on 3'6" gauge track :eek:

    If you can get to see a head-on shot, you will clearly see the 'narrow' gauge. [​IMG]
     
  17. William Cowie

    William Cowie TrainBoard Member

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    You're right, but there's a South African model shop that sells these kits for either standard HO or HOn36. (The former is fudged and the latter is "true") Unfortunately, when I changed computers I lost his URL. But I remember telling my wife that even though it's HO, a Garratt like that would sure look nice on my desk :D
     
  18. LongTrain

    LongTrain Passed away October 12, 2005 In Memoriam

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    African steam info, including documentation of operational survivors, and specs and images is out there.

    I can't provide an exhaustive list, but I used my Advanced Search Google-ator with "African Steam loco photo" as the query. Here are some of the better results:

    Steam in Africa 2005

    Bill Wood's South African Steam Page

    South African Steam in 1980

    ProRail AED Collection - South African Steam

    Steam in Kenya

    If you like these, use Google's Advanced search and look for African Steam Loco Photo, and you will have a couple hundred more to browse.

    Happy hunting!

    Bob Woods
     
  19. William Cowie

    William Cowie TrainBoard Member

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  20. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Bob-

    Thanks! I'll check out those links.

    :D

    Boxcab E50
     

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