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Reversing Gear
Reversing gear is a mechanism used to both control the direction of travel of a steam locomotive and adjust its engine's steam cutoff. Reversing lever The most common form of reversing gear uses a lever to engage (known as a ''Johnson bar'' in the United States) mounted parallel to the direction of travel on the driver’s side of the cab. It is controlled by a handle and sprung trigger at the top, and pivots at the bottom to pass between two notched sector plates. The reversing rod, which connects to the valve gear, is attached to the lever either above or below the pivot in an alignment that gives good leverage. A square pin is arranged to engage with notches cut in the plates and holds the lever (and valve gear) in the desired position when the trigger is released. The advantages of this design are that change between forward and reverse gear can be made very quickly (as is needed in, for example, a shunting engine). Limitations and drawbacks The reversing lever has a cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vincent Raven
Sir Vincent Litchfield Raven, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE (3 December 1859 – 14 February 1934) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the North Eastern Railway (UK), North Eastern Railway from 1910 to 1922. Biography Vincent Raven was born the son of a clergyman at Great Fransham rectory in Norfolk and educated at Aldenham School in Hertfordshire. In 1877 he began his career with the North Eastern Railway as a pupil of the then Locomotive Superintendent, Edward Fletcher (engineer), Edward Fletcher. By 1893 he had achieved the post of Assistant Mechanical Engineer to Wilson Worsdell who was then the Locomotive Superintendent. In this post he was involved for the first time with an Railway electrification system, electrification project, as the N.E.R. was electrifying the North Tyneside suburban route in 1904. This was a third rail system at 600 volts DC. Steam locomotives In 1910 he became Chief Mechanical Engineer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
PRR K4s
The Pennsylvania Railroad K4 was a class of 425 4-6-2 steam locomotives built between 1914 and 1928 for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), where they served as the primary mainline passenger steam locomotives on the entire PRR system until late 1957. Attempts were made to replace the K4s, including the K5 and the T1 duplex locomotive. However, the low factor-of-adhesion of K5s meant that they were limited in their pulling power. By contrast, the T1s were more powerful but suffered from greater maintenance costs, wheel slip due to poor springing, and inexperienced crews. The T1s were also introduced late into the lifetime of steam locomotives. As such, the tried and tested K4s held their role as the PRR's primary express passenger locomotives for 30-40 years. The K4s hauled the vast majority of express passenger trains until they were replaced by diesel locomotives. The K4s were not powerful enough for the heavier trains they often pulled from the mid-1930s onward, so they wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railway locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, Eddystone in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete when demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima Locomotive Works, Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation. The company has no relation to the E.M. Baldwin and Sons of New South Wales, Australia, a builder of small diesel locomotives for sugar cane railroads. History: 19th century Beginning Matthias W. Baldwin, the founder, was a jeweler and whitesmith, who, in 1825, formed a partnership with machinist David H. Mason, and began making bookbinders' tools and cylinders for calico printing. Baldwin t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Articulated Locomotive
An articulated locomotive is a steam locomotive (rarely, an electric locomotive) with one or more engine units that can move independently of the main frame. Articulation allows the operation of locomotives that would otherwise be too large to negotiate a railroad's curves, whether mainlines or special lines with extreme curvature such as logging, industrial, or mountain railways. Articulated locomotives saw service in many nations, but were very popular on narrow-gauge railways in Europe. The largest examples were developed in the United States, where the Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4s and the Allegheny H-8 2-6-6-6s were some of the largest steam locomotives ever built, with Big Boy 4014 remaining as the largest, and last of its kind, to still operate. Many schemes for articulation were developed over the years. Of these, the Mallet locomotive and its simple-expansion derivative were the most popular, followed by the Garratt type (mostly built in the United Kingdom, popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Servomechanism
In mechanical and control engineering, a servomechanism (also called servo system, or simply servo) is a control system for the position and its time derivatives, such as velocity, of a mechanical system. It often includes a servomotor, and uses closed-loop control to reduce steady-state error and improve dynamic response. In closed-loop control, error-sensing negative feedback is used to correct the action of the mechanism. In displacement-controlled applications, it usually includes a built-in encoder or other position feedback mechanism to ensure the output is achieving the desired effect. Following a specified motion trajectory is called servoing, where "servo" is used as a verb. The ''servo'' prefix originates from the Latin word ''servus'' meaning slave. The term correctly applies only to systems where the feedback or error-correction signals help control mechanical position, speed, attitude or any other measurable variables. For example, an automotive power win ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled carefully when applied to feedback systems: History Self-regulating mechanisms have existed since antiquity, and the idea of feedback started to enter economic theory in Britain by the 18th century, but it was not at that time recognized as a universal abstraction and so did not have a name. The first ever known artificial feedback device was a float valve, for maintaining water at a constant level, invented in 270 BC in Alexandria, Egypt. This device illustrated the principle of feedback: a low water level opens the valve, the rising water then provides feedback into the system, closing the valve when the required level is reached. This then reoccurs in a circular fashion as the water level fluctuates. Centrifugal governors were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tap (valve)
A tap (also spigot or faucet: see usage variations) is a valve controlling the release of a fluid. Nomenclature United Kingdom * Tap is used in the United Kingdom and most of the Commonwealth for any everyday type of valve, particularly the fittings that control water supply to bathtubs and sinks. United States * Faucet is the most common term in the US, similar in use to "tap" in British English, e.g. "water faucet" (although the term "tap" is also used in the US). * Spigot is used by professionals in the trade (such as plumbers), and typically refers to an outdoor fixture. * Silcock (and sillcock), same as "spigot", referring to a "cock" (as in stopcock and petcock) that penetrates a foundation sill. * Bib, bibcock, or hose bib, usually a freeze-resistant version of a "spigot". * Wall hydrant, same as "hose bib". * Tap generally refers to a keg or barrel tap, though also commonly refers to a faucet that supplies either hot or cold water and not both. It also appears ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Oliver Bulleid
Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (19 September 1882 – 25 April 1970) was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway (UK), Southern Railway between 1937 and the 1948 nationalisation, developing many well-known locomotives. Early life and Great Northern Railway He was born in Invercargill, New Zealand, to William Bulleid and his wife Marian Pugh, both British immigrants. On the death of his father in 1889, his mother returned to Llanfyllin, Wales, where the family home had been, with Bulleid. In 1901, after a technical education at Accrington Grammar School, he joined the Great Northern Railway (Great Britain), Great Northern Railway (GNR) at Doncaster at the age of 18, as an apprentice under Henry Ivatt, the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME). After a four-year apprenticeship, he became the assistant to the Locomotive Running Superintendent, and a year lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Southern Railway (UK)
The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the Railways Act 1921, 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the English Channel, Channel ports, South West England, Seaside resort#British seaside resorts, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR).Bonavia (1987) pp. 26–28 The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway. The railway was noted for its astute use of public relations and a coherent management structure headed by Herbert Ashcombe Walker, Sir Herbert Walker. At , the Southern Railway was the smallest of the Big Four (British railway comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Harry Smith Wainwright
Harry Smith Wainwright (16 November 1864 – 19 September 1925) was an English railway engineer, and was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1899 to 1913. He is best known for a series of simple but competent locomotives produced under his direction at the company's Ashford railway works in the early years of the twentieth century. Many of these survived in service until the end of steam traction in Britain in 1968, and are regarded as some of the most elegant designs of the period. Biography Wainwright was born at Worcester on 16 November 1864, the third son of William Wainwright. In 1896, he was appointed Carriage & Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern Railway (SER), in succession to his father. On 1 January 1899, the SER entered into a working union with the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR); their respective Locomotive Superintendents, James Stirling and William Kirtley, both retired, and the ne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
