Atlantic Coast Line R-1 4-8-4's

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'd think that N&W's K-3 counterbalancing problems were far more a factor in 
lessons learned when designing the J than anything that occurred on the ACL 
with their Baldwin R-1's (or any other non-N&W designed locomotive for that 
matter).

Ed Painter Jr ; Narrows, Va (currently Russellville, AR)


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 7:12 PM
Subject: Atlantic Coast Line R-1 4-8-4's



> Hi All,

>

> Just joined the list after running across the archives of this list and 

> the thread a couple of months ago on the ACL R-1 4-8-4's.

>

> I won't by any means try to say that the R-1's were equal to the N&W's J's 

> in power, but I do want to correct a point that was made against them.

>

> Much has been made of the 1800's poor counter-balancing, but it should be 

> noted this was in their as-built configuration.  The locomotives were 

> balanced to the latest AAR guidance at the time they were built, but this 

> guidance was found to be woefully incorrect for modern steam power. 

> Baldwin and the ACL spent a considerable amount of time diagnosing the 

> problem and as a result removed a significant amount of counter-balance 

> material from the drivers of the 1800's which corrected this fault. 

> Arthur Bixby briefly mentioned his experiences with the road-testing of 

> the 1800's in his "Trains" article on the New Haven 4-6-4's.

>

> After these modifications, the 1800's were officially rated for 90 MPH in 

> passenger service on the ACL's Richmond to Jacksonville mainline. Later, 

> some of the 1800's were fitted with Timken light weight pistons, piston 

> rods, crossheads, and main rods (which evidently had friction bearing big 

> ends and roller bearing wrist pins).  This was priobably an effort to 

> improve the balance of the R-1's even further.

>

> It seems pretty certain that the N&W's design team paid close attention to 

> the counter-balancing problems with the ACL 1800's, and made certain to 

> learn from the ACL's lesson.  I think it's fair to say that the success of 

> the N&W J's is at least in part owed to the ACL R-1's.

>

> For any of you interested in the ACL R-1's, I have a webpage on them at:

>

> http://home.earthlink.net/~steamloc/

>

> Good Steaming,

> Hugh Odom

> The Ultimate Steam Page

> http://www.trainweb.org/tusp

> ________________________________________

> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

> To change your subscription go to

> http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list

>