One for Commander

[chris]

Since I remember you to be something of a fan of old steam powered trains, I by chance had a video camera with me today and caught one on video:

3801 test (http://rpi.racerplanet.com/3801_test.wmv) (windows media 9 format)

Well, maybe I didn't catch it by chance, since I knew it when it would arrive, and the indicator screens said the next train arriving was SPECIAL. It was on it's way down the south-coast of NSW, and would then turn around. It had just been repaired and overhauled after a mechanical failure some time late last year.

And believe me, it was very, very, noisy.

(Excuse the camera movements, the tight confines of a station platform are less than ideal.)

For those of you in Australia who recognise this train, it is indeed now grey (undercoat) and not green anymore.

A little about the subject:

NSW Government Railways C38 Class 3801, streamlined.
Designed by NSWGR Chief Mechanical Engineer Harold Young
Built 1943
Built at Clyde Engineering Sydney (first five)
CYLINDERS (2) 21.5ins x 26ins. (546mm x 660.4mm)
COUPLED WHEEL DIAMETER 69ins. (1,752.6mm)
TOTAL HEATING SURFACE 3,370 square feet. (313m2)
(including superheater)
GRATE AREA 47 square feet. (4.4m2)
BOILER PRESSURE 245 PSI (324kpa)
TRACTIVE EFFORT 36,200lbs. (16,420kg)
TOTAL WEIGHT 201.2 tons (204.4 tonnes)
LENGTH OVERALL 76.5 feet (23,317mm)
Speed: Above 80mph (rumoured to actually be above 110mph).

[Commander]

Awesome thanks Chris! What is the wheel arrangement of that unit anyway? I couldn't really see, but I was guessing it might be a 4-8-4 or a 4-8-2, something like that? Nice engine though, and I can imagine what it sounds like under an enclosed roof!

[chris]

http://www.handlebarandgrille.com/images/3801-10.jpg
http://eureka.m.bigpondhosting.com/news6th.html

Maybe those are better photos and you can see what it is? Not all of them are streamlined, apparently only the first 5 built, the rest looked more conventional. 3 survive today, namely the one on video 3801, 3820 (not in working condition) and 3830. 01 is the only one with streamlining. They were not the biggest to roll on our railways (this was (http://eureka.m.bigpondhosting.com/Garratt.html)), but I think they were the quickest until modern electric and diesel power arrived.

Funny to see the looks on other passengers at the station when this thing came thundering up to the station. ;)

[Commander]

Oddly, it looks like a 2-6-2, something really strange to me, heheh. I had the pleasure of watching CPR 2816 (a 4-6-4 Hudson) roll in last summer, here is a pic (not one I took)

http://www.cprheritage.com/images/photos/2816/a37191.jpg

[chris]

4 wheels at the front I think.

Here is another vid of it taken by someone else as it went through eathcote:

3801 at heathcote (http://www.railpage.com.au/modules/gallery/albums/album08/3801_1_heathcote.avi)

Same day, same journey but here it is moving in quite a hurry.

[TMiller]

I think its a 4-6-2 but did they have any of these. I see the wheel right under where the cylinder is but it might be another part of the locomotive that is painted white.

I don't model much steam except for On30 which is a narrow guage setup (30 inches between the rails) so for the scale you run locos on HO track. I have a 2-8-0, a two truck shay and a climax. They all run on a logging line and the 2-8-0 is used for passenger/light freight.

The last major purchase I made for HO scale were two Santa Fe SD75Ms and one SD75I. I'll post some pictures of them tomorrow. In real life they had 4300HP per loco.

[bogs]

Teej, look a tad closer at the handlebarandgrille.com link in Chris' post. That is a 4-6-2 as Chris and TM suspect. You can see the second pair of fronts if you look very closely just past the pistons, the sky outlines them well.

[Commander]

A Pacific then. Those are fast trains... well, relatively speaking anyway, faster than freight haulers. I run a 2-8-0 Consolidation, a 2-8-2 mikado, amd two 4-8-2 Mountains. I use my wife's E8 to pull the track cleaning car, it works better on a dirty track than the steamers do.

[bogs]

I'd like to see pics of that layout in action :D

[Commander]

My wife has her own railroad, set in winter around a small, relatively modern town. She runs diesel freight on that HO layout, and she is now talking about setting up yet another railroad, only an N scale layout :rolleyes: ... as one can imagine, the house is full of trains. I have my RR in another room set in summer, in a 1920's fashion town near the foothills going into the mountains. I have a video capture feature on my digital camera, I might go down and take some vid shots. The coolest thing in the world was yesterday at the model rail show, a huge layout featured an F3 with a mini cam in the nose. The feed was broadcasted onto a TV where upon viewing, one would swear it was actual video footage of a train trip. The speed of the loco and the proportion of the video shot was so accurate, it was very hard to tell that it was not a real train. I think the only thing that gave it away was the giant humans in the background poking their heads into the display, heheheh.

[chris]

That's unbelievable! :) Usually wives tend to sort of roll their eyes at model railways and other such things. But to actually be in on the whole deal. :eek:

That's amazing. :) I've not been taken by the bug of model railways. Last time I looked in a shop with those sorts of things I nearly had a heart-attack after seeing the prices. :yikes: N scale "ICE" nearly AUD$600! (or was it $800, I can't remember). All I remember is that I was in a state of shock.

Edit: It was probably even more:

http://www.hobbyco.com.au/product/show_item.php?plu=MK39711

:yikes:

[Commander]

Ouch that is steep. You don't need to go all out, however, and get all the most expensive things. If you use DCC, then the locomotives are a bit more money, as are the DCC decoders and sound chips etc. At the moment, I am only using DC, and the locomotives are really cheap; My most expensive one is just under $300, and the others all hover around the $150 mark. I go through locomotives like toilet paper, so I see no reason to spend a lot of money on them, I just get the cheap IHC units. They work well and certainly don't hit you in the wallet too hard.

I am lucky I am married to such an understanding person. My wife shares the same interests as me right across the spectrum. We like the same music, the same cars, same movies and TV shows, we have the same hobbies... it really is rare for wives to be so involved in things like that, and I am thankful, heheh. ;)

[chris]

And this is about as close as I go to model railways: ;)

http://rpi.racerplanet.com/ttd_5682t.gif
It's Transport Tycoon Deluxe with the TTDPatch and the excellent DBSetXL. (simulates the German railways).

The larger of the two trains weighs a modest 5682T. :) With a couple of lovely electric BR182's moving it. :) That's the start of a plan to make a network for larger trains. I'm going to try running less, but larger trains to see if it is more efficient than running more smaller trains.

Two lines are going in each direction with facilities for trains to crossover (with those staggered to prevent traffic jams). The next largest behind that huge train (containers) is a 16 car ICE3 (sleek 206mph passenger train/missile).

[KyzrSoze]

I talked to my friend, Steve, and he pointed to his website for model trains:

Steve's Live Steam Railiroad Page (http://home.comcast.net/~s.wassell/train/train.htm)

This is the site for the club he belongs to in north Georgia. Very cool, check it out.

csme.livesteamtrains.com (http://csme.livesteamtrains.com/)

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/31/31039/folders/16236/137547eprr-north-yard.jpg

[VulcanB2]

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!!!! Forum Software Strikes Again! :( :( :( :(

Try again............ :)

I have 240 photos from when I visited the Doncaster coachworks 150th Anniversary celebrations here in the UK. 5 of the most famous steam locos were sat side-by-side (a unique event on its own) steaming away for what would be the last time ever together in the same country. From the latest information I received (in 2003), two were to leave the country for foreign museums, one was to be decommissioned never to steam again, and two were to be used as specials.

The "Flying Scotsman" had just left the paint shop the day before, having just completed 2 years worth of rennovation work, including extensive work on the boiler. To get the shade of the paint almost exactly as it was originally, they used mass spectronomy on the old paint to make the new. Absolutely incredible attention to detail.

I'll post a few photos here shortly.

Best regards,
Robin.

[chris]

I've since seen the original subject of this topic, "3801" a few more times. It's been on a few passenger carrying tours running at high speed, recreating its former routes when it was in full time service with the government railways.

Hills slow it somewhat compared with modern rail equipment, but on flat sections it can easily keep up with anything else - as people on stations have found as it sped through at full tilt.

The same lot who run this also seem to have acquired electric engine "8644" and are using that 3500kW engine for hauling about 5 or 6 carriages (massive overkill using something that powerful for such a small train) at outrageous speeds. :eek:

Haven't seen it, but heard about it. :)

And the TT game shown above did work nicely, using less, but longer trains does work well. I managed to almost get an efficiency rating of 900.

[TMiller]

A lot of passenger locomotives back in those days had more power at 60-70 MPH then they did at 20-30. The Freight locomotives that had two sets of drivers (4-8-8-4) had a ton of power at 20-30 and didn't have much at 50-60.

The reason for the power increase was the way the steam was used in the cylinder, it made it more efficient at high speeds.

[chris]

And here is a bit of history for those who saw the video:

http://www.fairfaxphotos.com/business/search.php?s=1&ss=railways

That is the same engine that you saw in the video! Note the dates - 1943. It's over 60 years old and still running well.

Here are a couple of the type that no longer exist:
http://www.railpage.com.au/g-album08-v:3803and3806_Eveleigh.htm

Both are identical, except for exterior. Also neat to see the old buildings, especially if you live in Sydney you'll recognise exactly where the photo was taken and see how much it has changed now, despite the old workshops still standing.