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When The Garratt Came To Town !
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 Posted: 19 Nov 2016 09:48 pm
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oztrainz
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Hi all,

HERB ALERT!! Beware incoming Slobber - This topic contains photos of a specific Garratt type locomotive - the former New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) 6029 - at over 100' long and weighing in at over 250 tonnes this is the largest lump of steam locomotive currently running in excursion service under a preservation group anywhere.

The US Challenger and Big Boy may be bigger and heavier, but they are both out of service in late-2016 (and both are run by a Class 1 railroad that can cover some of the operation and maintenance costs). 6029 is run by the all volunteer ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Division of the Australian Railway Historical Society.  

First photo - 6029 arriving at Wollongong station platform from the yard for another of the Wollongong -Scarborough shuttles.




The shuttles operated in top-and-tail mode with the Garratt hauling the train of 7 passenger cars north to Scarborough and 4403


(1957-built 1800HP Alco DL500B "World Series") hauling the train back to Wollongong.

Running at about hourly intervals, with 5 departures on each day, the 'Shuttles" took about 45 minutes for the return journey.

Some History - Prior to last weekend a NSWGR AD60 class Garratt had only been to Wollongong once, in the early 1950's, when the Garratts were new and under trial. Just north of Scarborough there is a single bore tunnel. The union banned the use of these locomotives on this line after someone got the tape measure out and realised that if one of these locomotives "got stuck" in this tunnel, there was no way for the footplate crew to get off the footplate to safety. There was insufficient room between the cab sides and the tunnel wall (only about 4" or so). 

Anyone interested in some more photos? (Down Herb! Down!!):P    



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 Posted: 19 Nov 2016 10:04 pm
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Alwin
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Yep, give us more!

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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 12:35 am
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pipopak
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YES!. WE WANT MORE!!!.
Jose.



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 03:15 am
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Si.archived
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Hi John.

I could just about stand some MORE !! :bg:

Behind the Alco...
...is that a cutting through sandstone, or the like, in the background ?
An interesting feature.

Your local station, I see.

:moose:

Si.



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 03:45 am
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oztrainz
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Hi all,

One of the problems of photographing something THIS BIG


is that some of the detail gets lost. So to bust it up a bit...

Front bunker detail - Rivets anyone?? 1-2-3-4-.....




Boiler unit detail




Rear bunker detail and part of auxiliary water tanker (formerly a fuel tanker)




and the rest of the water tanker




That'll do for this instalment.. :)



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 05:03 am
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Kitbash0n30
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oztrainz wrote: Front bunker detail - Rivets anyone?? 1-2-3-4-.....  :2t:
That is one impressive beast.
Imagine one of them babies built to US loading gauge, Big Boy's big brother?



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 03:55 pm
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Herb Kephart
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Wunnreful, John, just wunnreful!

Thank you!

A most logical design, to get a maximum portion of the the weight on driving wheels--without the extra drag and length of an auxiliary car (when operating under normal service).

The only detriment is the possibility of extra wear on the second ''loco'' unit, caused by airborne dirt kicked up by the front one, The PRR found this to be true on one of their experimental engines. The first Garrett, K1 design, would have negated this--but all units after that were built with the cylinders at the ends-- any theories why?

And Si

That background is judt some beginners way of  dealing with a self-created vertical area of scenery--that's all


Thanks again John, now all I have to do is dry out my shirt!



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 07:38 pm
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Kitbash0n30
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I think one main goal of design was to make room for a bigger boiler than would otherwise be possible within clearances.



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 10:53 pm
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oztrainz
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Hi all,
CAUTION - long wordy reply about some of the technical stuff behind this beast.

For Si,
The background is actually "gunned" concrete coloured to look a bit like sandstone. The underlying surface was sandstone with some shale bands. The softer shale bands spalled away over time and left overhanging sandstone and the bank in danger of collapse.

The shale also softens up when wet, so the small white pipes in the photos are drains that help any water buildup in the shale bands to escape from behind the outer concrete protective layer.

For Herb,
The rear cylinders on K1 were under the cab floor and made for most unpleasant working conditions (even in Tasmania where it does get pretty cold by Australian standards). K1 and K2 were the only "compound" Garratts where the steam was fed from smaller high pressure cylinders and then to larger lower-pressure cylinder, before exhausting up the stack, all the rest were "simple" locomotives, where the steam at full boiler pressure is supplied to all cylinders. The compounding was done at the request of the Tasmanian government to minimise the distances between the cylinders in the steam circuit.

As originally supplied, The AD60's were designed to run with the water bunker leading, Some locomotives including 6029 were later fitted with extra controls to run either way. These units were distinguished by the letters DC (Dual Control) beside the locomotive number on the bunkers. See the first photo. However on branchline service and on some mainlines there were no turning facilities large enough to handle the Garratts, so that they ran one way with the water tank leading and did the opposite journey with the water tank trailing. To see Garratts in action having an "each-way bet", check out this Youtube from about 5 minutes in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK-plM-mgoY.

The ++ code on the other side of the numbers signifies that this loco had been "ballasted up" to increase its tractive effort. From wiki - As originally supplied the AD60 Garratt was designed with a 16 long ton axle load for a tractive effort of 59,560 lbf. This increased the axle load to 18 tons and the tractive effort to 63,490 lbf. This loco also has the extended coal bunker that lifted coal capacity from 14 tons to 18 tons.

Rails in the US were built to far heavier standards than in NSW. Originally the NSWGR Garratts were designed to "go anywhere", including branchlines limited to 16 ton maximum axle loads. Mainline NSWGR standards at the time were less than 20 ton axle loads. Compare this to the Big Boy that weighed in with a 31 ton axle load, designed to run on far heavier rail and track infrastructure such as bridges.

Forrest has it right - a shorter fatter boiler offers better heat transfer than a longer thinner boiler. The boiler suspended between the engine units design allows a bigger fatter boiler to be fitted than for a boiler rigidly fitted to the engine units. Given that NSWGR clearances were a lot tighter than those for US railroads, every inch of boiler diameter counts. :2t:

I figured that if Canberra ARHS was good enough to bring the Garratt to town, then I should be prepared to support them by riding behind it, rather than just freeloading by taking photos. Any one interested in what was outside the carriage windows as we rolled along??



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 Posted: 20 Nov 2016 10:56 pm
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Kitbash0n30
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Yes, am interested.



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 Posted: 21 Nov 2016 12:10 am
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jtrain
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That's a huge garratt engine!  What is it?  (2-10-4)(4-10-2)?



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 Posted: 21 Nov 2016 12:30 am
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oztrainz
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Hi James and all,
It is a 4-8-4+4-8-4 locomotive. The + signifies articulation with 2 separate engine units spanned by the boiler that can pivot on each engine unit, as compared to the Big Boy's designation of 4-8-8-4, with a pivoting leading engine unit and the rear engine unit fixed to the locomotive frames.

I hope that this helps clear things up for you,



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 Posted: 21 Nov 2016 08:57 pm
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Salada
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An excellent looking refurb/rebuild (?); all credit to the ACT volunteers. Built to last by Beyer Peacock at Gorton.

Si: gunned concrete also known as Spraycrete here in Pommieland, but more likely here to be seen on road rather than railway cuttings. We looked at it for the dodgy part of our mine shaft but decided to do the job properly using poured reinforced concrete (no offence to Aussie PW engineers).

Note to U.S. "chimney first" loco engineers : imagine backing THAT up to a rake of passenger cars then setting off on the main line, trying to see the road ahead.

I want to drive it !!

Regards,   Michael

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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 04:52 am
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jtrain
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Thanks for clearing that up John, it's such a big loco it was hard to count the wheels in the photos.  I'm actually surprised that engine doesn't hold the world record for largest, that Garratt has to rival the size of a big boy.

Michael,

Try backing this one up (though the forward view is nice):

http://www.toytrains1.com/images/trains/sp4294.jpg

--James




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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 01:34 pm
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pipopak
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Park-by-ear?
Jose.



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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 03:30 pm
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Helmut
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A cab-forward is in reverse when going forward and when going the other way, it is in forward gear. Confusing -so what does backing mean?



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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 07:26 pm
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oztrainz
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Helmut wrote:
A cab-forward is in reverse when going forward and when going the other way, it is in forward gear. Confusing -so what does backing mean?


Proceeding tender first - "2 cars to go, 1 car to go, 1/2 car to go, ease up dead slow, THUMP, you're there"



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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 08:11 pm
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oztrainz
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jtrain wrote:
Thanks for clearing that up John, it's such a big loco it was hard to count the wheels in the photos.  I'm actually surprised that engine doesn't hold the world record for largest, that Garratt has to rival the size of a big boy.

--James


Hi James and all,
yes the NSWGR AD60 class is the biggest Garratt design ever built in terms of dimensions. in terms of engine-unit wheelbase, the NSWGR Garratt beats the US stuff at 103' versus less than 90' for all of the UP Big Boy, C&0 Allegeny, DM&IR Yellowstone locomotives, however once length of the tender is added, then all these US locomotives are longer than 130' overall length.

I hope that this helps,

Last edited on 22 Nov 2016 11:43 pm by oztrainz



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 Posted: 22 Nov 2016 08:56 pm
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Helmut
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@oz
when shunting with the FR Fairlies, it was easy - just go chimney first....



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 Posted: 9 May 2021 12:28 pm
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Kitbash0n30
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Thought a conversation about Garratts would be a good place to drop this,
which just crossed my path, figuratively, not literally, over on Tumbler,
thought it might be of interest here.

(would be cool if it had literally crossed my path)





Africa Railways - Rhodesia Railways - RR "Beyer Garratt" type 20th Class 4-8-2+2-8-4 steam locomotive Nr. 704 (Beyer Peacock Locomotive Works, Manchester Gorton 7689 / 1954) by Historical Railway Images, on Flickr




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