by Allen Hazen
My wife just bought a collection of "Thomas the Tank Engine" stories for some children we know, leading to a dinner-table conversation about BoCo.
One of the bits of history that gets repeated about the Class 28 (five axle: Co-Bo) locomotives is that they were used in pairs of a particular fast freight run. Does anybody know: when so used, were they
--coupled B end to B end
--coupled C end to C end
--operated elephant style
--randomly coupled?
(I have found one photo of a pair on a passenger train: coupled at their B ends. But I don't know if this was standard practice. Given the bits of scuttlebutt about various 4-axle and 6-axle locomotive types, I would ***guess*** that the engineman's ride would have been more comfortable with the C end leading, but I don't ***know*** this for certain, and I don't know how much attention BR paid to locomotive drivers' comfort!)
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Their engines -- two-stroke Crossley V-8s -- were problematic. (The locomotive builder, Metro-Vick, used the same engines on the Class A diesels, 01-061, for the Irish railways: these locomotives were re-engined with EMD diesels. Apparently some thought was given to re-engining BR's Class 28 ... leading to interesting alternative history speculations!) The engine type had been suggested by Bulleid: I assume he, as motive power chief of CIE, made the suggestion to Metro-Vick. Why, I don't know, but a speculative hypothesis would be that, as an innovative railroad mechanical engineer, he was aware of what was going on overseas, and had noticed the successful use of two-stroke diesels in locomotives in the U.S. EMD might not, at that stage, have been keen on the idea of providing engines (or engine blueprints) to other builders to use with non-EMD electrical equipment, so an alternative two-stroke was sought. The Crossley engine ran (full speed) at 625 rpm, significantly more slowly than the EMD 567, so I assume it had correspondingly bigger cylinders. (When the Irish A class were re-engined, their 8-cylinder Crossleys were replaced with 12-cylinder EMDs.). My guess is that they weren't very similar to the EMD engine in detailed design.
One of the bits of history that gets repeated about the Class 28 (five axle: Co-Bo) locomotives is that they were used in pairs of a particular fast freight run. Does anybody know: when so used, were they
--coupled B end to B end
--coupled C end to C end
--operated elephant style
--randomly coupled?
(I have found one photo of a pair on a passenger train: coupled at their B ends. But I don't know if this was standard practice. Given the bits of scuttlebutt about various 4-axle and 6-axle locomotive types, I would ***guess*** that the engineman's ride would have been more comfortable with the C end leading, but I don't ***know*** this for certain, and I don't know how much attention BR paid to locomotive drivers' comfort!)
---
Their engines -- two-stroke Crossley V-8s -- were problematic. (The locomotive builder, Metro-Vick, used the same engines on the Class A diesels, 01-061, for the Irish railways: these locomotives were re-engined with EMD diesels. Apparently some thought was given to re-engining BR's Class 28 ... leading to interesting alternative history speculations!) The engine type had been suggested by Bulleid: I assume he, as motive power chief of CIE, made the suggestion to Metro-Vick. Why, I don't know, but a speculative hypothesis would be that, as an innovative railroad mechanical engineer, he was aware of what was going on overseas, and had noticed the successful use of two-stroke diesels in locomotives in the U.S. EMD might not, at that stage, have been keen on the idea of providing engines (or engine blueprints) to other builders to use with non-EMD electrical equipment, so an alternative two-stroke was sought. The Crossley engine ran (full speed) at 625 rpm, significantly more slowly than the EMD 567, so I assume it had correspondingly bigger cylinders. (When the Irish A class were re-engined, their 8-cylinder Crossleys were replaced with 12-cylinder EMDs.). My guess is that they weren't very similar to the EMD engine in detailed design.