Strangest Steam Locomotive

How about the UP's steam turbine-electric locomotive set of the late 1930's? The ones with the "inverted bathtub" styling?

Les

Most would probably disagree, but I'm gonna go with Central Pacific's C.P. Huntington, which was a 4-2-4.

I don't remember what it was called, but the PRSL had a 4-4-0 that had its four drive wheels resting on two four-wheel carriages, each in turn resting on two six-wheel carriages. I think the design was to spread out the weight. Except for the engine sitting higher, and the front of the engine shimmed up upon the pony truck, the loco appeared to be normal. Maybe someone has a pic of it. The design had the drive wheels going forward, the set under them going backward, and the bottom set rolling forward. Kind of a Rube Goldberg-looking affair.

GSC wrote:I don't remember what it was called, but the PRSL had a 4-4-0 that had its four drive wheels resting on two four-wheel carriages, each in turn resting on two six-wheel carriages. I think the design was to spread out the weight. Except for the engine sitting higher, and the front of the engine shimmed up upon the pony truck, the loco appeared to be normal. Maybe someone has a pic of it. The design had the drive wheels going forward, the set under them going backward, and the bottom set rolling forward. Kind of a Rube Goldberg-looking affair.

You're referring to the Holman Locomotive. Developed in the 1880's, this design wasn't based on sound engineering practices but turned out to be a stock scam for the developers. Follow the link and scroll down to "Holman's Absurdity":

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/odcuri.Html

More information here:

http://www.scripophily.net/hollocspeedt1.html

And here:

http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO ... holman.htm

ek2179 wrote:or the "streamlined" 4-8-0 switchers of the N&W . . .

Centurylover68 wrote:I've never seen a streamlined 4-8-0 switcher. What does it look like?

The 1100 was one of two (the other was 1112) 4-6-0's converted into experimental switchers by the N&W..
they began as "standard" 4-6-0's, and were converted in 1947 and 1948 into class M2 "automatic" switchers..

More photos and info:

http://bodwyn.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/3468/

http://nwhs.org/archivesdb/listdocs.php ... pe=Picture

Scot

Add B & O's duplex drive George Emerson to the list complete with British stlye toggle and dart smokebox door fastner,watertube firebox and rearward facing rear engine.

Thanks, Aa3rt, the Holman was what I was thinking of.

I have Sinclair's book listing these fun freaks. Somewhere in the nether reaches of my attic.

A number of posts have mentioned Douglas Self's website for weird steam locomotives. It has moved; a currently operable URL is:
http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/ ... coloco.htm

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Not American, so off-topic, but I've always been partial to the Listowell & Ballybunyan Light Railway. This was a Lartigue-system monorail (with-- monorails tend not to be as simple as they sound-- three rails in its track). Its steam locomotives had two boilers, mounted (for balance) side-by-sidewith the driving wheels between them.

A better URL (this one to a version that is still being updated) is
http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/locoloco.htm

Enjoy!

Allen Hazen wrote:A number of posts have mentioned Douglas Self's website for weird steam locomotives. It has moved; a currently operable URL is:
http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... coloco.htm

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Not American, so off-topic, but I've always been partial to the Listowell & Ballybunyan Light Railway. This was a Lartigue-system monorail (with-- monorails tend not to be as simple as they sound-- three rails in its track). Its steam locomotives had two boilers, mounted (for balance) side-by-sidewith the driving wheels between them.

Somebody built a live-steam model of the Lartigue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiB__3O3ly0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So I saw the Holman Horror was mentioned on this thread. I just so happened to make a mini documentary about it. Happy Halloween!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APJUNs6MCZs