ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) (02/21/84)
I didn't see the National Geographic special, but the locomotive Kenn Goutal is asking about would be a Garratt. This is a form of articulated steam locomotive where there are two driving bogies (trucks), each with its own cylinders, and the boiler is slung between them. A Garratt can handle curves (which abound in South Africa, being a hilly, narrow-gauge country) much better than any other form of steam engine of comparable size, because it doesn't have a long rigid wheelbase (or a long boiler like a Mallet [pronounced Mallay], the form of articulation principally used in the USA); and since there are no wheels under the boiler, there can be a very deep firebox. On the other hand you have to have two flexible joint carrying live steam to the cylinders, whereas Mallets only need one and non-articulated engines have none. Garratts were originally intended for use on very small lines; I think the first one built was an 0-4-0+0-4-0 (i.e. 4 driving wheels on each bogie and no other wheels). But they were eventually built as large as 4-8-4+4-8-4. I have seen it reported by a reliable writer that the two engine units would synchronize their beats as the engine proceeded, and by another reliable writer that this is a myth. Mark Brader
goutal@decvax.UUCP (Kenneth G. "Kenn" Goutal) (02/26/84)
I missed the part of the Geographic special about the Big Boy. However, I've been catching up on the Great Railways of the World series; tonight they showed the segment on the one in South Africa. They had some *very* strange-looking steam locos. There was one variety that looked like an ordinary 4-8-2, with an ordinary-looking nose, but then another section that looked like maybe a boiler with 4-8-0 wheel arrangements under it -- stuck on the front! This front section looked rather like a WWI tank or something. It was fared-in in a way that looked meant to repel shells, and was totally missing all the usual domes, smokestack, bells, running lights and even a headlight! The other variety I saw -- at least I thot I saw it -- had the appearance of, er, a Shay? Only huge! I saw leading and trailing wheels, but didn't see any driving wheels! Or if I did, they were only on a strange nose section as described above. Anybody know anything about these? -- Kenn (decvax!goutal)
jis@hocsd.UUCP (03/26/84)
>From your description it appears that you are talking of the famous
Beyer-Garrats that are used by SAR and EAR even today. SAR ordered them in
fourteen classes of five wheel arrangements and two gauges. From 1924 to
1968 more than 400 Garrats were built for SAR by nine different European
companies - mostly German. Among the earlier Garrat series and for many
years the most numerous class was the 65 4-6-2+2-6-4 built by Hanomag,
Henschel and Maffei between 1927 and 1928. The one that you described
however, seems to be a later model 4-8-2+2-8-4, probably a GO class.
Incidentally, Garrats had also been used for a short while on the Indian
Railways, in the form of the N class 4-8-2+2-8-4. However, the Garrats
never really caught on in India as they did in Africa.
Jishnu Mukerji
AT&T Information Systems
Holmdel NJ