Differences between US/Continental and British locomotives

[Pyewipe Junction]

I've always been intrigued by the vast difference in appearance between British locos and those of other countries - especially those from the US and Canada and Continental countries such as France and Germany, particularly all the extra plumbing and mysterious appurtenances that those locos normally carried, nearly all of which are missing from British locos.

The only things I can regularly remember spoiling the lines of British locos were Westinghouse brake equipment and certain special-purpose pieces of ironmongery such as air brake pumps for the Tyne Dock - Consett locos.

Was there a reason for this? Were all the pipes, etc still needed on British locos but just hidden? And were locos of other countries easier to service as a result?

[richard]

Comparing like for like (ie. mid-20th Century locomotives), I think the main reasons are that US locomotives tended to be fitted with more accessories, and British designers tended to hide them to make things tidy. For example, British engines often had splashers that incorporated the sand boxes. The US locomotives often had one big flat sand box on top of the boiler. As well as looking like yet another dome-like object, this would then have sand pipes down the side.

Model Railroader March 2007 has an article illustrating what all the bits are. The main example used is the preserved ATSF 4-8-4 No. 3751, built in 1938 by Baldwin.

The Westinghouse units usually appear bigger - both the one illustrated and the one I saw on an (WW1 era) Pershing at the Texas State Railroad.

The 4-8-4 is also fitted with a Worthington feedwater heater. Feedwater heaters were less common in the UK, but experimental fittings usually involved lots of external piping. The heater piping on the 4-8-4 actually looks tidier than the feedwater heater B12s.

A turbogenerator is also fitted for electrical equipment - this is on the top of the boiler. Also rarer on UK locomotives, in a recent thread we found the Peppercorn A1's turbogenerator was partly hidden behind a smoke deflector.

Although not apparant on the 4-8-4, the Pershing also had a back-and-forth pipe network on the side of the boiler. I think I read somewhere that this was for cooling - basically a poor-man's oil cooler. This would be in the mechanical lubricator circuit.


Richard

[Colombo]

Pyewipe,

Both propositions in your last paragraph are quite correct. British engineers did try to hide the bits and pieces underneath, and as a result the locos were more difficult to service. However they were much easier to clean. I would add that British Locomotive Engineers also had a brief to produce an aesthetically pleasing design reflecting a corporate image.

On the other hand, other countries railway companies bought their locos from speciallised manufacturers who built down to a price and so the appearance was less important.

Believe it or not, but this goes all the way back to Victorian prudery!

A ladies legs had to be hidden by skirts and somehow they extended this to locomotives and hid their working parts under splashers.

On the other hand British locomotives fitted with Dabeg water heaters and other such paraphenalia were down right ugly.

Colombo

[Bill6]

Spare a thought for the railways of South Australia, they employed an American Chief Commisioner in the 1920's and went from small British looking 4-4-0s, 4-6-0's to massive 4-8-4's that had features of both British and US practice.

Pre 1920s
F
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/common/sar11.html
Rx
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/com ... 08002.html
Post 1920s
500
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/com ... 7a_25.html
520
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/com ... 21619.html
620
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/com ... 09722.html
700
http://www.railpage.org.au/comrails/com ... 6a_14.html

These locos combine both American and british styles not suprisingly as the commisoner W.A.Webb was American but locos like the 500 class were built in the UK.