Brainstorming

gtractorfan · Jul 27, 2013

I know this is useless information, but kind of fun to imagine. Thinking about steam engines and the large steam cylinders they had, I thought it would be fun to compare them to hydraulic woodsplitter cylinders. I have a train book that has details about railroad engines. Big Boy (pictures) had 23.75 dia. x 32" stroke cylinders. Using pi r. sq. that means the pistons had 442 sq. in. of surface. The max operating pressure was 300 lbs. Multiply that by 442 and it works out to 66 and a half tons of force on the rod. The driving wheels are 68" dia. which means at 60 mph they'd make 296 revolutions/strokes a minute with equal force each way. Those cylinders could split a lot of wood in a hurry-- if-- you could load 5 logs per second, just using one cylinder working one way (could split each way for 10 a sec)! I try to visualize and wish there were still some of those awesome engines in service.

LarrySTN · Jul 27, 2013

Bad! Think of all the polution and the millions that died during that era. Think of all the exhaust filters and DEF it would take to clean the exhaust from one of these. Think of all the CO2 and the global warming back then. The EPA has fixed or environment and now people live twice the age! Oops couldn't help the sarcasm there. It would be quite enjoyable to see those engines run again, doing what they used to do.

twostepn2001 · Jul 28, 2013

Union Pacific is going to restore one of the "Big Boy" engines.
Big Boy

JF in MI · Jul 28, 2013

It is my understanding that the 4-8-8-4 "Big Boys" were specifically built to pull 5 mile long iron ore trains out of the mountains for the war effort in WW 2. That must have been ugly waiting at a crossing for a slow moving 5 mile long train.

js305 · Jul 28, 2013

In about 1984 or so we took a vacation up into Colorado, just driving and looking, etc. We decided to visit the train museum in Golden, thinking it would take a couple of hours. A day and a half later we finally drove away. I don't know how it is now, but there were several engines there where the visitors could get up in them and really get the feel of them. Probably not that way now. My son, aged 4 at the time, still remembers part of that trip with the trains.

There was one of the big boy engines there then, and I think it was, or could be operational at the time we were there. They had pictures of it being brought in under it's own power.

I can remember, as a ten year old, watching the trains here in Lubbock, Texas, over at the yard where they did maintenance on them and the sounds of them getting moving late at night. Modern trains just roar, not the same.

js305 · Jul 28, 2013

I had a double post and now I'm trying to delete one of them????

Sorry bout that!

gtractorfan · Jul 28, 2013

Thanks for the great news! I didn't dream that was possible. I was thinking, the way our government spends money, I think it would be worthwhile to subsidize (if necessary, better if it can be done privately) for posterity to have one of those operating for future generations to see, they might not believe their eyes! If they run that occasionally I'll have to put that on my "bucket list" of things to see!

WGM · Jul 28, 2013

The steam engine with the most HP was the Pennsylvania Railroad Class Q2, 4-4-6-4, 8000 HP. Too bad none were saved.

Brainstorming

gtractorfan

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LarrySTN

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twostepn2001

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JF in MI

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js305

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js305

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gtractorfan

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WGM

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