Re: [Vic] West Coaster 15/7 Sat

[James Brook <ajmbrook@ozemail.com.au>]

Stuart Thyer wrote:
>
> It is unknown exactly what caused the failure, possibly the piston nut
> working loose and striking the cylinder cover. For those with a copy of
> Hudson Power who remember the photo of R 748? after dropping the main
> connecting rod, the damage is similar, except much more has been damaged. R
> 711 can be expected to be out of service for a considerable amount of time,
> parts are thin on the ground.

I just looked at Hudson Power and I noticed this statement, "Various
members of the class were known to lose the wedge bolt in either the big
or little end of the connecting rod and punch out the front of the
cylinder." If this is the case then there may be a design flaw with the
loco. Would increasing the power of the loco increase the stresses on
the motion gear and then increase the risk of this sort of problem
occuring? WCR also run it at 115kph every week, which definitely
wouldn't help. Hopefully this sort of thing won't happen to R761 or R707
because they are used a lot less than R711. BTW, the page of the photo
and the above statement is 120 if anyone's interested.

-- 
- James Brook -

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