Re: Thought exercise - steam VFT

[david <david@nmit.vic.edu.au>]

using steam as you specified David B, and considering a TGV style route made 40+
years ago, I'd wonder how our express locos of the day ( C38 NSW  & VR "S" or
even "H","R")
would travel. I suppose I'm asking what could these locos do if they could run on
the speedrail route ( for exanple ) - not pulling a long heavy train either ?

Would they have a dramatic time saving compared to the present route ? I realise
they would not be running 130km+ - but back then such a proposal would have been
considerd a "VFT" !

Regards,
David Head


David Bromage wrote:

> David Bennetts (davibenn@pcug.org.au) wrote:
> > A steam locomotive with cylinders has been found to be limited to 126.5
> > miles per hour (Mallard, LNER) - even then damage was done to the bearings.
>
> That's a factor of the number of wheel revolutions per second. Remember
> the later 9F 2-10-0 was capable of 90mph, which equated to about 4
> revolutions per second.
>
> > Possibly you could make the driving wheels a little larger, but that would
> > introduce new problems.
>
> That's part of it. Think about GWR's Hurricane.
>
> Cheers
> David