Daito Railway

[Nick_Burman]

On 3/14/2020 at 1:09 PM, marknewton said:

The loco was built by Porter. An example of their builder's plate:

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

Yes, it's a Porter. But the real interest in the loco for me is from a technical point - the engine has its firebox mounted directly over the rear axle, with the valve gear mounted "in reverse" - the eccentrics were placed on the front axle. This was in variation of normal practice for locomotives with four driving wheels, firebox behind the rear axle and eccentrics on the rear axle itself. Porter built several locos with this arrangement, mostly for contractors and industrial users. I saved the picture mostly as "ammo" against the "it ain't prototype" crowd but wanted to know where it actually ran.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ben_issacs]

Nick,

Yes, an interesting arrangement of valve gear, probably to get the eccentrics away from the heat of the firebox and its possible deleterious effect on the lubrication thereof.

Regards,

Bill

 

[railsquid]

21 hours ago, Nick_Burman said:

 

It's a very big mystery for someone like me whose knowledge of Japanese can be resumed to about half a dozen kana... for a moment I actually thought this railway was one of Oita Kotsu's rail operations.

 

 

Ah sorry, my comment was referencing the post previous to mine.

[marknewton]

On 3/18/2020 at 8:12 PM, Nick_Burman said:

But the real interest in the loco for me is from a technical point - the engine has its firebox mounted directly over the rear axle, with the valve gear mounted "in reverse" - the eccentrics were placed on the front axle. This was in variation of normal practice for locomotives with four driving wheels, firebox behind the rear axle and eccentrics on the rear axle itself.

Baldwin also built locos with this arrangement of valve motion. My steam tram motor has the eccentrics on the leading axle, because the rear axle is surrounded by the ashpan. The Daito Porter would have the same arrangement. I'd take a guess that the intention was to minimise the overall length.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited March 19, 2020 by marknewton

[marknewton]

9 hours ago, ben_issacs said:

Yes, an interesting arrangement of valve gear, probably to get the eccentrics away from the heat of the firebox and its possible deleterious effect on the lubrication thereof.

Bill, see my reply to Nick. The rear axle on the Daito Porter passes through the ashpan. Can't have the eccentrics in there! 😉

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[ben_issacs]

Thanks, Mark.

 

How would they clean the ashpan?

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

[marknewton]

Through the door at the back. I'll take a photo of the steam tram's ashpan, which will explain it better than I can in words.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[ben_issacs]

Mark,

 

Thanks for that info, never given much thought to steam tram motors, obviously they would require some variation in the layout of the Stephenson gear.

Looking forward to seeing the tram motor's ashpan arrangement.

 

Regards,

Bill.