Amazing power generated by a small engine. Thanks for sharing
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That's not actually power--tractive effort is about pulling force. A locomotive designer could increase tractive effort simply by using smaller driving wheels. Basically, it's lower gearing. Of course there are practical limits, like factor of adhesion (weight on drivers divided by tractive effort), but presumably here of the 122,500 lbs, > 100,000 lbs was on the drivers, so the factor of adhesion was 5+, which is plenty for most purposes. The old rule of thumb--at least for road locomotives, not sure whether this applied to switchers--is that the factor of adhesion should be 4 or a little more. Of course with a tank locomotive like this one (or a Garratt locomotive), as the water gets used up, the factor of adhesion decreases.
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Thank you for the information. Stands to reason as the water level drops, there is less weight on the drivers reducing the adhesion...still amazing early technology...
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