Gölsdorf axis
The Gölsdorf-axle assembly is a combination of frame-fixed bearing Lokomotiv axes around and side shiftable axes, wherein a rigid, one-piece frame a wear - and noise cornering allow.
Previously, the designer achieved cornering ability with weakening of the wheel flanges, in rare cases even with a middle wheel set without wheel flanges. That was enough on main and branch lines with up to four-coupled locomotives, but not for tight curves on a narrow-gauge railway or with five-couplers. The Gölsdorf side shift was not applicable to narrow-gauge locomotives that had to travel through arcs with radii down to 35 meters with 5 coupled wheel sets.
The invention of the Austrian locomotive builder Karl Gölsdorf dates from the end of the 19th century. In 1900, the kkStB's 180 series freight locomotive was the first locomotive based on this design principle.
Locomotives were given more and more axles as the demands on the weight of freight trains increased. In order not to place excessive strain on the track construction, the axle loads were often limited, initially to 16 tons, occasionally to 18 tons and later mostly to 20 tons. A five-axle locomotive was allowed to weigh 100 tons, plus the tonnage that could be carried by means of spring-loaded leading and trailing axles. The heavier a locomotive is and the more surface pressure it exerts on the wheels, the more powerful it is. However, cornering becomes more difficult with more and more axles. Therefore, the development of multi-part frames and bogies that combined groups of axles with their drive began early on. However, supplying the bogies with steam was a difficult undertaking because of the flexible sealing required . Therefore, another direction of development was to achieve a certain curve mobility with the longest frame possible, e.g. B. by means of laterally displaceable axes.
The Gölsdorf axle arrangement avoided complicated constructions like the mallet locomotive . It was a way of aligning individual axles better on the track when cornering in a long rigid frame without joints or bogies.
The function of the Gölsdorf axles is that two axles out of five do not change their lateral position in the frame, as one axle bearing on the frame fixes its lateral position ( fixed bearing ). The other axes, however, are installed in their bearings and in their drive so that they can shift sideways when cornering, freely aligned with the forces. In addition to the displaceable mounting of the individual axis, this also requires the possibility of lateral shifts for the coupling rods. Since the drive can only take place on an axis that cannot be moved laterally, the fourth axis was usually used, which required correspondingly long drive rods. In addition, the cross heads were moved further back, which resulted in correspondingly long piston and slide rods.
For the mostly five- and occasionally six-axle freight locomotives, the Gölsdorf design was the standard in locomotive construction for decades. One of the first companies to use the Gölsdorf constructions in Germany was the privately operated Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn , whose heavy freight traffic between Belecke and Erwitte over the heights of the Haarstranges required strong yet mobile locomotives. From around 1910, the WLE began using five-coupler machines it had acquired second-hand for its freight transport and had the chassis converted to the Gölsdorf principle in order to improve the cornering of these locomotives.
literature
- Fridrich Risse, Günter Krause: The steam locomotives of the WLE, vehicles and systems of the Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn , DGEG-Medien, Hövelhof, ISBN 3-937189-25-4
- Johann Blieberger, Josef Pospichal: The kkStB traction vehicles. Volume 3. The series 61 to 380. bahnmedien.at, 2010, ISBN 978-3-9502648-6-9