Hunslet Alice Class
| Hunslet Alice Class, Small Quarry Class, etc. a. | |
|---|---|
 The Irish Mail at Porthmadog harbor station in Wales.
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| Number: | 21st |
| Manufacturer: | Hunslet |
| Year of construction (s): | 1886-1905 |
| Retirement: | 1960s |
| Type : | B n2t |
| Gauge : | 578-610 mm |
| Length over buffers: | 3,963 mm |
| Width: | 1,626 mm |
| Total wheelbase: | 991 mm |
| Service mass: | 6.1–6.5 t |
| Friction mass: | 6.1–6.5 t |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 508 mm |
| Cylinder diameter: | 178 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 254 mm |
| Boiler overpressure: | 82.7-96.5 N / cm² |
| Grate area: | 0.23 m² |
| Radiant heating surface: | 1.30 m² |
| Tubular heating surface: | 7.99 m² |
| Water supply: | 0.45-0.5 m² |
| Fuel supply: | approx. 75 kg |
The Alice Class locomotives from the manufacturer Hunslet Engine Company are small tank locomotives that were built from 1886 for use on 578 mm (22.75 ″) track gauge in the Dinorwic quarry in North Wales . Four locomotives with the same gauge as Small Quarry Class were largely identical in construction to the Penrhyn quarry , as well as four other locomotives for other quarries with a gauge of 597 mm (23.5 ″).
Most of these locomotives were in service until the 1950s or 1960s, and all 21 examples have survived to this day. Almost all of them are now back in working order and operate on various museum railways, mainly in Wales.
operation area
The locomotives were used for shunting and transport tasks within the quarries themselves, often in galleries that could only be reached by inclined elevators, and on partially temporarily laid tracks. For this purpose, they had to be as light as possible and have a short wheelbase in order to be able to negotiate tight curves and unclean tracks.
The task of the locomotives was on the one hand to bring the wagons with the broken rock to the inclined lifts or for further processing, and on the other hand to take the material that was not required to the spoil heaps. The distances covered were short, usually only on the order of a few hundred meters, and the locomotives could therefore get by with small water and coal supplies.
Classification
The locomotives were not delivered in closed series, but in small deliveries of one to three pieces over almost two decades (see overview table ). The class names do not come from Hunslet, but only arose around the middle of the 20th century in connection with the correspondence between railroad friends and the quarries. One can distinguish four groups of these locomotives:
- Alice Class : eleven locomotives for the Dinorwic quarry (1886–1904)
- Early Dinorwic Port Class : two locomotives for the port of the Dinorwic quarry, sometimes also included in the Alice Class (1898)
- Small Quarry Class : four locomotives for the Penrhyn quarry (1894, 1899)
- no designation: three locomotives for the Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry and one for the Dorothea quarry (1899–1905)
The individual deliveries differed from one another in some details, particularly in the shape of the frame and the buffer beams; however, the main dimensions remained unchanged over the entire delivery period.
Closely related to these locomotives - the same boiler and cylinder dimensions, wheel diameters and wheelbases - were two particularly low-built "tunnel locomotives" for the Moel Tryfan quarry ( Tryfan and Cadfan ), a locomotive called Huelva for a Spanish company with a 640 mm track gauge as well as the locomotives of the Dinorwic Port Class .
A variant for 914 mm gauge with an inner frame and slightly different boiler dimensions were four locomotives for the granite quarry in Penmaenmawr and at least one other locomotive of this type.
Names
The actual Alice Class was named after the second machine delivered in 1889, which was initially named Alice , but was later renamed King of the Scarlets . As already mentioned, the name Alice was later given to a newer locomotive of the same class (factory number 780). The first copy (work no. 409) was and is still called Velinheli , after the name of the village Y Felinheli , in which the port of the quarry was located. One of the locomotives used on the Padarn Railway bore the same name from 1895.
Most of the locomotives in the Dinorwic quarry were initially only given numbers, with no consistent logic - the third locomotive in the class was named “No. 1 ”and the fifth as“ The First ”(the latter is due to the fact that The First and The Second were used in the port and not in the quarry itself). Later on, most Dinorwic locomotives were named after successful racehorses owned by the quarry owners - a practice not uncommon in the UK, e.g. B. also found in the LNER class A3 locomotives .
The legend that the Pen-yr-Orsedd locomotives Una and Sybil were named after children born shortly before their commissioning, could be refuted; there were no records of children born in the appropriate time with these names. In fact, the name Una, like that of the sister locomotive Britomart, probably comes from a work by the poet Edmund Spenser .
Dorothea was named simply after the name of her quarry, and some of the locomotives at Penrhyn quarry bore the names of members or friends of the owner family.
Three locomotives were renamed after their restoration: Elidir , the former Red Damsel , was named after Elidir Fawr , the mountain on the slopes of which the Dinorwic quarry was located, and Jonathan , the former Amber , after the son of its new owner. Thomas Bach (Welsh for little Thomas ), the former Wild Aster , got its name from a (relatively short) train driver who had already worked in the quarries and eventually drove for the Llanberis Lake Railway.
construction
Running gear and engine
The two wheel sets are mounted in an outer frame and are driven by the external cylinders via crank webs . To reduce the risk of damage from lumps of stone lying around, the cylinders are raised slightly and are therefore arranged at a slight angle. The internal Stephenson control acts on also internal flat slide and is operated via a lever on the right side of the driver's cab.
The wheelbase of the locomotives is only 991 mm (3 ′ 3 ″); This means that very tight radii of 6.40 m can be easily negotiated ("with ease" according to the Hunslet brochure).
Originally, the locomotives were equipped with sand spreaders, but these did not prove themselves under the conditions of use in the quarries - it was probably impossible to keep the sand dry. They were therefore removed from almost all locomotives.
boiler
The standing cup is significantly wider than it is long and extends behind the drive axis between the frame cheeks. The grate has an area of 0.23 m² with a depth of only 32 cm.
The long boiler contains 28 smoke tubes and its diameter is smaller than the width of the smoke chamber or the standing boiler. However, this is concealed by the attached water tank.
The raised top of the upright boiler is used for steam extraction; Only one locomotive of the class (factory no. 822, Maid Marian ) had a steam dome . Today the work no. 409, Velinheli the only specimen with a steam dome; this is probably a replacement boiler built in 1925 and not the original Maid Marian boiler . Basically, a steam dome is supposed to reduce the risk of water tearing, but this didn't seem to be the case with these locomotives. In fact, according to its owners , the Velinheli tends to tear water more than the cover coat used on the same track , which does not have a steam dome.
The safety valves are located on the standing tank on all locomotives. In locomotives with a driver's cab, the steam emerging from the valves is conducted through the roof via brass pipes.
Stocks
The locomotives are - like all so-called Quarry Hunslets - saddle tank locomotives , i. H. the water tank rests on the kettle like a saddle. The boiler is fed via injectors .
The coal container is in the front left of the driver's cab; the amount of about 75 kg was sufficient for the original purpose.
Driver's cab
The circulation and driver's cab of the locomotives are at the same height - this is a differentiator to some similar designs such as B. the only slightly larger Penrhyn Port Class .
Because tunnels and loading bridges also had to be passed during use, the machines for the Dinorwic and Penrhyn quarries originally had no cabs (with the exception of the Irish Mail , where the delivery with the cab was possibly an oversight). Even where there was enough space, the staff preferred locomotives without cab because of the better overview.
For later operation in museum railways, some locomotives were retrofitted with driver's cabs, based on the original driver's cabs supplied by Hunslet. Since it is very narrow in the short driver's cab, the rear wall can be opened, which allows more space to work on the fire box when the locomotive is stationary (see the picture opposite).
Brakes
Originally the locomotives were only equipped with a mechanical handbrake, which is operated via a vertical hand crank. The spindle acts via a lever on a transverse shaft behind the drive axle and from there on all four wheels.
The mechanical brake is not sufficient for operation with passengers, and the locomotives used for this are additionally equipped with steam , compressed air or suction brakes . The vapor brake cylinder was installed on the left side under the cab floor and acts on the same cross shaft as the handbrake.
The locomotives of the Bala Lake Railway have only one regulator for the air brake, while the compressed air is generated by a compressor in the train. The Alan George, on the other hand, received a steam-powered air pump next to the smoke chamber.
The locomotives equipped with suction air brakes include Velinheli and Britomart .
Couplings
The pulling and pushing devices originally consisted of a centrally attached coupling jaw and simple wooden blocks as buffers (the length of 3.96 m or 13 feet given in the table applies to this version). The buffers were further apart in the Dinorwic quarry than in the Pen-yr-Orsedd and Dorothea quarries.
The locomotives of the Penrhyn quarry had central buffer couplings from the start. The two locomotives delivered for the port of the Dinorwic quarry also had a spring-loaded central buffer above the towing device, which was otherwise identical to the other locomotives, as well as a device for releasing the coupling from the driver's cab (as did the Mills Class and Port Class locomotives ). For later use in the quarry itself, they were given the usual wooden block buffers.
Alice is currently the only operational machine with wooden buffers, and the other locomotives on the Bala Lake Railway have been fitted with spring buffers that are the same spacing as the old wooden buffers. Various systems of central buffer couplings are used on the other locomotives used in the museum.
The shape of the frame
The biggest difference between the different locomotives lies in the shape of the frame and the track clearers or buffer beams at the locomotive ends. On the eleven machines of the actual Alice Class and on the four locomotives supplied for the Py-yr-Orsedd and Dorothea quarries, the frame on the underside is beveled at both ends, and the buffer beams do not reach down to the rails.
The reason for this construction was the construction of the Dinorwic quarry, which consisted of several levels or galleries, which were connected to one another by inclined elevators operated by rope drums. Normally every locomotive stayed on "its" level, but z. B. for major maintenance work, they had to be pulled over these steep ramps. Without the bevelled ends of the frame, there was a risk at the lower end of these ramps that the locomotives could hit the slope at the transition.
There were two variants of these beveled frames, which differed mainly at the rear end: In the older locomotives of the Alice Class , the bevel began shortly after the rear wheels, while the lower edge of the frame of the younger locomotives ran horizontally behind the wheels at first and then ended in a shorter and steeper slope.
Although the Penrhyn quarry also had numerous levels (see picture), no one seemed to pay much attention to the ramp problem there, because the machines of the Small Quarry Class were - like the larger locomotives used there - with horizontal frame undersides and up to the Buffer beams were built to reach down the rails and thus also serve as rail clearers. Possibly the reason for the fact that the locomotives were originally procured for a part of the quarry, in which driving on ramps was not necessary.
The frame shape of the Penrhyn machines was also used for the two copies of the Early Dinorwic Port Class , because these locomotives were intended for use in the quarry harbor, where no ramps had to be used.
But the harbor machines were also later used in the quarry itself, where one advantage of the rail clearers reaching down to the rails was that they were more effective against boulders lying between the rails, which, if they got under the locomotive, caused cylinder valves, coupling rods, Could damage the eccentric or other parts of the engine.
Part exchange and identity
In the Dinorwic quarry in particular, parts of the locomotives were freely exchanged with each other so that damaged or overhauled locomotives could be used again as quickly as possible. This particularly affected the boilers, the number of which was greater than that of the locomotives.
The identity of the Dinorwic locomotives, i.e. the assignment between the serial number and the name, is somewhat uncertain because of this exchange practice. What makes it more difficult is the fact that the frames of the machines, which are usually considered the identifying part of a locomotive, were not stamped with the serial number by Hunslet. The nameplates of the locomotives are also attached to the water tank, which could be exchanged relatively easily, while exchanging the nameplates was not trivial, at least with different lengths. The nameplates were also not attached to the frame, but to the side walls of the driver's cab.
It is largely certain that the locomotives No. 492, King of Scarlets (the original Alice ) and 822, Maid Marian changed their identities towards the end of the 1920s, because the older No. 492 has the new frame shape and the newer No. 822 the old one. In addition, during the overhaul of the locomotive known today as Maid Marian , numerous parts were found that were stamped with the 492, including such essential parts as the cylinders. It is controversial and probably no longer to be finally clarified under which circumstances this exchange came about. This question is complicated by the fact that the original Maid Marian was the only locomotive with a steam dome, and therefore Velinheli , which now carries the only boiler with a dome, was “suspected” of having been involved in the identity swap. However, this could largely be ruled out by checking the stamped parts.
Every locomotive today contains parts from other locomotives of the class and z. Sometimes even from other, similar classes, not only because of the maintenance practice in the quarries themselves, but also because of the procurement of spare parts during the restoration of the first locomotives. So was Alice originally recovered to a boiler for Irish Mail to come; the decision to restore the locomotive (with the help of a new boiler) was made later.
Whereabouts
Most locomotives were in service until the 1950s or 1960s, when there was already a great deal of interest in the preservation of steam locomotives. That is why all 21 copies escaped scrapping, and the majority are currently in working order and are in use on various museum railways (converted to gauges between 597 and 610 mm).
Although operation with passenger trains over kilometers and at (comparatively) high speed was not one of the original requirements for the locomotives, they have proven themselves well in these tasks. Notable accomplishments include a trip together by Velinheli and Alice on the Ffestiniog Railway in 1997, when they covered the almost 19 km route between Minffordd and Blaenau Ffestiniog in 49 minutes - an average of 23 km / h.
Apart from the addition of driver's cabs and steam and / or automatic brakes, the Covertcoat locomotive ( serial number 679) underwent the greatest change in its "second life": It received a two-axle tender and a driver's cab without a rear wall, so that the greater supplies can be carried along and the operating personnel have more freedom of movement.
Because of their small size, which allows road transport on normal trucks, the locomotives are well suited for “visits” on other museum railways. The Velinheli was a guest on the Welsh Highland Railway several times and was also the first steam locomotive to reach Beddgelert on the newly built section of the line.
King of Scarlets (actually Maid Marian , see parts exchange and identity ) is with a collector in Canada and is not open to the public. Like Rough Pup on display at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Tywyn , the locomotive is largely in the condition in which it left the quarry.
Sybil worked for the Brecon Mountain Railway for several years ; but since it was too weak for the increasing traffic, it has been mothballed since about the mid-1980s.
George B , Margaret and Dorothea are currently in various stages of remanufacturing; the latter was already in operation for a short time (with the Covertcoat boiler ).
Overview
| Work no. | Construction year | "Class" | Names | Current location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 409 | 1886 | Alice | Velinheli | Launceston Steam Railway (Cornwall) | operational |
| 492 | 1889 | Alice | Alice, King of the Scarlets | Langstaff (Ontario, Canada) | mothballed |
| 493 | 1889 | Alice | Enid, Red Damsel, Elidir | Llanberis Lake Railway (Wales) | operational |
| 541 | 1891 | Alice | No. 1, rough pup | Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Tywyn, Wales | displayed |
| 542 | 1891 | Alice | No. 2, cloister | Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Trust | operational |
| 605 | 1894 | Small quarry | Margaret | Vale of Rheidol Railway (Wales) | operational |
| 606 | 1894 | Small quarry | Alan George | Teifi Valley Railway (Wales) | operational |
| 678 | 1898 | Early Port | The First, Bernstein, Jonathan | ? | operational |
| 679 | 1898 | Early Port | The Second, cover coat | Launceston Steam Railway | operational, with tender |
| 680 | 1898 | Alice | Wellington, George B. | Bala Lake Railway (Wales) | is currently being restored |
| 704 | 1899 | Small quarry | Nesta | Unknown (USA or Puerto Rico) | ? |
| 705 | 1899 | Small quarry | Elin | Yaxham Light Railway (Norfolk) | operational |
| 707 | 1899 | - | Britomart | Ffestiniog Railway (Wales) | operational |
| 763 | 1901 | - | Dorothea | Launceston Steam Railway | operational |
| 779 | 1902 | Alice | No. 3, Holy War | Bala Lake Railway | operational |
| 780 | 1902 | Alice | No. 4, Alice | Bala Lake Railway | operational |
| 822 | 1903 | Alice | No. 5, Maid Marian | Bala Lake Railway | operational |
| 823 | 1903 | Alice | No. 6, Irish Mail | West Lancashire Light Railway | operational |
| 827 | 1903 | - | Sybil | Brecon Mountain Railway (Wales) | intact, but mothballed |
| 849 | 1904 | Alice | No. 7, Wild Aster, Thomas Bach | Llanberis Lake Railway | operational |
| 873 | 1905 | - | Una | Llanberis Lake Railway | operational |
literature
- Cliff Thomas, Quarry Hunslets of North Wales, Oakwood Press, 2004, ISBN 0-85361-575-6
References and comments
- ↑ Hunslet catalog sheet HELVA
- ↑ UK Narrow Gauge Steam ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Image of a decommissioned and cut boiler ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ WHR 2007 news archive ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Dinorwic Loco "Rough Pup" ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ George B: Hunslet 0-4-0 ST No. 680 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Launceston Steam Railway ( Memento of the original from November 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Unlike the other locomotives on this line, the Una is part of the North Wales Quarrying Museum and is rarely put into service.
