RhB R 11 + 12

RhB R / RhB Xrot d
Numbering:	RhB 11, 12 ; RhB 9211, 9212
Number:	2
Manufacturer:	SLM
Year of construction (s):	1913
Retirement:	around 1966 (11/9211) ; 1968 ( 12/9212 )
Axis formula :	(1A) 2 '
Type :	Leslie (blower wheel)
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Length:	14,410 mm
Height:	3,800 mm
Width:	2,800 mm (fixed), ; max. 3,800 mm
Bogie axle base:	1,300 mm
Fixed wheelbase:	5,700 mm
Total wheelbase:	10,700 mm (including tender)
Service mass with tender:	58.2 t
Top speed:	12 km / h with ; auxiliary drive
Indexed performance :	Snow blower: 600 hp
Driving wheel diameter:	740 mm
Impeller diameter:	740 mm
Number of cylinders:	Auxiliary drive: 2 ; extractors: 2
Cylinder diameter:	Auxiliary drive: 310 mm ; sling: 160 mm
Piston stroke:	Auxiliary drive: 180 mm ; sling: 450 mm
Boiler overpressure:	13 atü
Number of heating pipes:	158
Number of smoke tubes:	14th
Grate area:	1.6 m²
Tubular heating surface:	110 m²
Superheater area :	17.5 m²
Fuel supply:	Hard coal / briquettes
Drive:	Auxiliary drive on ; second axis
Brake:	Vacuum brake
Control:	Heusinger (slingshot)

The vehicles R 11 and R 12 are steam-powered snow blowers . These are track-running, non-self-propelled machines that are used to clear snow from railway lines . They are used to clear large amounts of snow that have got into the clearance profile due to heavy snowfalls, snow drifts or avalanches .

history

The Bernina Railway (BB), which is adjacent to the Rhaetian Railway, gradually introduced winter operations from 1910, which was not originally planned.
The Bernina Railway therefore only ordered two steam-powered snow blowers from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works (SLM), which were used in 1910 (R 1051) and 1912 (R 1052 ) were shipped. As these proved their worth, the Rhaetian Railway also procured two such slingshots in 1913, which, in contrast to the vehicles built for the BB, were not self-propelled. They only received an auxiliary drive acting on the second axle of the first bogie to make repositioning and turning easier. In operation, the snow blowers were pushed over the network by ordinary steam locomotives . Snow blowers designed in the same way had previously been used on the Gotthard, and good experiences had already been made with such pushed snow blowers in the USA . The first snow blower built according to the Leslie patent was created in 1883 and probably goes back to an idea by the Canadian dentist JW Elliot in 1869. At the Rhaetian Railway, snow removal had been carried out with plows until the snow blowers were obtained and, in the case of drifts and avalanches, by hand. If there weren't enough helpers on hand, the snow removal took a correspondingly long time, so that the slingshot helped increase the reliability of the railway in winter.

In the course of the introduction of the RhB's new numbering concept , the two slingshots were given the designation X ^{red d} 9211 and 9212 in 1950. The designation X ^{red d} is made up of: X = company vehicle, red = rotating, d = steam-powered. The two vehicles were in regular use until 1959, when the first modern snow blower was delivered; after that they remained an iron reserve. The X ^{rot d} 9211 was canceled in Samedan around 1966 . After it was scrapped in 1968, its sister machine , the X ^{rot d} 9212, was taken to the Blonay-Chamby (BC) museum railway in 1971 , where it was externally refurbished in 1984 when it was given a new tin roof and a new coat of paint.

In 1996, the Blonay-Chamby swapped the spin with the Furka Cogwheel Steam Railway (DFB), the 1990 X ^{d red} 9214, former R 1052 Berninabahn the property had. One of the main reasons for this was that the Bernina Railway's sling was not able to run on the rack and pinion route of the Furka mountain route because of its profile. Since 2002, the X ^{rot d} 9212, now again referred to as the R 12, has been revised by the Furka Mountain Line Steam Railway in Goldau (as of 2010, see also the link in the link list). The Furka Mountain Route Steam Railway intends to use the snow blower again to clear snow on the route over the Furka Pass . As the picture at the top of this page shows, the slingshot has been used on this route before.

construction

The vehicles each have two two-axle bogies. The front one, which is closest to the blower wheel, has an auxiliary drive for maneuvering on the second axis facing away from the blower wheel . In order to minimize the overhang of the blower wheel when cornering, the front bogie is located directly behind the blower wheel. The drive for the blower wheel, which is driven by two cylinders, is located in the wooden box structure . A gear reduces the speed of the steam engine in a ratio of 1: 1.8 from 270 revolutions per minute to a maximum of 150 revolutions per minute on the impeller. The diameter of the blower wheel is two and a half meters.

This means that snow masses up to 2.65 m high can be removed over a width of up to 3.8 m. Directly behind the centrifugal wheel, in front of the smoke chamber door of the boiler , there is the work station of the centrifugal operator, who regulates the filling and direction of rotation of the steam engine. Two round windows in the front wall above the blower wheel provide a view of the route ahead. The centrifuge operator and the stoker can communicate via a mouthpiece. The stoker's workplace is at the rear end of the boiler, where he transports the fuel from the tender to the fire box.

The auxiliary drive can be a steam cylinder against a spring works in a keyed on the second axis gear engage , he that in pushed operation does not have to be moved and can be only completed regulator of centrifugal drive in motion set. The snow blowers are or were coupled to a two-axle tender. Unlike those of the steam locomotives, these were provided with closable openings and were sealed off from the environment during operation so that no snow could get into the fuel stores.

photos

R 12 snow blower of the DFB at the transfer from Gletsch to Realp in September 2002; it is pulled by locomotive 1.
The snow blower being processed in Goldau; In the uncovered box you can see the boiler and the cylinders of the centrifugal machine.

literature

Rhaetian Railway: The electrical operation on the lines of the Engadine , Art. Institut Orell Füssli, Zurich, 1915, Chapter VIII. Snow blowers, p. 61 ff.
Alfred Leuenberger: smoke, steam and powder snow. The steam snow blowers of the Swiss railways . Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1967, without ISBN

Web links