UP class 9000
| UP class 9000 | |
|---|---|
 Locomotive 9000 in Pomona Fairplex, Pomona (California, USA)
|
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| Numbering: | UP 9000-9062, 9078-9087 OSL 9500-9514 |
| Number: | 88 |
| Manufacturer: | ALCo |
| Year of construction (s): | 1926-1930 |
| Axis formula : | 2'F1 'h3 |
| Type : | Three-cylinder superheated steam locomotive |
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) |
| Length over coupling: | 31,495 mm |
| Wheelbase with tender: | 27.9 m |
| Friction mass: | 161.025 t |
| Wheel set mass : | 26.84 t |
| Top speed: | 96.6 km / h |
| Coupling wheel diameter: | 1,701.8 mm |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 1,701.8 mm |
| Control type : | Walschaerts / Gresley conjugated valve gear |
| Number of cylinders: | 3 |
| Cylinder diameter: | 685.8 mm |
| Piston stroke: | 812.8 mm (outer cylinder) 787.4 mm (inner cylinder) |
| Boiler overpressure: | 15.2 bar |
| Grate area: | 10.06 m² |
| Superheater area : | 238 m² |
| Evaporation heating surface: | 543 m² |
| Water supply: | 56.5 m³ |
| Fuel supply: | 19.05 tons of coal |
The class 9000 of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) was a three-cylinder steam locomotive with six axles are powered and simple steam expansion . It was the only six-coupler in the world to have a leading bogie with two running axles and a trailing towing frame with one running axle. This wheel arrangement is therefore also known as the Union Pacific type. The Union Pacific Railroad classified the 88 locomotives built between 1926 and 1930 in classes UP-1 to UP-5.
history
In the mid-1920s, the Union Pacific Railroad used 1'E1 'and (1'D) + D locomotives for freight transport. However, these machines were only designed for a maximum speed of 32 km / h (20 mph). The railway company therefore commissioned ALCo to develop a faster-moving freight locomotive in order to accelerate traffic on the lowland routes. Due to the restrictions imposed by the axle load, a locomotive with six axles coupled in a frame was developed.
The prototype was completed in March 1926 at the ALCo Brooks plant and received the number 9000 and the class designation UP-1 from the Union Pacific. Although the design speed was only around 56 km / h, the locomotive ran very smoothly. This made it possible to operate at speeds between around 72 and 80 km / h.
Due to the good results of the prototype, another 14 locomotives were built. These were given the numbers 9001 to 9014 and the class designation UP-2. Completion took place in August and September 1926. Another 15 locomotives followed in June / July 1928. The locomotives designated as UP-3 were given the numbers 9015 to 9029. Another eight locomotives of this series were given in July / August 1928 by the UP subsidiary Oregon - Washington Railroad and Navigation (OWRR & N). These were given the numbers 9700 to 9707. In September 1929 the locomotives were handed over to the UP and were given the numbers 9055 to 9062.
In the period from June to September 1929, another 25 locomotives were completed at the ALCo Schenectady plant . The locomotives classified as UP-4 were given the numbers 9030 to 9054.
Ten locomotives were delivered in August 1930. These locomotives, known as UP-5, were given road numbers 9078 to 9087. A further 15 locomotives of this type were delivered to the Oregon Short Line Railroad (OSL) subsidiary in June 1930 . They were given the numbers 9500 to 9514.
From September 1928 to September 1929 the UP 9004 was in service with the OWRR & N under the number 9708.
The series has largely proven itself, even if the maintenance was difficult due to the third internal steam cylinder. The locomotive was used, among other things, on the main line of the UP in Nebraska .
The locomotives achieved a boiler output of 3665 kW at a speed of 68 km / h and a 48% cylinder filling. They pulled trains with 120 freight wagons at a speed of 80 km / h on the level route.
The locomotives of the series were retired and scrapped between September 1953 and May 1956.
The only surviving machine in the series, the prototype with the track number 9000, is inoperative in the Railway Museum of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona , California. The machine was donated to the Historical Society by the UP after it was decommissioned in 1956. It achieved a mileage of 2,704,137 kilometers.
technical features
The 17.1 meter long boiler of the 391 ton locomotive was operated with a permissible steam pressure of 15.2 bar , the steam engine developed 3542 kW and the maximum speed was 97 km / h with a drive wheel diameter of 67 inches (1.70 m) ( 60 mph). Due to the large grate area of 10.5 m², the wheels of the last coupling axle partially protruded into the grate. The combustion chamber was 2 meters long. The boiler had a Gaines-Wall made of firebrick , a fire bridge, which was supported by water pipes, a small pipe superheater and a feed water preheater . The grate was charged with coal using a stoker .
The series had a two-axle drive . The middle cylinder acted on the cranked second coupling axle, while the two outer cylinders acted on the third coupling axle. All three cylinders had the same inner diameter, but the middle cylinder, at 787.4 mm, had a one inch shorter piston stroke. Furthermore, the central cylinder was installed at an incline of 9.5 ° so that its drive rod could be guided over the wheelset shaft of the first coupled wheel set. The stroke of the outer cylinders was 812.8 mm.
There are historical sound recordings of the locomotive type on which a swaying exhaust rhythm of the steam engine can be heard with an emphasis on every third beat. This exhaust, which is unusual for a triple machine with an exact 120-degree offset of the crank pins, could be due not only to maintenance deficiencies (incorrect steam engine setting) but also to the shorter stroke of the inner cylinder together with its shorter exhaust path to the blowpipe.
The maintenance of the central cylinder was difficult due to its inaccessible location. However, this did not apply to the control of the central cylinder. Alco had a license to use the by Sir Nigel Gresley designed Gresley control ( Gresley conjugated valve gear purchased). This system made it possible to derive the control of the central cylinder via articulated levers from the control of the outer cylinders. The 9000 series locomotives were the largest machines to use this system.
Between 1934 and 1940 eight of the fifteen first delivered locomotives were converted by removing the worn Gresley control of the central cylinder and replacing it with a double control based on Walschaerts on the right side of the locomotive, in which the control drive for the central cylinder was derived from the double-cranked right counter crank. The Union Pacific referred to this control design as a "third link". It was similar to the steam engine control used by Baldwin on the Baldwin 60000 . In the locomotives built from 1928, however, the Gresley control of the central cylinder was equipped with roller bearings, while roller bearings were retrofitted in the older locomotives that were not converted to the "third link" from 1940.
During the development phase, it was initially planned to design the wheel sets of the third and fourth coupled wheel sets without flanges in order to improve the cornering ability of the machines. However, only the fourth set of coupled wheels was carried out without flanges. However, this measure proved to be unnecessary because the first and sixth coupling axles, which could be laterally displaced by two inches, provided sufficient cornering ability. Until the appearance of the Soviet AA 20-1 , the locomotives were the machines with the longest fixed wheelbase , in the USA and worldwide. What was also unusual about the locomotives was that the axles of the leading bogie had the same axle load as the coupling axles.
The six-axle bogie tender of the type Vanderbilt of the UP type 18-C held 19 tons of coal and 56.5 m³ of water.
literature
- Raimar Lehmann: Steam locomotive special designs . 2nd unchanged edition. VEB Verlag Technik, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-341-00336-3 .
- The Union Pacific Type Vol's 1 & 2 William W. Kratville & John E. Bush 1990 & 1995 Barnhart Press Omaha Nebraska Library of Congress Card Catalog # 90-82171
- Brian Hollingsworth: The Illustrated Dictionary of Trains of the World . Salamander Books Ltd., London 2000, ISBN 1-84065-177-6 .
- George H. Drury: Guide to North American Steam Locomotives . 1st edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 1993, ISBN 0-89024-206-2 , pp. 397-398, 404 .
Web links
- Info at UtahRails.net
- Union Pacific's 4-12-2 Sounds at UtahRails.net
- 4-12-2 "Union Pacific" Type Locomotives on steamlocomotive.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Brian Solomon: ALCO Locomotives . MBI Publishing Company and Voyeur Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-7603-3338-9 , pp. 49-50.
- ^ Brian Solomon: ALCO Locomotives . MBI Publishing Company and Voyeur Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-7603-3338-9 , p. 50.
- ^ Lehmann: Steam locomotive special designs , p. 12.
- ↑ a b Website steamlocomotive.com for the series, accessed on December 3, 2012 ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2013 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. .
- ↑ Close encounters with the 9000 . In: Trains . Kalmbach Publishing Co., July 1984, ISSN 0041-0934 , p. 19-25 .
- ^ A b Railway & Locomotive Historical Society website on Class 9000, in English, accessed November 28, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Website steamlocomotive.com about class 9000, in English, accessed on November 28, 2012 ( Memento of the original from December 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
