Posted by admin | Posted in Model Railway | Posted on 05-11-2010
Tags: art, locomotive, railroad, steam, vintage
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Steam locomotive appearance.?
In the later days of steam locomotives, British locos presented a very plain appearance with very little pipework etc showing outside the boiler. See this picture of 4472 Flying Scotsman for instance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flying_Scotsman_in_Doncaster.JPG
by contrast this French locomotive of similar vintage, tractive effort and size has much of the works on view
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SNCF_Class_240_P.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:240P.jpg
And this US locomotive of the same general type also has many bits and pieces on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BMR_423,_1993,_Reading,_Pennsylvania.jpg
Why were British locos so devoid of bits and pieces while US and most others had bits and pieces all over them?
In basic there are two divergent thoughts, one was ease of maintenance and the other was eye appeal. Does form follow function or does function follow form is the issue.
So in the US ease of getting to part to replace them took preference over eye appeal, except for those locomotives used for high speed passenger service.
While in Europe there the desire for cleanness of the locomotive for eye appeal. This extended even to the location of driving rods and valve linkages.
Compounding this was the importation into France during WWI of US made locomotives which tended to be of standard design. With the end of the war there was still a shortage of ability in Europe to build locomotives, so many countries continued to import locomotives of US design. The lower maintenance costs of the US locomotives resulted in the use of less piping being concealed and the outside rod coupling for the driving rods and valve train.
This debate is still going on. Open the hood of a new car next to one of an old car. See how the engine bay has been "cleaned" up compared to the old car! But at what expense? Maintenance is now difficult and many parts that used to be accessible are no longer visible and easily identified.