A 1905 photo of “Old Betsy” on the Oregon & California Railroad:
Full-size image here:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/O_and_C_Photo_0_%288072079456%29_%282%29.jpg
Sure would make a great little model!
BTW, can anyone else make sense of the crosshead/main rod arrangement? It looks like the crosshead is “inside” (behind) the front wheel, but the other end of the main rod is connected to the outside of the rear wheel – which doesn’t make any sense to me.
Looks like to me that it’s on the outside of the wheel. The top part of the wheel or the flange sorta disappears behind the crosshead. Lotta shadow so it’s hard to tell.
As small as that engine is, I can’t imagine it pulling to much weight or running very far…cute little bugger…
I’m with Ken, If you look at the gland housing and first part of the rod the come out of the cyl end, they appear to be in front of the wheel flange.
I think it’s very interesting the smoke stack is in the cab. No smoke box out front, it’s just water filled boiler out there. There must be some kind of firebox-smokebox combo facing the fireman on this tiny boiler. Very neat.
Must be one of those boilers with the flues that loop back. Stationary boilers sometimes have that arrangement. It is an odd little beast. And the “number” on its isn’t a number, its locomotive A.
There is probably a crank attached to the axle, hard to see behind rod. The rod may have an off set hidden in the shadows
This one has an odder drive… to my eye.
The Oregon Pony;
Must have been a local company building those boilers…
On this one it’s like the inside the frame cylinders and eccentrics.
This one was on display at a Portland Or. hotel.
John
OK guys. Took the pic into Photoshop, Did a bit of playing with the image, and here is what I came up with.
The rod is in front of the driver, so it is outside the tire, And the main rod is inside the connecting rod to the front driver, which is why the cylinders are raised up, for clearance.
Neat little engine, Someone going to cobble one together. This is the kind of thing that Mik would build…
MIK probably would have…full size…from scrapyard bits he picked up!!!
The Oregon Pony is a product of the Vulcan Iron Works. (Presumably so is Old Betsy.)
Very strange loco, indeed.
Later,
K
Vic!
I found a couple other photos of the O&C RR loco:
These photos, and some similar small locos, can be seen at this site:
Kevin, hey, now I know what I can do with the one power block I have. It came out of an LGB rail-truck, so it has no counterweights. It could be a starting point for one of these. Oh, Uh oh. Oh no! Not another project on the build list! Oh the horror, oh the trepidation, oh the fun!