PRR T1 Fleet of Modernism possible inaccuracy

[jacksonbarno]

I was just reading a book about PRR's duplex locomotives, and I read that the T1 duplex locomotives that the PRR owned had dual throttles to power both sets of drivers. When locomotives were deadheading, the engineers would unlock one of the throttles while keeping the other one off, and only use one driver set, to conserve coal/fuel. When I was using the T1 cab in Trainz, I noticed that there is only one throttle. Is this true for T1's (and the Q1, S1 and Q2 classes as well)? And if so: shouldn't there be two throttles that are optionally locked together in the cab?

 

[stevelerro]

One throttle.

 

[Euphod]

I guess that settle's that.

 

[Thai1On]

What an awesome office to work in .

Dave

 

[Euphod]

What an awesome office to work in .

Dave

Yeah, in the winter maybe....

 

[Yakutsky]

I miss the times I never had....

 

[boleyd]

Would be nice to know what all of that "stuff" does.

 

[SR6900]

Interesting thing I do see is that there are two stems off the throttle's bell crank, which would make this theory plausible. But, knowing how the railroads thought in terms of maintenance, I have serious doubts. To have two throttles would require two internal throttle bodies, which dependent on the type, would require maintanance of up to ten valves, plus additional possible failure points. This would be a redundancy that, according to what you say it was for, would be unnecessary. Deadheading locomotives then, occurred even less than it does now. Also from the information I do have, the T1's only have 1 front end throttle assembly with delivery pipes to both sets of cylinders leading from it.

Would be nice to know what all of that "stuff" does.

Really there's not much to it. Up top are the turret valves, which are more or less the on-off switches of steam locomotive appliances. Below that the two water columns and water glasses, the columns allow for more precise reading of water level. To the left of the left water column are the stoker and feedwater heater gauges, and below them the controls for the stoker jets and feedwater heater. There's also a valve above those gauges for train line steam heat control. Between the water columns are the pressure gauge and steam chest pressure and back pressure gauges. Below them are the fire doors and the stoker elevator (a Standard type HT). The grate shakers are also visible flanking both sides of the elevator. On the right of the cab, very prominently, is the throttle. Behind that are the air brake gauges. Below the throttle are the automatic and independent brake valves (feed valves also visible) for a Westinghouse HSC brake schedule (rather uncommon in steam locomotives). And just to the right of that appears to be a cutoff indicator for the reversing gear. Like I said, not much to it if you know what to look for, but I do work on these sorts of things everyday.

 

[Yakutsky]

A randomly generated question... I know... but do modern day Machinists learn and know anything about steam locomotives?

 

[SR6900]

Not unless they have an interest and can find one to work on.