Giles
Western Thunderer
Two of the cranks, courtesy of the Stepcraft (17 minutes each!)
Aspartic Cranks by giles favell, on Flickr
Aspartic Cranks by giles favell, on Flickr
“thank Heavens for collets!”
I suspect GJC said something similar
The cranks look good, but the coin looks excellent. How long did that take - and did it cost more than £1 to produce?
Hi Dave,
Yes, I could have done - it was a toss-up! That of course is precisely how the real thing was done, but they found they had to fit a diff in the centre between the bogies, as they were getting 'wound up'!
....
Was it that a bit of wheel slip on one bogie would mess everything up?That is quite - well, actually very - surprising. I guess they tried without one first and had some transmission breakages.
I'm really not sure, Graham - wheel slip at one end would just mean the torque to that end would be lost, but the torque to the other bogie would remain smooth and constant.
It is essentially the same mechanical layout as a double drive truck bogie (albeit simplified by the omission of axle differentials - not required).
In the 40s and 50s not many heavy double drive trucks had an inter-axle diff - albeit any variation in 'wheel travel 'between axles could be absorbed by the flexible tyre.
But virtually all variation occurs across the axle, very little between axles.
One might imagine with the locomotive that any variations that might occur (and which would surely be very minor compared to the truck application) would be relieved by the initiation of wheel slip on one bogie.
The evidence however shows that significant wind-up occurred, necessitating the use of a diff.
Im sure if I had designed the transmission I would have fallen into the same trap - neatly avoided by Giles.......