Hello to all, I started model railway when I was 15. This was yesterday but it is just now as I am retired that I have time for it. It changes a bit. Hopefully, I have two grandchildren as alibi for digital HO. Not enough room here to keep a permanent layout, so I have to manage seasonly dismantling. I am highly interested in DCC++ (a warm thanks to Gregg and other contributors) and built several throttles and boosters which I try to complement with the help I will find here.
There does seem to be a lot of interest in DCC++ here, so I'm sure you will find many willing to assist. Best of luck and welcome aboard!
Bienvenue Michel, We are happy to have you on board. Being retired will give you more time for doing things that you enjoy, including chemin de fer.
Thankyou for your welcome messages ! About my avatar : this is an old steam machine still in use (for tourism only, don't misunderstand about the old continent, we have also newer machines). It runs just a few kilometers from here. It just needs to stop a short time in order to increase the pressure before climbing the slope. Next time you come, you can buy your ticket on line : http://traindespignes.fr/ And my last layout, as you can see, I have it at the dinner table, so it can’t stay there very long. Michel
Michel. I now understand why that locomotive, with four cylinders to support, needs to stop and build boiler pressure occasionally. That is an interesting design with a two axle engine and a three axle engine on a rigid frame. I don't believe I've seen that configuration before. The water tanks (I assume there is a similar tank on the other side) appear to have much more capacity than the fuel bunker. What is the fuel? Thank you for sharing that photo.
This design is specially for "steep" slopes and is known from the name of a swiss engineer, Mallet. Some of them seem to have run in the US. Fueled with coal (from Poland)
Thank you. I thought the Mallet design was double expansion. The front cylinder does not appear larger than the rear cylinder, though it may be that the image is distorted by lighting or camera angle. The steam train would be a joy to ride.
They are just a tiny bit larger. Compare the cylinder heads to the valve heads. They're also driving 2/3rds as many wheels, so you wouldn't want them to be very much larger. If you put too much power to the radial chassis, those drivers will slip, and use up all the pressure in the dry pipe from the exhaust of the high pressure cylinders. I've seen the Mallet name hung on single-expansion articulateds. I don't do that myself. But I'm pretty sure this one is a true compound Mallet. It would be fun to ride behind, as long as you're not in a hurry! I doubt it'd break twenty mph even if you threw it off the Eiffel Tower.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ro9tx4s3omowxe4/2014_0103_002813_011.MOV?dl=0 Just a small video taken with a Gopro like in July, this year.
Here is her story translated from the "Trains des Pignes site" : THE "PORTUGUESE" LOCOMOTIVE E211 The locomotive E211 locomotive is part of a serie built in sixteen units between 1911 and 1923 by the firm Henschel & Sohn in Kassel, for the Portuguese network of Caminhos de Ferro do Minho e Douro (R). Commissioned in the last batch delivered in 1923, it originally bears the number 461 and will become E211 during the constitution of the Caminhos de ferro Portugueses (CP) in 1947. It is an articulated locomotive system Mallet, designed to develop a significant tractive effort on the mountain lines. Its four-cylinder compound mechanism uses steam for the first time in two "high pressure" cylinders fixed to the chassis seat, and then a second time in a pair of low pressure cylinders cc on a moving front axle. Used on metric gauges in Val do Vouga, Porto and Corgo in northern Portugal, the locomotive E 211 underwent its last revision at the Porto-Campanhà workshops on 5 July 1976 and completed its career at the Regua depot in 1981. It is there that it is bought up by the GECP and its transfer by road from Vila-Real to Mézel takes place from 10 to 18 July 1986. It is unloaded on 21 July and the next day at the Puget-Théniers depot, where it will be restored. It will ensure the circulation of the "Steam Train des Pignes" for five seasons, from 1988 to 1992. The Mallet is then parked awaiting funding for a complete overhaul, lifting and partial replacement of the boiler. This operation was carried out from September 2005 to December 2009 by a specialized Italian company, the Lucato Tèrmica workshops in Castelletto-Monferrato in the Piedmontese province of Alessandria. The locomotive returned to Puget-Théniers on 3 December 2009 and, after the necessary adjustments and tests, she resumed service on June 19, 2010 at the head of the "Train des Pignes à vapeur".
