described as "almost a complete disaster"!
Yet the Russki Ridiculosities described thereon were real (really ridiculous), like the
camel (a horse designed by a committee - or was it the elephant?)!
Parker Parodies - Karen Parker has an absolutely fantastic site,
PixelMagic, which is truly spectacular and is a MUST SEE!, with
most original locomotives, á lā BW and Ersatz Motive, but mostly made for the
C&O. Just for example, a fabulous Ely-Thomas Twin-Vee-Twin Climax
appears on the BW Guest Apocrypha Page
2. However, she has made several egregious errors on C&O locos;
these have been corrected on Guest Page 2. Projects in which the BW
played no part or only a minor rôle and which appeal to me appear there; BW
locomotives or ones in which the BW was heavily involved will continue to
appear here.
{I may have messed up some links and references in this transfer;
please advise me if I did so.
Pennsy Multiplex
The fabled Wopsononock Class YNOT
2-4-6-8-10-12
During World War II, the incessant pounding of mainline freights over the
Horseshoe Curve caused the track to slip inward, tightening the curvature and
threatening to cause serious derailments and interruption of the flow of critical war
materiel. Even constant high-speed troop and passenger consists, pushing
outward and tending against this tendency, could not offset the inexorable inward
drift of the trackage. Hearing of this dire predicament, the BW's irrepressible
Ira Ersatz suggested that the old Eerie Trippplllex
[the "O. D. Ball" Malllet Articklllated, Class Y-2b (or not 2b)] be resurrected for its
nasty habit of straightening the rails. His more serious brother, George Ersatz,
instantly seized on the idea; why not? Thus, the concept for the most
incredible steam locomotive of all time, capable of outpulling any single locomotive
ever built, as well as double- or triple-headers, the Pennsy's fabled Wopsononock
Class YNOT 2-4-6-8-10-12 was born. Design sketches
were submitted to the PRR and the U. S. Railway Administration and were accepted
almost immediately. The War Production Board allocated sufficient quantities of
high-tensile steel and the Berlinerwerke's Cresson facility, working at top priority with
the Pennsy's Altoona and Juniata shops fabricated this most extraordinary loco in a
remarkably short time.
We have the resourceful and redoubtable Karen Parker (above),
in conjunction with the ever-helpful Berlinerwerke Art Department, to thank for this
builder's photo of the Wopsononock:
(13 Jan 04 image by and © copyright K. Parker and S. Berliner, III -
all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]
Learning from the Eerie's mistakes, the locomotive, utilizing the best Pennsy practice
of the time, was rated for 300psi of steam, supplied by a massive firebox fed by
tandem Standard HT stokers. Ira's most innovative idea, reduced to effective
practice by the ever-efficient George, was to have a canteen (auxiliary tender)
semi-permanently-coupled by a drawbar and fitted with a conduit to the rear of the
tender and an automatic pump operated by water level detectors in the tender
cistern such that the tender cistern was always topped off, thus maintaining traction
on the rear engine. This did away with the regrettable tendency of the rear
(third) engine of triplexes to slip as the water in the tender was depleted. In
addition, steam from the third engine exhausted through the tender cistern and that
from the fourth (tender) engine through the cistern of the canteen, thus preventing
either cistern from freezing in severe winter weather. To supply sufficient
water to the huge boiler, twin feedwater pumps and lifting injectors were fitted, as
was a special, oversized Worthington Type SA feedwater heater, mounted between
the twin stacks and the forward sand box on the boiler top.
To hold the weight of the giant main cistern, the tender was fitted with a unique
twelve-wheel radial trailing (if one can call it that) truck with ALCo lateral motion
devices on the two axles at each end. In addition, to guarantee sufficient
starting tractive effort, a novel set of small steam turbines was fitted to each of the
six axles of the tender trailing truck, exhausting out of a smaller stack behind the
stack for the third engine at the rear of the tender cistern deck.
The canteen was basically the cistern ends of two 250P84 tenders butted together.
Although fitted with standard Pennsy claw-foot markers and a brow-mounted
headlight, the locomotive also had a steerable auxiliary headlight mounted on the
pilot deck and connected by an ingenious linkage to the pilot truck such that it
projected its beam around the curves. The locomotive was set up for
high-speed passenger service, sporting dual generators to handle the load, but was
never utilized in that mode. For freight service, George Ersatz came up with
another innovation aimed at cold-weather; the usual PRR freight doghouse was a
torture chamber for brakies in sub-zero temperatures, even though fitted with a
steam heater, so George utilized the enormous space behind the firebox to make a
double-sized cab with room for the conductor's desk and for the brakeman,
cantilevered out over the fourth engine's cylinders.
To supply enough air for all those engines and overlength trains, two sets of
duplexed Westinghouse 8½" 150-S (high-pressure) cross-compound air
compressors are mounted, with one set on each side to balance the weight.
Departing from tradition, stuffy Pennsy Motive Power management, prodded heavily
by the PR Department, assigned a five-digit number, 10000, to the loco.
Happily for humanity, the war ended before the YNOT could really
strut its stuff, but the runs it did make over the Horseshoe Curve showed that it
was both exceedingly effective in straightening curved rail and able to pull as
hard as (and harder than) drawbars and coupler knuckles and knuckle pins could
handle. Rapid post-war dieselization side-lined this wonderful beast; her
final disposition is yet unknown.
BW/Lima/C&O T-6 4-14-6 Doppelgänger
When Ira Ersatz got wind of the C&O 4-14-6 T-5 (photo repeated here),
(07 Jan 04 image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[This image required minor rework by the BW Art Dept.]
he got a brainstorm which the ever-practical George Ersatz reduced to practice
in the form of design sketches he presented to Lima and C&O management.
They liked the concept and gave the BW a vote of confidence and a go-ahead in
the form of a contract to erect one experimental loco, also a 4-14-6, to be
classed T-6 and given road number 5500. Ira's idea, which he dubbed
the Berlinerwerke Doppelgänger ("Double"), was to double the length
of the cylinders and piston rod, bore the forward portion of the cylinders out 1"
oversize, fit the rear piston, slide a diaphragm plate with a standard (if
double-sided) rod gland inside, butted against the back of the overbore, and
then slide in a ½" thick sleeve to bring the bore back to normal diameter,
fit the forward piston, and bolt on the normal cylinder front. Similar
arrangements were made to the piston valves and dual steam delivery pipes
and stacks were placed in the lengthened smokebox. Of course, a pilot
truck with a longer wheelbase and heavier journals was required. The
BW/Lima/C&O T-6 4-14-6 Doppelgänger, then (a builder's photo):
(16 Jan 04 image by and © 2004 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
{There's that favored photo location, again!}
This produced twice the normal thrust but the War Production Board, always willing to
help the BW in its outstanding efforts to enhance the war effort, released sufficient
quantities of high-strength steel, and greatly strengthened main and side rods and
wrist pins were easily able to accomodate the load.
The Doppelgänger was enormously successful, although a bit rough on couplers,
draftgear, and tires, so much so that the normally-reactionary Pennsylvania Railroad
ordered a similar unit (which we finally have been able to trace), but rapid postwar
dieselization doomed it, also. Its disposition is unknown.
A parallel C&O development, one which was far outstripped by the Doppelgänger,
was the U-2 4-10-6, later known as the
Withuhn Configuration, shown on the Guest page.
The Pennsylvania Railroad Class Zoo 4-14-6 Dopplegänger #10001
I had really hoped we could track down that Pennsy unit and, lo and behold, it turned
up (amazing)! First, Karen Parker found this Streamstyled version but she was
way off on that; that was a later design study but was never actually adopted:
(17 Jan 04 image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
{Very-slightly enhanced by the BW Art Dept.}
Some diligent further searching uncovered the actual Pennsy unit, classified in the
Z-series (which had been assigned to experimental units) as Class Zoo and assigned
road number 10001 (following the precedent of the Multiplex, whch is exactly what
the Motive Power people feared):
(18 Jan 04 image by and © 2004 K. Parker/S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
The Zoo was quite a beast; unkind wags said that the sub-class letters "oo"
stood for "outlandish and outrageous"! This loco never did
get tested at Altoona; it had too many connected driving wheelsets for the Test Plant!
In tests out on the road, it performed far better than expected and was found to
handle the Horseshoe Curve quite well at drag speed and was acceptable for
passenger service if held down to 60mph on the Curve. Serial production was
being set in work when dieselization reared its bland, characterless head.
Piker and Oscar
[Moved from main BW Apocrypha page 12 Dec 03]
and again to page 3 on 18 Jan 04).
DD3 and BW-EMD F-45 and FP-45 Variations
Over and above the infamous DDP-45, the BW came up with many variations on the
basic F-45 and FP-45 diesel locos (and I do mean loco); they are listed on the
EMD page and I'll repeat the list here, with photos (unfinished and, in some
cases, badly blurred but you'll get the idea); I had never intended showing these to
anyone until they were finished but that started 20 years ago or so and some are
shown on my BW Saga pages so as long as I was at it taking a photo of version 2 of
the DD3, I went down to the layout and took rough shots of the unfinished BW diesels
(those based on the F/FP-45), as well.
DD3 - original version:
DD3 - substitute version (squashed DD1s):
F-4.5 (0-B-0):
(20 Dec 03)
FP-4.5 (0-C-0):
F-45B (C-C):
F-50 (C-C):
FP-50 (C-C):
DDP-45 (D-D) (as above):
DDP-50 (C-C+C-C) - cobbered up:
DDP-50 (C-C+C-C) - shop trucks (wood chassis):
DDP-50 (C-C+C-C) - chassis:
TDP-45 (C+C+C+C):
[Dec 03 (except old DD3 and DDP-45) images by and © 2003 SB,III - all rights reserved]
Gotta get me some working full-width diaphragms for the TDP-45!
The F-4.5 shot was badly blurred and not worth the effort to reshoot but I did,
anyway. Some of those bodies were put together with Testor's lemon
(non-hydrocarbon) cement and have fallen apart. The F-4.5 and DDP-50
chassis have yet to be cut to fit.
The box with the FP-90MAC (C-C) unfinished chassis and body, which had
gone missing, turned up in Dec 2007 and I got a spare SD-90MAC shell;
now I have to get busy!
(31 Jan 08)
Note that I added missing hyphens/dashes to the BW-EMD classes
but not to the DD3 (the PRR did not use hyphens/dashes).
Because the Apocrypha and Guest Apocrypha indices exceeded the capacity of the
individual pages, they are now presented in full on a separate
Berlinerwerke Apocrypha Index (including the
Guest Apocrypha Index).
See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z
(1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga
and Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha
(for taller tales?).
Also, see the fabled BW DDP45 and
other EMD engines EMD may never have dreamed of!
Have I ever told you that there are many Web sites and fora and chats and such that
have very serious discussions about the relative merits of DDP-45, the Z6s, and
these other loco locos vis-ā-vis the Big Boy, etc.! Doncha just love it!
More tales will follow.
[See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga.]
If you like this sort of nonsense, take a gander at Jim Wells' incredible
and at the AW NUTS Magazine site, "A Publication of the A.W. N.U.T.S. Garden Railway Society".
If you are air-minded (take that as you choose), you must see the Lion Air site! I'd be Lion if I didn't warn you to keep your tongue in your cheek on this one!
Take your tongue out of your cheek and visit D. Dickens' The Patiala State Monorail Tramway site; whooie (and it's for real)!
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of Berlinerwerke Apocrypha pages.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2003,
2004, 2006,
2008
- All rights reserved.
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