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Updated: 19 Aug 2007, 21:10 ET
(Created 16 Jan 2004)
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S. Berliner, III's

(Berlinerwerke)

Guest Apocrypha Page 2

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
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THE BERLINERWERKE GUEST APOCRYPHA

This page sponsored jointly (lots of 'em) by the
National Railway Hysterical Society
and the
National Muddle Railroad Association.

(Lighten up - they're spoofs!)

[See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga
and Berlinerwerke Apocrypha (for tall tales of the Berlinerwerke, itself).]

Insanity doesn't run in my family, it just sort of dawdles along.

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). (03 Oct 06)

INDEX:

On the Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha Page 1:
NORTHEAST CORRIDOR FREIGHT ENGINES.
LEWELLEN NORTHERN GARRATTS.
CSXT AC100CBW and NSC CB100W-10 10,000 horsepower locos!
EMD SW-13 Switchers

On this Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha Page 2:
Parker Parodies - loco research by Karen Parker (moved to this page on 16 Jan 04).
Scott A. Bowman's SB Locomotives - Scott Squad Railroad.
Erick Anderson's Locomotives.

On the Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha Page 3:
Scott A. Bowman's SB Locomotives - Scott Squad Railroad (continued).
Jeffrey Mott's EMD TD60. (19 Aug 07)

Parker Parodies (moved in part to this page from BW Apocrypha Continuation page 4 on 16 Jan 04).

{I may have messed up some links and references in this transfer;
please advise me if I did so.

[Projects in which the BW played no part or only a minor rôle and which appeal to me appear here; BW locomotives or ones in which the BW was heavily involved will continue to appear on BW Apocrypha Continuation page 4.]

Now, here is a worthy contribution from Karen Parker, whose PixelMagic site* is truly spectacular; it is a MUST SEE! This is the long-forgotten Ely-Thomas #13, the World's Only Twin-Vee-Twin Climax Locomotive:

* - when you visit Karen's site, there are two modes of access; one is to follow through her NARRATIVE and the other is to use the INDEX. If you want specific items, use the Index, otherwise follow the narrative.

Karen made two serious errors, though; NEVER try to cover BW locos without first checking with the BW! They have to do with a BW/EMD diesel and a BW/Lima steamer and the correct versions are shown on my BW Apocrypha page 4 at Parker Parodies.

Oh, my Gawd! Karen put in some overtime! This is her rendition of the what must be the world's longest, heaviest, and most powerful Shay, the Lima-Beyer-Peacock (maybe that should read Bayer?) Garratt Shay:

(T. Hamer image as altered by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - please click on picture for larger image.]

And then she wrote - - - the fabulous V-4 four-truck Heisler:

Cass Scenic #6? It grew some! It can't do wheelies but it CAN do 0-60 in 6 - 0-60 inches/second in 6 hours is no problem at all (per Karen).

Now Karen is a dear, sweet person and she put in a lot of work to find a photo of a Pennsified N&W "A" 2-6-6-4 working the Horseshoe Curve under a Keystone but, much as I appreciate her efforts (and I really do), alas, once again, she's been hornswoggled by some unscrupulous photographer:

(Image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - please click on picture for larger image.]

The Berlinerwerke was in on this project and that is a doctored photo, a photofake (can you believe that?)! I know from our old BW files that the actual engine built was a George Ersatz design, a very special, one-of-a-kind Pennsy #4666 Gallitzin Class GSa1 4-6-6-6 high-speed, dual-service loco which was actually photographed here on the Curve working hard at the head end of an enormous freight, running up hill at speed, unassisted by pushers:

(BW file image courtesy of S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - please click on picture for larger image.]

I keep telling Karen to check with me FIRST!

Karen's 2003 Christmas card arrived with this superb image of the Chesapeake & Ohio #1544 Super Allegheny 2-6-6-6-6 blasting by "with a manifest freight as the penguins watch" (penguins? - whatcha been smokin', Karen?):

(Dec 2003 Image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image]

Oops! Sorry; I didn't realize the loco (and I use the term advisedly) was running on the C&O's little-known Patagonian Extension.

Karen also sent me this 2004 New Year's present, a photo of the BW/Eeerie 2-4-6-8-10-12 #9999 working a heavy freight out on the road:

It was a little known fact that the BW worked closely with the C&O and various erectors to come up with many outstanding units. The one Karen calls the "All New 2003 Critter II" is just plain wrong! What she shows is only an artist's mistaken rendition of the C&O's #5065, ludicrous and fanciful. The actual Critter II loco was the C&O #5066, a joint venture of the C&O, EMD, and the BW:

Then, Karen also shows a "builder's photo" of the C&O Class H-10 2-8-8-6 #1803, but that's an obvious photofake. The design could not have worked because of severe nosing problems with the single-axle lead truck at high speeds and the BW again collaborated with the C&O and with Lima to produce the actual unit, the C&O 4-8-8-6 Class T-11 "Chesapeakèd", #4886:

As I noted herein, "NEVER try to cover BW locos without first checking with the BW!"

Karen also shows the C&O quintuple articulated hopper and the C&O H-9 0-6-6-0F Fireless Super Cooker #39; what she does NOT realize is that that Super Hopper was NOT scrapped but was used by the C&O to haul depleted uranium for Berliners Bessere Biffie Bauerei (Berliner's Better Biffy Builders). The load was so heavy that an adaptation of the Fireless Super Cooker had to be made, the Super Cooker V and, even better yet, here it is in use:

(08 Oct 03 image by SB,III based on K. Parker images - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

Clever use of ALCo lateral motion devices on all the outer engines and flangeless drivers on the inner ones obviated the need for a hinged boiler but crews did have to be very careful on yard trackage.

Karen has since added a V6 Shay that I really don't care for at all, even though her workmanship is superb, and so I shuffled through Ira Ersatz's voluminous files and found a sketch he'd done, again over a patent drawing, showing just how he intended to add three more cylinders:

(08 Oct 03 image by and © 2003 SB,III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

The three horizontal cylinders, and thus the entire engine, had to be ahead of the firebox, not alongside it, of course.

For New Year's, 2004, Karen presented me with a builder's photo of the C&O's Lima Superpower T-2, a 2-10-6, #3103:

Karen followed this with the T-3 C&O-Lima Superpower high-wheeled 4-10-6, but it's odd; the lead truck has inside bearings (Lima used normally outside bearings while the C&O normally used inside bearings):

Well, that got me to thinking; I seemed to remember something very similar, only much bigger. I rummaged around in the BW files and found that BW and Lima had collaborated on a C&O Superpower T-4, a one-off 4-12-6, #3813:

It never fails to amaze me how those RR photographers always had their favorite locations for photos.

These class numbers got scrambled but have now been corrected upon receipt from Karen of a builder's photo of the most amazing (and least known) loco of all; the Lima/C&O T-5, a 4-14-6!

(07 Jan 04 image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[This image required minor rework by the BW Art Dept.]

Well, this called to mind another variation built by the BW; go back to the BW Apocrypha Cont. page 4 for the T-6 Doppelgänger.

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:

(08 Jan 04 image by K. Parker - all rights reserved)
[This image required minor rework by the BW Art Dept.]

Per Karen, contrary to appearances, this is a 4-10-6, NOT a 4-4-6-6. There are inside rods connecting the two sets of drivers (this is the Withuhn Configuration, as described in Bill Withuhn's article, "Did We Scrap Steam Too Soon?", published in TRAINS in the mid '70s). An interesting bit of trivia about this arrangement is that on the other side the split between the two groups of drivers is between numbers 3 and 4, so on that side the apparent wheel arrangement is 4-6-4-6. It is a compound -- the rear cylinders are high pressure, the front cylinders are low pressure, the big pipe from back to front carries exhaust steam from the HP to the LP cylinders. Because the two sets of cylinders operate out of phase, dynamic augment is significantly reduced (95% is quoted in the article), allowing the use of much smaller drivers, 60" in this case. The lower drivers move the peak of the HP curve to a lower speed. The use of poppet valves is essential if the locomotive is to be able to operate at higher speeds, and helps keep the HP up at higher speeds. The smaller drivers also keep the overall size of the beast within reason. Since the boiler and firebox are essentialy the same as on an Allegheny, and the compound drive is very efficient, this loco should be capable of 7,500 to 8,000 HP at the drawbar, making it an excellent fast freight engine that is also capable of pulling a passenger train or a coal drag, if needs be, although with a coal drag the use of a high speed booster in the trailing truck will probably be necessary.

As for the U-2 class designation, there was a previous 4-10-6 duplex drive locomotive, without the inside connecting rods, and with larger drivers, and not compound, that was less than successful, that was class U-1:

These locomotives were designed after the previously built T-2 and T-3 engines proved too slippery and the larger T-4 and T-5 versions, while exhibiting good adhesion, proved to be almost as effective at straightening curves as they were at pulling trains. The U-2 finally managed to harness the power inherent in the big boiler and firebox in an engine that was smaller than the Allegheny (although only a little bit smaller), and was capable of running at higher speeds than the Allegheny.

[I choose to disagree; they, like duplexii, were not at all slippery
when run by an accomplished hogger. See also the T-6 Doppelgänger. - SB,III]

{I may have messed up some links and references in this transfer;
please advise me if I did so.

Speaking of turbines, I cooked up a PRR 6-10-6 on the BW Apocrypha and Karen, impatient to see what I would concoct, came up with her own loco, a 6-6-6-6 duplex turbine! This is a magnificent effort:

Ya gotta hand it to Karen; this is one of the best yet; magnificent!

Karen liked the diagram of a proposed Erie 2-6-6-4 in Erie Power; it wouldn't leave her alone and she just couldn't resist, with this result, on the Starrucca Viaduct: (19 Sep 06)

Another gem!

Scott A. Bowman's SB Locomotives - Scott Squad Railroad

Scott Bowman is a teen who has has made a grand contribution to the science of LOCOmotion; he has sent along his drawings of the Scott Squad Railroad's two SB Locomotives, the Nuclear Hydrogen Fusion Steam Turbine Electric Concept and The Quantum Nucleonic Steam Turbine Electric Concept (The Quantum Thruster)
[I have rearranged his two basic drawings to save page space and then broken out details of the various aspects]:

(Rearranged from Jun 05 image by and © 2005 S. Bowman - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

Now, for larger details of the Hydrogen Fusion loco; the schematic and the loco itself:

(cropped from Jun 05 image by and © 2005 S. Bowman - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

[The only fault I find is the venting of helium; it might be radioactive and it could be usefully employed to float trial balloons or stock issues. I think Ira Ersatz would probably have inserted a diaphragm across the tender tank and pumped the helium in to displace the hydrogen.]

Larger details of the Quantum Thruster loco; the schematic, the Hafnium-178 Power Plant, and the loco itself:

SBLocoFusionPwrPlant

(cropped from Jun 05 image by and © 2005 S. Bowman - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

I can't speak to the physics involved but I like the execution.

Not bad, Scott; not bad at all and well worthy of inclusion here!

More of Scott's work appears on Berlinerwerke Guest Apocrypha Page 3. (02 Oct 06)

Erick Anderson's Locomotives - here's another guest who's come a long way. Erick submitted this AC150CDCW, an alcohol-electric (another Alcohaulic?) turbine (17 Jul 05):

(17 Jul 05 image by E. Anderson - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnailed image - click on picture for larger image]

Vital stats:
Maximum horsepower:  15000
Power source:  Gas turbines (8), fuel cells (8)
Fuel:  Ethanol
Wheel arrangement:  C-C+D-D+C-C

Using multiple turbines takes care of the problem which plagued the original GE turbines; they were designed to run at a specific speed. Multiple turbines and fuel cells allow maximum efficiency across the whole speed range. Clean-burning ethanol, bought cheaply in the Midwest, is carried in fuel tenders converted from large tank cars. The permanently-coupled A-B-A setup means that it is unnecessary to turn the locomotive around at the end of a run. It's only necessary to move the tender to the other end.

Erick feels that the Union Pacific would be interested in this thing.

I can't abide swapping ends, especially on such a huge unit, so here's the BW's version, the AC150BWCW:

Same specs, but:

Wheel arrangement:  C-C+D-C+6-6+C-D+C-C

One could always articulate the fool thing, the AC150BWCD:

(19 Jul 05)

Same specs, but:

Wheel arrangement:  C-D-C+6-6+C-D-C

I like that but I think I like this version even better, the AC150BWDD:

(19 Jul 05)

Same specs, but:

Wheel arrangement:  D-D+6-6+D-D

How's about THEM little apples?

An Italian by the name of Andrea Luigi Menenghini (a.k.a. Andrew Ludwig Mailender) wrote me on 16 Sep 06 that he's very interested in the development of extreme steam locomotives. After long research and after a long session at the local pub, he found an interesting project developed by ALCo for the Union Pacific and sent a picture he feels is the only relict of a project never realized because the UP found it necessary to do something stupid like building turbines... He suspects Ira Ersatz had a hand in this project, too, and asked if I could help with some questions. He understood that the Huge Boys (the name somebody wrote with a pencil on the project) were to be used to avoid making up too many trains on the Wyoming line; instead of four or five trains daily, the UP wanted to have one each day. It seems that the UP board had to go to the Christmas party that day, so they decided to waste money in another less useful way than to produce this really good engine. (17 Sep 06)

Andrea-cum-Andrew was curious and infected me with same, so I did my homework. It seems that the Huge Boy drawing he sent was ever so slightly premature; as it developed, the actual projected 4-8-8-8-4 had a longer firebox and a much greater coal-to-water ratio in its tender, largely at Ira's behest. After much diligent searching in the BW Art Dept., the final proposal drawing turned up: (21 Sep 06)

Grazie/Thanks, Andrea/Andrew! Andrea then sent me what he thought was the Huge Boy final drawing but it was actually a preliminary version of the above with an appropriately-longer firebox and tender and I did more research and found the true final image, a 4-8-8-8-6:

(19 Sep 06) and

(21 Sep 06)

Thank God for ALCo's lateral motion devices!

See the biography of Constance Brontë (1816 - 1856) for the story of her 4-14-4 "Impediment" class loco, "Feculent", with 11' drivers!

More tales precede on BW Guest Apocrypha Page 1.

More tales will follow (hopefully - contributions are always welcome).

See also the HO (1:87.1) Berlinerwerke saga or the Z (1:220) Berlinerwerke-Z saga
and Berlinerwerke Apocrypha, et seq., (for tall tales of the Berlinerwerke, itself).

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".

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

S. Berliner, III

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

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