Once again I find that I have left a wide, yawning chasm of
time since my last post. I wish that I
could come up with a good reason for not posting something sooner, but there is
none. Sorry, if you have been waiting
for me to post something.
A number of years ago, I found myself in Manitou Springs, CO
at the base of Pike’s Peak. What a great
little town!…beautiful, bright Colorado sunshine…the incredible Garden of the
Gods located just a few miles away…what’s not to like?
I encountered this rather strange looking little, narrow gauge
locomotive sitting right there in the middle of town. It was one of, I believe, 5 locomotives built
by the Baldwin
Locomotive Works
of Philadelphia, PA designed to deal with the problem of how to pull
tourists and materiel up the long, steep slope up Pike’s Peak.
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| The Real Thing! |
A normal locomotive running on standard steel
rails finds itself in serious trouble if they are on a 4% grade, that is, one
that rises just 4 feet for every 100 horizontal feet. The steepest part of the track going up Pike’s
Peak has a grade of 28%! There are only
4 trains in the US that have to deal with this sort of slope and only a few
more around the world, mostly in the Alps.
Many years ago someone came up with the solution to have the train “run”
on standard rails but to drive a “cogged wheel”, i.e. a wheel with teeth, to “climb
up” a matching set of teeth mounted between the regular wheels called a “rack”. I don’t know about the other railroads, but the rack used on Pike’s Peak actually has two rows of teeth to
ensure that no slippage could occur.
I
did not even attempt that level of accuracy. As it was I laboriously cut and glued many
(!) tiny teeth to a strip of basswood.
To do two rows of even smaller teeth was just out of the question.
Another feature about the locomotive is that
the boiler tank is mounted at an angle to the wheels so that it remains
relatively level for maximum efficiency and, probably, safety as it the
locomotive hits the steeper sections of the track. If you saw the locomotive sitting on level
track (like this one), you might wonder if a giant hadn’t come along, picked it up, dropped and
broken it.
I don’t really have too much to say about the
model. All I had to go on were a number
of photos of a number of different, but similar, locomotives. I discovered that many measurements taken
from one photo did not necessarily match those taken from another photo. Also, most of the photos were taken from “artistic”
angles so some things became fore-shortened, making it even more difficult to
get everything just right. As a result,
the model is “close” to being dimensionally correct, but I willingly admit to
having to “fudge” a few places to make everything look “OK”.
I think that the result is pretty good
looking, albeit, not necessarily “accurate”.
I hope you like what you see.
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| Right Side View |
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| Left Side View |
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| Rear Quarter View |
I
did not even attempt that level of accuracy. As it was I laboriously cut and glued many
(!) tiny teeth to a strip of basswood.
To do two rows of even smaller teeth was just out of the question.
Another feature about the locomotive is that
the boiler tank is mounted at an angle to the wheels so that it remains
relatively level for maximum efficiency and, probably, safety as it the
locomotive hits the steeper sections of the track. If you saw the locomotive sitting on level
track (like this one), you might wonder if a giant hadn’t come along, picked it up, dropped and
broken it. 
