I am in search of any drawings or photos showing the method of equalization for small 2-4-0 (and maybe 2-4-2) locomotives. In particular the engines at Cedar Point. If anybody here is involved with the CP&LE I would love to talk to you.
Thanks,
E

I'm guessing you saw this from the CP&LE website already, a not very detailed photo of their #802 being converted from a tank engine, and anyway I think it was an 0-4-0 at the time (it is now a 2-4-0 it looks like, although the photo I am going by may be of a different engine)

Hi,

http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Spring_Equalization.pdfSpring%20Equalization%20for%20Steam%20Locomotives might help out.

My guess that the rear driver would be like Figure 3. The front driver and lead truck would be like Figure 8.

I hope this helps some.

Doug vV

Bad link. Better link :
http://dougkerr.net/Pumpkin/articles/Spring_Equalization.pdf

The rear driver would be "fixed", only simply sprung on each axlebox. The front driver would be equalized with the load balanced three ways: left, right, and pony.

Per Baldwin. "Style 5" is as close as they get, but a 2-4-0 would use the same system, except axle #5 and the equalizer in front of it are deleted, and #4's springs would dead end to the frame at both ends. The front end to the #3 springs are tied together with a cross equalizer, and the hanger up from the equal beam to the lead truck ties into the center of that cross equalizer.

Thank you very much. This confirms what I suspected, but could not verify in my searches. I am designing a leading truck from scratch for an 0-4-0 (basically exactly what cedar point has done) on a smaller scale. I have access to a small mogul to design my leading truck from, which makes life easier.
Thanks again
E

All of the locomotives on the CP&LE had the pilot truck added after arriving there, with the exception of the Mogul "Albert". Sam Conti of Lakecraft Welding in Toledo did the work in the beginning, adding a pilot to "Maud L ". The truck itself was fabricated by the Plymouth Locomotive Works. Later "Jennie K" and "Victoria" (now George R) were converted in house, as well as the two Vulcan locomotives.

I have most of the photos from the now defunct CP&LE website, there may be photos of the pilot truck before it's installation on one of the locomotives. Just need to sort through them.

I would love to see pictures if you have them. I would really like to see the engines in person to take measurements and get photos.

Jennie K's information squares with what I was told by Mike Hetrick and John Foster, when I worked on the Cedar Point and Lake Erie back in 1972. Plus before the freeway was completed, I remember driving by an industrial site on the lake side, along Ohio Route 163, perhaps it was Lakecraft Welding, west of downtown Port Clinton, and seeing at least one small, narrow gauge steam locomotive stored outside the building. A quick Google search shows Lakecraft is still in business, although not in the location I remember, but then it has been almost 50 years.

G.F.Payne
Baltimore, MD

As a side note, the current GM of Cedar Point has deemed Jennie K surplus and she is going up for auction at Knotts Berry Farm later this Spring. She was shipped out there several years ago for a "second opinion" for refurbishment by then COO Jack Falfas. He was looking at turning the Knotts shop into the corporate steam shop for the chain. When he lost his job the concept was shelved as was the plans for Jennie K. There is fundraising drive by several former CP&LE employees to try to buy her and bring her back to Ohio. They are hoping for at least a cosmetic restoration (she needs a new boiler and smokebox to run again).

Since the Jennie K was brought up, I am also looking for any good pictures of the leading truck design on the CP&LE locos. The Myron H, Judy K and Jennie K are almost identical to the project I am working on. The lead truck with its longitudinal leaf spring arrangement intrigues me. All the pictures I find online, as well as most of the pictures I have taken years ago, show just enough to tease me. Anybody with pictures, drawings or contacts at CP&LE would be my new best friend at this point.
E

The "Jennie K" is currently on the auction block, currently at $26K plus 19% premium:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/j ... ail-071515