Some of you may have visited my Toytopia fantasy site, which can be accessed from http://www.scrmcurator.com. I need some technical help on a project for this fantasy world and y'all are the best people to answer my question.

I'm working on a design for the Malawar Monorail. In short, this fantasy monorail is steam-powered, employing 0-3-0 and 0-5-0 locomotives. The wheels ride on the top of the rail and the main part of the cars (as well as the loco boiler) is slung underneath on a bracket that has a cross section like a question mark. There's a more detailed (albiet confusing) explanation on the site.

Anyway, I need a valve gear design. I want something unusual, different from the Walschaerts or Baker gear usually seen on locomotives. Also, the main rods will connect to the drivers closest to the cylinders like a 4-4-0. Since this is a monorail with only one set of wheels, outside frames and outside gear are pretty much required, and because of the way the side rods are going to work, everything has to be driven off of the one axle.

I want something plausible for two reasons. The first is that I just want something plausible. The second reason is that eventually, I'd like to build a working model of this thing, using solenoids for the pistons.

Any ideas? Is there an existing design out there that wasn't used much, and so would look unusual enough to "fit?" Young, Southern and an outside Stephenson gear would all fit the bill, except they're all a bit complicated and I've never been able to quite get my head around any of them. I was hoping there's some other design that's simpler but still has reverse capabiity.

Here is website to enable you to see animated versions of different types of steam engine valve gear on your computer and be able to control them too.

http://www.tcsn.net/charlied/

The Windows programs are in twelve files, VALGR10.ZIP ,VALGR10A.ZIP to
VALGR10K.ZIP. The total programs expand to about 34 MB. To use, create a folder on your hard drive and download the ZIP files into the folder. From inside the folder use an UNZIP program to unzip the files. To start the program use VGSTART.EXE. Or make a short cut to VGSTART.EXE and place the short cut on the desk top.

Once you click on VGSTART.EXE, you will see a "Valve Gear Selection Menu" After selecting the one you want, refer to the "Valve Gear Controls" listed below, which are a few hints I came up with to help with the basics of running the valve gear.


Valve Gear Controls
Each valve gear has an "Instruction Special" file that may contain the history for that valve gear and/or special instructions, which are for more advanced users.
To view that file, go to the "Help" menu and then "Instruction Special"

There is a button that can be used for turning on and off the steam display and exhaust sounds. The button is in the middle of the window on top and looks like a smoke stack emitting light blue exhaust.

You can also control the speed of rotation and the percent of steam cutoff (forward and reverse), by using the scroll bars on the right side. To manually control the drive wheel, click on "stop" next to the middle scroll bar and scroll back and forth. To resume, click on "run".

To zoom in or out on a certain area, use the scroll bars on the left side or use the "pan and zoom presets" to the left of the scroll bars.

Check out Bagnall - Price(?) gear. It's a sort of outside mounted monkey motion. I've seen only one European industrial teakettle with it - a 4-4-0 in Texas with a tubular Cornishlike boiler.

dave

One small problem - I don't do Windoze. Has anybody done a Java version of these, or is the source code available?

Matt,

Once upon a time, there was a functional steam powered monorail in northwestern Pennsylvania. I don't know how common steam monorails were; this is the only one that I've seen.

It was called the Bradford & Foster Brook RR, and it ran for 1-2 years in the late 1870s. It had at least two locomotives, from the photos that I've seen. One of them had skirting over the running gear, so none of the machinery is visible. The other loco had some sort of inside-the-frame valve motion, that might have been Stephenson (at least, the visible portion in the photos, seems to imply Stephenson).

The railroad was an operational and financial failure - I believe that the "last straw" was a derailment that caused several fatalities.

A book was written on this road, some 30-35 years ago, by Lawrence Kilmer. I believe that the book still gets reprinted from time-to-time, in case you're interested in a copy.

Regards,

John Redden

Isn't there a preserved steam monorail engine in India?

dave

Here is some info on the PA monorail and an unsuccessful design. This page was imaged from "A Locomotive Engineer's Album" by George B. Abdill. If I've read the roman numbers correctly, it was published in 1965.

Yes, and a National Geographic special years ago showed it operating on a museum loop track. It was built to address a stated shortage of rail. Ironically, when the line failed very early on, this same shortage of rail or iron did not result in its immediate recycling. I believe it sat disused for 60 years.