If you look at the steam chest you can see a rod that runs down from behind the valve stem and then by the means of a joint enters below the valve seat. I don't think it is connected to the motion. Does anyone have any guesses to what this might be? Would this be for water brakes or something of the like?
The image was taken from an Ebay posting that has now ended. I wish I'd remembered to bid on it...



Thank you very much,
John

P.S. Is it just me or is the front pony truck wheel bigger than the rear?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to say that's a neat looking locomotive. Ned

Indeed. Interesting application of Walschaerts on a slide valve engine.

I don't know if it's connect to the motion or not but is that an unusually tall valve? If it was connected could it be some technology that somehow involved two, stacked valves?

Suspect this may involve Hobart-Alfree valves.

It can't be a device like riding cutoff or variable auxiliary exhaust valves because it is driven directly off the valve rod, not via separate adjustment.

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I blew up the image in the original post and I think Kelly is precisely right: you can see the cross-shaft behind the trunnion, and the tightening bolt that holds the visible crank (which is a subtly different color from the bracket) tight on that cross-shaft, presumably with either a flat or key arrangement to lock it in alignment; it looks as if there is at least one universal or flexible joint (near the valve chest) on the rod connecting that crank to whatever is behind the cylinder jacketing...

When you start digging through photos of engines from that era you'll find so many mysterious experimental devices that only lasted a few years. So much from that era seems to have escaped documentation.