Can anyone tell me which narrow gauge, or really small, locomotives had Baker valve gear when built?

Known to me are the;

"Adler Gulch" 30" gauge, 2-8-0, Baldwin, of Mexican origins

Were there any SAR (Africa), 3'+6" gauge, Locomotives with the gear?

I'm hoping to figure out which gear was used on the smallest locomotives, and hopefully find the blueprints for that same Baker valve gear.

The differences in the gear may not be that significant. Baker valve gear--or more properly, Baker-Pilliod--had an advantage in that it was a standard gear that could be used on almost any locomotive. Variations in valve travel were accounted for by simply installing blocks to limit the travel of the gear as it went to full reverse or full ahead positions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_valve_gear

http://steamtraction.farmcollector.com/ ... DENTS.aspx

Again, we must give great credit to others who share their personal archives with us, with no real reward other than just satisfaction:

http://www.railarchive.net/bakervalve/index.html

http://www.railarchive.net/bakervalve/partscat.htm

Although off topic, another gem in Mr. Leonard's collection is this course on locomotive firing:

http://www.railarchive.net/firing/index.html

Equally fascinating is this booklet from Westinghouse on what were considered future developments in railroad motive power:

http://www.railarchive.net/wecbook/index.html

Have fun exploring. . .

This is the reference that has me looking for a specific Baker casting, and this reference is missing many pages (other baker models?) also;

http://www.railarchive.net/bakervalve/partscat.htm

Thanks to everyone for posting thier libraries!

There were quite a few Baker-equipped 3' 6" locomotives in New Zealand:

A total of 93 locos had Baker gear fitted, distributed as follows:
(from a discussion at the Yahoo "steam_tech" group some years ago)

40 Class J built by North British Loco, Scotland in 1939, coal fired, with 12 later converted to oil.
35 Class Ja built by NZR Hillside shops from 1946-1956, coal fired.
16 Class Ja built by North British in 1952, oil fired, with some detail differences to the NZR built batch.
2 class Ka built by NZR Hutt shops in 1950, oil fired.

The J's are 4-8-2's and the Ka's are 4-8-4's. I believe several of each class have survived and some are still operational.

Those NZR locos are fantastic too,I've aleays liked them, the problem with the NZR locomotives is that its nearly impossible to get the builders blueprints for them.

Getting the blueprints prints for any SAR locomotive is simple (Thanks to: John Young), so I was hoping there were at least a couple of small SAR locos that had the Baker gear.

IIRC, modern Baker-Pilliod valve gear fell included only two standard types: short-frame or long-frame. The N&W used both; why not check their drawing archives? A lot of them are on-line:

http://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/rollings ... tions=True

I have the complete Baker (Pilliod Co.) parts catalog from the 1920s but I only put a few of the more complete and interesting images on the web page -- if you want information on any particular part you can go to my site and email me directly, and I will see what I can find in the book.

I'm glad people are finding my archival material of interest. I just decided to put that Westinghouse booklet up a few weeks ago! I don't have much of that type of thing but want to get what I have out there for others to see.

Dr. Richard Leonard

Richard -

This talk about Baker Valve gear got my brain cells going again (very rare these days). I seem to recall seeing somewhere, animated drawings of various valve gears. Done in slow motion, then speeded up, then slowed down again until the motion and drivers (which were just "circles") came to a complete stop. Then I think the valve gear was thrown into reverse and the motion went slowly in reverse until stopped again. Then the gear was thrown back into forward gear before the animation ended. I can't recall if this was one particular type of valve gear (like Baker) or a number of different types. Am I dreaming all this? Or did someone actually do such an animation and if so, where would I have seen it? Here on RyPN? Or......? If this is just a crazy dream in my head, I wonder if such a thing MIGHT be done? Might expain the differences in the different valve gears to neophytes...like me for instance!

Okay. Time for a cup of tea with crackers and cheese before I head to bed.

Les

Right, Charles Dockstader has downloadable valve gear simulations for virtually all types. There's a link to his site on my Baker Valve Gear page, but here it is: http://www.billp.org/Dockstader/ValveGear.html