KCS steam would have to be an acquired taste.
Lot of appliances were tried on engines briefly only to disappear.
Frisco's 1515 through the 1529 where all built with an exhaust steam injector system which didn't seem to last hardly any time. It took up so much room that it caused them to mount the main air reservoirs on top of the boiler, hence the different appearance than the 1500-1514. They were built with the reservoirs under the running boards and were equipped with Baker valve gear.

and what is with the long rod running to the valve gear. I've never seen anything like that before either.

KCS had some "straight forward" stuff. Their J class 2-10-4's, H class Pacifics, and ten wheelers were pretty sharp in my opinion. I'm biased though.

.

On the contrary, I never saw a steam locomotive I didn't like!

Les

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't figure out for certain what this side rod extension drove!

Well, I'm not sure if we have a winner here or not. Some good ideas tossed around, I wonder who came the closest? And, we got to see a few more interesting photos of the 557 & others. If the guys watching this thread can't positively identify this apparatus, I wouldn't know where else to try. It's been good reading, and I won't take this photo for granted anymore.

To add to the mystery I give you... Canadian Pacific Railway 2-8-0 #1621.





A friend found this builders photo (ALCO 1904), in an antique shop, remembered this
conversation and sent me the photos to share.

He also adds that "CP1621 was re-numbered to 3421 (M-4-d Class) in August, 1912
and was scrapped in April, 1954. "

He too was intrigued with the KCS 557 photo when this thread came up and I asked
him if he had checked his collection of Locomotive Cyclopedias and he commented that
" I had previously searched not only all of my cyc's, but EVERYTHING else in my library
as well and came up cold."

However, "Now that another photo has surfaced - and CP at that - I'll do more
searching as it now becomes a little more local. Although, for whatever reason, it
seems this technology did not last long so any information on it is probably long gone.
I believe that about the time CP did their re-numbering in 1912, modifications were
made to these engines this device was removed then. No photos of 3421 or her sisters
exist showing this device".

Upon my own examination, this linkage seems to impart a linear motion up to the cab,
while the linkage on KCS 557 may be connected to a gear box that created rotary motion.

So there you have it.

One clue may be that both engines were built by ALCO.

I wonder if the linkage/device on the CPR engine (built 1904) is a "primitive" version of the linkage/device on the KCS engine (built 1913)

On the CPR engine, maybe that's a drive for a mechanical lubricator, mounted in the cab (where the engineer can see it-) instead of under the running board? Shays had them in about the same location in the cab.