On Thursday, 15 May 2014 06:20:03 UTC+2, Larry Sheldon  wrote:
> On 5/14/2014 10:56 PM, Glen Labah wrote:
> 
> > The other interesting thing is that if you look at some of the photos of
> > the yards
> > http://www.noarail.com/members2/v/John+ll/Working+Steam/EAR02.jpg.html
> > the track spacing seems somewhat wider than necessary.  Maybe someone
> > had the idea that someday conversion to standard gauge might happen?
> 
> For the terminally uninformed--what is in the structure in front of the 
> boiler in that picture?  I do not believe I have ever seen such a thing.

It's a relatively conventional Beyer-Garratt locomotive.  The concept is that
the boiler is suspended between two engine-units, the "rear" engine unit
carries the fuel and some water, the "front" engine unit has a water tank (to
supply the boiler, I say 
front and rear in quotes because the locomotives are designed to be used
equally well in either direction), and there is no separate tender.  Ohe
benefit is that the boiler has no wheels or running gear beneath it, so it can
be of large diameter, and can 
sit lower than would be possible with driving wheels beneath it, which is
useful for stability on narrow gauge track.  In general it provides for a
large and powerful locomotive on a light axle loading that can cope with
narrow gauge track with tight 
curvature.

Robin

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