The double ended steam locomotive - Fairlie Locomotives
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- čas přidán 10. 06. 2021
- In this video, we look at Robert Fairlie's attempt to improve the efficiency of steam locomotives by giving them 2 front ends.
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Essentially he created a solution to a problem that didn't exist and in turn create more problems.
Welcome to Entrepreneurship 101 buddy. Finding solutions to problems people didn't know existed.
Hi did solve the very real problem of needing turntables, it just took more flexible drive systems like diesel or electric to make his idea practical.
@@jpgiebl Yes good point.
The actual problem he was trying to fix was how to get more powerful engines on narrow-gauge lines, which are often cramped and twisty.
There was a problem and it did exist.
Traffic on the 2ft gauge Festiniog Railway had increased to the stage that the line desperately needed extra capacity. This could have been done by converting it to double track, or converting it to standard gauge. Neither of these options were practical without vast expense because much of the railway was built on a narrow shelf cut into the hillside. Double-heading was one solution, but this was expensive because it took two locomotives and, more importantly, two crews.
Robert Fairlie thus had the idea of two engines back to back; this saved using two engines double headed. He also had the idea of mounting it on bogies as the Festiniog line is very tortuous with sharp curves; the existing single engines at the time were 0-4-0T/Ts. His Double Fairlie design only needed one set of enginemen, thus saving on the wages of a second crew.
So there was a problem, and it did exist. He solved it, and the Ffestiniog Railway is still using Double Fairlies to this day. In recent times it had built two new Double Fairlies (EARL OF MERIONETH and DAVID LLOYD GEORGE) with a third, JAMES SPOONER, currently under construction in its Boston Lodge Works.
There are plenty of videos of videos of Double Fairlies hard at work on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways on CZcams, including on my channel.
"Damn, look at all this wasted space on fuel and water"
*Massively shrinks the fuel and water space*
"Oh no, it doesn't have enough space for fuel and water!"
*ultimate bruh moment*
It's less shrinking it, and more designing the locomotive in a way that made slapping more on hard.
Which, in the original context these were designed for - increasing pulling capacity on mountainous narrow-gauge railways while keeping the engine's footprint relatively compact and needing only one crew - was an acceptable tradeoff.
bruh thats wut im sayin
Thomas was confused. He didnt know whether Might Mac was coming or going.
That its called double ended locomotive
Where did the fire box go
It’s actually a fairlie locomotive
LOL
Season 7 version of Mighty Mac.
Fairlie: "Tender Engines are deficient"
Simple Answer: just use a tank engine
no just use a garratt witch has tenders mounted above the driving wheels and the boiler slung between
@@IndustrialParrot2816 Fairlies were made before garratts I think
One thing I got to say
First
They were used for long distance AND they would have to stop AT EVERY STATION To get coal
Imagine needing a turntable at the end of the line
Made By Double Fairlie Locomotive Gang
lol
Imagine having less space for water and coal than a tender
Made by the Garratt Gang
Imagine not being able to go over 100 miles an hour
Made by A4 pacific gang
@@gwrstudios5181 imagine needing a tank engine to shunt your coaches
Made by shunting engines gang
@@Igor-sv6jm imagine not being able to reach 60MPH in 30 seconds out of a station
This was made by tank engine gang
Sees “double ended locomotive” in the title
*FFESTINIOG RAILWAY INTENSIFIES*
that is a real mood
*THATWOULDNEVERSUITHISGRACEINTENSIFIES*
@@saltbombcreations8336 Yess
"Hello, I'm Mighty.
And I'm Mac.
And together we're Mighty Mac!"
Thomas has never seen such an unusual engine.
so unsual yet so defective
“I’m mighty Mac and I do the mighty crack”
Nice refrence
The Double Fairlie and the Beyer Garratt: two of the most distinctive British locomotive designs. And the Double Fairlie is just quintessentially Welsh, I see pictures of them, hear about them and instantly think of the Ffestiniog!
Double fairly x Garrett😊
I'm pretty sure the Garratt at the Ffestiniog was acquired from timber railway on the west coast of Tasmania
@@hodaka1000 You are correct, though it's currently at the Statfold Barn Railway I believe. K1 is considered to be the first Garratt built. Though the Welsh Highland has far more powerful Garratts now from South Africa so K1 might've been pretty much surplus to requirements?
@@dominicbarden4436
I don't think it should ever have been allowed to leave Australia
If I'm not mistaken our NSWR Garretts were the largest in the world
@@hodaka1000 I think they are, yeah, AD60s are certainly impressive! One of my favourite Aussie locos.
So that's the inspiration for mightymac's design
Yes
Ngl I just assumed the show makers just made something up, but apparently not!
You should know better @@garrettbates9124
A case of a sound idea being ahead of the current technology. I wonder what Fairlie would say if he knew his wheel concept was the standard for diesels around the world.
Correction: articulated locomotives actually _did_ catch on to an extent, as a method of building a larger locomotive that can still navigate tight turns. The UK was one of the few places where such designs didn't take off well.
Notable non-American articulated locomotives include the massive (by meter gauge standards) SEG Mallets, the Saxon Class XV and the South African Garrets. To note, many non-American examples of articulated locomotives are narrow gauge and used specifically to pull heavy loads at low speeds through mountainous regions.
Garrett locomotive were also used in Australia
I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure the NSWR Garretts were the largest one in the world
Shay and Climax were other American articulated locomotive
@@hodaka1000
I would considered multi-truck geared locomotives like the Shay and Climax to be in a separate category, since their drivelines have more in common with 4-axle diesels than with other steam locomotives.
@@VestedUTuber
I think that's splitting hairs
@@hodaka1000
The difference is significant and well defined. Articulated locomotives have the drive cylinders on the trucks (which would include Davenport's geared locomotive design). Whereas Shays, Climaxes and Heislers are shaft-driven with the drive cylinders on the chassis. You don't call four-axle or six-axle diesels "meyer articulated diesels", do you?
@@VestedUTuber
I might
I love the Fairlie locomotives. It's awesome to see locomotives with double ends.
"some american steam locomotives still incorporated swiveling powered bogies such as the big boy but for the most part the standard wheel layout worked much better" some ? durring the height of the steam era in the 1930's to 1950's in the US around 1600 articulated locomotives where in service and where proved to be incredibly capable machines that proved themselves as economicaly viable and where the best steam freights haulers on the main line
I mean yeah, but its still "some" relative to the overall number of locomotives im the US. I mean there were more Mikados in the US then there were all the different articulated wheel arrangements put together.
@@whispofwords2590 a single articulated could do on average 2 to 3 and a half times the work that a 2-8-2 could do so articulated locomotives made up a similar amount of work to 2-8-2s even tho they had smaller numbers, and one or more class of advanced articulated was a common thing on 90% of large railroads and they where still many many times more common than the video makes em out to be, i know that the 2-8-0 and 2-8-2 where far more common than articulated, I'm just stating that the video making articulated locomotives out to be something rare even in the US is flat out false information, also they where common in Brazil, Africa and Australia
@@monke3842 Even going off of what you just saud theyre still rare. Them being powerful and able to do the work of multiple smaller engines doesnt make up for the fact that that entire type of locomotive was outnumbers by a single wheel arrangement.
@@whispofwords2590 i think we just have different definitions of rare
@@whispofwords2590 they were most definitely not rare on mainlines. Yes, very few class 2 and 3 lines had articulated engines, and most used second hand engines from class 1 lines. But all of the class 1's had swapped to using articulated steamers for heavy freight, and only using traditional ones for fast freight and passenger service. (Excluding oc the PRR T-1) So yes, across ALL lines, they would be rare. But on mainlines, they were staples.
The only reason why they didn't become even more common was because the diesels popped up almost at the exact same time. It was well known to the mechanical engineers that they were working on a dying breed, and they really poured their hearts and souls into the beasts. Had there been more time until diesels took over, there would have been even more articulated engines.
PRR T-1, PRR Mountain and others, C&O's Mountain and another one or two, N&W had some. UP had the Big Boy and Challenger. SP had some including the Cab Forward. Santa Fe had several types. B&N had them. Really I think that basically all of the mainlines were using articulated engines en masse before the end of steam.
Heck, there's plenty of videos of Horseshoe Curve with trains being pulled by 2 and 3 Mountain types each, while other trains with articulated engines go the other way, and fast freights and passengers with K-4's go on the other tracks.
Oc now they're rare bc they were a crapload of scrap metal when they left service. It's one thing to write off a few k4's to preservation, it's another if it's a Mountain.
I never thought that the double ended train from thomes was real yet again I didn’t know most of those trains were real, nice to know that this is where it got it’s inspiration
"thomas had never seen such an unusual engine"
I’m Mighty and I’m Mac and together our basis looks better than we ever would double ended tank engines are interesting in themselves but yikes talk about some issues
Railway fans: Fairlie design
Thomas fans: Mighty Mac
2:42 - the single Fairlie still had two bogies, but only one of them was powered. I think only four were used in Britain - three on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway and one in southern England, and one in Ireland, so not really throughout Britain. Those all had small bunkers so didn't improve the coal capacity. The Mason bogies developed in the US had a large bunker over the trailing (unpowered) bogie so improved coal capacity significantly
Those enjoyed a fair amount of success.
Definitely an interesting design, right up there with the cab forwards and the garrats in my opinion.
The Patent was also sold to Germany we Had a narrow gauge Railway in my Village that only used Double Fairlies
Erzähl mehr
@@the_retag Google mal Rollbockbahn Reichenbach-Unterheinsdorf
me and my mum went for a ride from minfordd to Bleanau and back a few years ago, while my father contributed to some volunteer work. sorry if i botchered the names here.
i took a video of the red double fairlie engine on my mobile phone as it pulled into the platform, and even used a shot of it as my mobile phones wall paper! before covid, our family where always heading up to north wales every year, to travel on the ffestiniog and welsh highland railway, while my dad did work inspecting and designing bridges and such for his volunteer service, of both railways.
"Hi!, I'm Mighty, and this is Mac!"
Tender locomotives can run in reverse but on BR they were limited to 45 mph irrespective of their normal forward top speed in excess of this.
Actually some large steam engines are excellent at going in reverse, a few even got a second cab on the tender for that.
Wye, for turning locos and train cars, is pronounced 'why' not 'way'.
why?
@@dontspikemydrink9382 because it has a letter "Y" shape. Imagine there's a line across the top of the letter, making it a triangle with 3 tails. A loco heads into one leg, is switched to a second leg and backs out, then onto the third leg facing the opposite direction from which it first entered, thereby turning it around. Drawback is it can take up much more space than a turntable.
@@rosemarycornwell1528 interesting
Mighty Mac from Thomas lol
True
I have a wind up mighty mac....
Hes the slowest and weakest runner peter sam and rheneas are so much better 😍🔫
of course you have to make that reference
@@angus80w I am sry, that’s how I know it lol
There were several classes of diesel locomotives on BR that had unpowered axles including the D600 Warship Class, the Class30/31 which both had an A1A-A1A bogies, Bulleid's diesel locomotives for the Southern Railway (BR numbers 10201-10203) plus BR Classes 40, 44, 45 and 46 (which were all had the 1Co-Co1 wheel arrangement.
All of the first generation DMUs had power cars that had 1A-A1 wheel arrangements. The Pacers were 1-A+A-1 in their wheel arrangement, whilst the Sprinters and all subsequent DMUs had 2-A1+1A-2 wheel arrangements (for a 2-car unit) with an extra 2-A1 fir each intermediate vehicle.
There were actually 3 Single Fairlies built for the surrounding Ffestiniog railways. The first two were 0-6-4T (that you showed) named "Snowdon Ranger" and "Moel Tryfan", both built in 1875. These originally worked on the NWNGER, which became part of the Ffestiniog Railway eventually. After both engines being worn out by the late 1910's in 1919, Snowdon Ranger was scrapped and major components being used for Moel Tryfan. Moel Tryfan lasted for another 30 odd years being transferred to the Welsh Highland Railway in 1922 then being scrapped by the FR in 1954.
The third one went by the name "Taliesin" and was built in 1876 for the Ffestiniog Railway. Unlike the other Single Fairlies it was of 0-4-4T configuration. It had a much shorter life as between 1898 and 1900 it was dismantled for preparation for a new boiler, but the boiler never came due to the Board refusing to purchase a new boiler. It was subsequently scrapped but a testimony states that it was however reassembled with the existing boiler but there are no record of this.
While I said 3 there is technically a 4th but it is a new build of Taliesin named "Taliesin III" which was built in 1999. As of 2020 it is currently not in service receiving an overhaul.
There was also Gowrie, an updated single fairlie built by Hunslet in 1908 for the NWNGR and was sold off about 10 years later. We're currently building a replica of this one to run on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland. :-)
@@diaryofachuffernutter1521 OH YES! I had completely forgotten about Gowrie and its new build on the way! Can't wait to hear that its finally running in a few years!
Gordon: Big engines are better than these toy trains
Mighty Mac be like:
Am I the only one who laughed when “fuel box” was misspelled
Ok and?
How to make a budget fairlie:
Get two tank engines of the same class
Weld them together
Done
*big boy*
What if i tell you, the British Rail Class 13 shunters are basically that except being diesel driven.
They are to be simply put, 2 class 08 diesel shunters (with some modifications, mainly the removal of the cab of the "slave" car) permanently attached to each other via coupling to boost tractive effort
@@manngaiho1012
So basically a Class 8 with an additional "B" unit?
@@VestedUTuber exactly…
@@manngaiho1012 : Much like an EMD TR6 cow-calf set, then.
While you're on the subject of unconventional locomotives, you could likewise make a video about Garratt, Meyer and Golwé locomotives.
whats a Golwe locomotive?
"subscribe for more"? Absolutely. Your content is great. It's rare I find a channel that's so perfect for me
I'm loving your videos...I would love to see you do videos on the Wantage tramway Shannon, or the ivatt diesels
I love these little micro-docs. Perfect for a watch while finishing dinner.
This is a certified mighty Mac classic.
Great work ToT, well researched.
Wow! That's interesting!
Well now I know a whole lot more about. My favorite Thomas and friends character and that the engines design most likely lead to how most modern diesel engines are.
When you realize over here in the US the Southern Pacific had a cab-forward type steam locomotive
Lexi’s inspiration
For some reason mighty Mac was my favorite character from Thomas when I was growing up, I don’t know I just liked his gimmick.
Glancing at the thumbnail I was hoping/thinking it might be on Shay locos.
Good stuff, I like this channel
Awesome video 🙂
I'm mighty , I'm mac , and we are mighty mac
Mac: We can be a very useful engine
mr percival: No you can't
your videos are very pleasant to watch because you don't try to stretch 3-4 minutes of information into 10-15 minutes long video. cheers!
Hey, it's Mighty and Mac!
Thanks, now I know the baisis of mighty mac
Thank you
There were two double ended Fairlie 2-4-4-2 locomotives used in Western Australia the WAGR E class (1879)
E1 and E2 were used from 1881 until 1892
2 were shipped to Ontario Canada ,
The Caledonia and Shedden both were 0-6-6-0 . 3'6" narrow gauge .
When I went to wales 3 days ago, I rode a Farlie locomotive at the Ffestiniog. I don’t know which one it was but I know it was the red one they own. You let me know cuz I’m stupid. But anyway, Farlie’s have been really interesting to me all my life and I really like how unique they are.
That's the engine that served as the basis for Mighty Mac from Thomas the Tank Engine.
The Fairlies worked well on the Festiniog, which was very narrow gauge ( 1' 11 1/2" ) and had an extremely 'tight' loading gauge. Originally operated by horse traction (uphill) and gravity (downhill). The Fairlie was probably the first design that offered enough power to be useful. The Festiniog thus demonstrated that railways could be built relatively cheaply in mountainous countries with narrow gauges, and operated successfully by steam power. This was why Robert Fairlie gave the Festiniog a free license to use his design.
The Festiniog line was only 14 miles long, so fuel capacity was not a problem. The small wheels (had to be small to fit under the frames) gave good traction but limited the speed - but on this line with its short length and sharp curvature, speed was not important. Very much 'horses for courses'.
Mighty-Mac reminds me of the 2-headed monster from Sesame Street.
ive seen a few logging locomotives that use drive shafts to power all wheels they burn oil and have lots of water space, they only go max 15 miles a hour but are very powerfull, most likely they were called shay locomotives
Indeed they were called shays!
I think the Garatt was the most succesful of these engines with strange layouts and there is great footage of them on youtube. Maybe do a video on them?
yes
Very interesting how he invented a train like that I think it's in Thomas and Friends
That character's name is Mighty-Mac and you are right.
All those swivelling bogeys, nice!
*Hello! I'm Mighty!*
*And I'm Mac!*
*And together we're Mighty-Mac!*
Imagine Fairlie seeing a Railjet for the first time. 🎉🥳
OMG Mighty Mac is real!
didn’t you know?
Yee every character in thomas is based of a real engine
Ddit : not counting lady
Locomotive enthusiasts: Fairlie Locomotive
Thomas fans: *MIGHTY MAC*
Single farlies were pretty popular in America. The only surviving example still works too! Its in Michigan at the Henry Ford museum.
So the fireman had to keep two fire boxes going at the same time?
There is a unique type of steam locomotive that you haven't mentioned before. the Camelbacks. I would know of it because my great great grandfather got killed while driving the Montreal express on the D and H Railroad back in 1912. I got the newspaper article if you want to know the full story.
Interesting.
i immediately thought "Mighty Mac"
The whole point of not having un-powered wheels on the power bogies, is to reduce the wheelbase and allow it to go round tighter corners. Yes the ride is rougher, but its more suited to mountainous regions...
Oh hey, it’s Mighty Mac
they decapitated Mighty Mac
That was Fairlie interesting
We actually had Fairlie locos here in Western Australia on our Geralton to Northampton railway
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton_railway_line
mighty and mac is on the track
It is telling that mum prefers the Garrets over the Fairlies; and I can see why. The Garrets take some of the principles of the fairlies but improves it tensfold. It is quite telling that there are more Garrets than fairlies around nowadays.
How to fix the issue of not being able to go fast in reverse.
The answer: lets attach another locomotive on the other one and make the together
The Swakopmund Windhoek Staatsbahn (present day Namíbia) beat you to it by 130 years, with 50 such locomotive pairs, known as Zwillinge ('twins').
So Mightymac from "Thomas and Friends" was based on that double-ended steam locomotive?
Yes, it was. The Ffestiniog Railway has two of them in service with another one under construction. There is also one in the National Railway Museum in York.
The fact that they're still being produced kinda shocks me
You choose the great German class 01 for that comparison!!!!!
No. 2 Double Fairlies were built on the Ffestiniog during it's opperational years, Merdden emris in 1879, and Livingston Thompson in 1886. The latter is now at the National Railway museum. However since the Ffestiniog was re-opened, 2 more Double Fairlies have been built on the railway, with a third currently being built. so in short, 4 Double Fairlies, soon to be 5 have been built on the Ffestiniog Railway.
As well as No.7 "Little Wonder" (very much a working prototype, hence it's early withdrawal in 1883), there was another on the original line. No.8 "James Spooner" built by Avonside in 1872. Much of the valve gear on No.3 "Livingston Thompson" (the one at the NRM) comes from this lost loco, broken up in the 1930s. The most recent of the present day company's double locos carries its number and name.
There's also a modern Blodge-built single Fairlie 0-4-4T, "Taliesin", a recreation of another FR loco scrapped at around the same time as No.8 (currently underoverhaul, expected back in service back end of 2024). Elsewhere, a private group are recreating another long scrapped (NWNGR) single Fairlie, 0-6-4T "Gowrie", the original being Hunslet built and sharing quite a few components with preserved NWNG/WHR 2-6-2T "Russell", now resident at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.
It's worth noting that Blodge continue to refine the Fairlie concept, with use of superheating and recent design improvements to brakes, flexible steam pipes and bogie pivots and the use of monocoque cylinder blocks. Regular workshop/shed tours operate, see 'festrail.co.uk' for details
Neither the little wander, or the original James Spooner were built in house. I believe that we’re talking about fairies that were built in house, as opposed to being brought in from outside. And neither the Little Wander or James Spooner, the first iteration were built in House.
Reminds me of the Mason Bogies. Notably the DSP&P 2-6-6 & 2-8-6 Mason Bogies.
I'm Mighty!
And i'm Mac!
We're an affront to nature cos our parents were siblings!
"Why my last name is martinez martinez?"
mighty mac parent's: maybe blood made us brothers, but alabama made us lovers
I literally watched this one too see if you’d reference mightymac
That how mighty and mac where made that nice
I made a Fairle, but, I changed it a bit, I called the tender Fairle, the tender is in the middle and no couplers needed for the engine and the tender, the tender is welded to the engine, two cabs, a un powered bogie (sad), and still having one boiler, just the boilers a shorter cause don’t need more steam.
Mighty Mac and Fearless Freddie
00:30 *It's a Pushmepullyou as described by Dr Dolittle - brilliant I think she's got it !*
Those boxcars are cool. What are they, about 3 feet high?
If I had to create a new steam engine, I would create a similar concept than the Double Fairlie except that it would be longer, the common point would be the fact that it would be double-ended but here are the differences : there would be a gap between the two ends so there would be two engines instead of one; each "end in the cab" got a firebox and each end have their own coal compartment and water tank... Would that be a good idea or not ?
Mighty Mac had a real world basis... Who knew?
On the Ffestiniog at least, which is the line they were really designed for anyway, the Fairlies do perform as Robert hoped from what I hear. But the flaws evidently became magnified on longer-haul lines and on larger-scale builds.
I have to wonder if a boxcab arrangement with duplicated controls at either end (as seen on the Y6 and J70) would have worked better than giving it two standard front ends.
.... or Mr.Bulleid's semi-successful "Leader"?
They're like a precursor to the garratt.
*Mighty Mac vibes intensify*
im mighty, and im mac, together, we're high on cr4ck
I think I know how to fix the problems with the Farlie (I’m not an engineer in the slightest so don’t take anything I say seriously)
1. Add leading wheels
2. Add two sets of controls. One on each side facing each direction.
3. Make them burn oil so they can have tenders. Pipes will bring the oil from the tender similar to southern pacific’s cab forward locomotives.
4. Use them mostly on shorter runs where there isn’t a lot of time to turn around.
The way you would turn them around is by using three tracks. One for the consist, one for the tender and one for the locomotive.
The locomotive would leave the train on the first track. Then it would leave the tender on the second track. Then the locomotive would use the third track to move to the other end of the tender (which would have all the same connections as the front )(the locomotive would also retain the onboard fuel and water tanks to allow it to do these maneuvers.) Afterwards the locomotive would then move from the second track to the third track and couple back up to the other end of the consist and leave the station.
3:17 read the bottom
Mighty mac!
The foamer's version of that _Requiem for a Dream_ scene.
Actually, the first locomotive you showed was German, and was designed to go forwards and backwards.
The Mexicano units were eventually replaced by electric locomotives built by GE.
Lol there is one in that in my country near my backyard i plan to buy it and just display it because our railway in my country just close down i have a plan to buy thay
he was ahead of his time tho, nowadays electric and diesel trains are usually double ended
Nobody:
TTTE Fans: *M I G H T Y M A C*