RMweb Gold ianLMS Posted June 17, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2016 Good afternoon fellow modellers, I am a fan of steam, even though the only steam I can remember, and will forever experience is that of a preserved locomotive in a museum, on a heritage line, or on an expensive excursion for a day! During my modelling life, I have focused on track/scenery etc, and happily used R-T-R, but its getting close to the time where I feel the need to detail locomotives or rolling stock to match my improving quality scenic models. I quite often come across terminology, or read posts of people discussing particular parts of a locomotive that I have no idea about. Even simple stuff eludes me (apart from Boiler, Wheels, handrails, buffers etc :-).....I'm not quite that bad!!), but as there are probably 1,000's of parts to a loco, I was hoping to find a diagram or drawing somewhere that would help explain the main parts of a locomotive to me. I plan on detailing my OO gauge stock, but do not want to spend hard earned cash on items I don't even know what they are for, or where they should go. Any help will be greatly appreciated, and I do envy those folks on here who experienced steam for real and can draw on that experience and superior knowledge!!!! Thank you Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 The best primer is the one that British Railway published for their footplate staff, called something like "Handbook for Steam Locomotive Enginemen". Zillions of copies were printed, and I think there is a reprint around specifically for the enthusiast market, so it is cheap to acquire. There are also so some "Haynes Manual" type books, but they aren't as good as the BR one. K PS: You can download it free as a PDF here, so even cheaper than I thought! https://archive.org/details/HandbookForRailwaySteamLocomotiveEnginemen Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted June 17, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2016 This might help : http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/basic1.htm Follow the menu on the left for detailed sub-pages. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ianLMS Posted June 17, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2016 The best primer is the one that British Railway published for their footplate staff, called something like "Handbook for Steam Locomotive Enginemen". Zillions of copies were printed, and I think there is a reprint around specifically for the enthusiast market, so it is cheap to acquire. There are also so some "Haynes Manual" type books, but they aren't as good as the BR one. K PS: You can download it free as a PDF here, so even cheaper than I thought! https://archive.org/details/HandbookForRailwaySteamLocomotiveEnginemen Great stuff- thank you - I will be able to build a full size working loco after reading this book!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ianLMS Posted June 17, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2016 Thank you both for your very speedy responses. Stubby - I had looked at that site before, but it was a little too basic. I also found a diagram on Wikipedia which kind of helped me somewhat. The Wiki one was depicting a US style loco so some of the terminology didn't quite match and a lot of components weren't on there. Nearholmer - The book covers it in great detail so will try to download a copy when I get home. (work computer won't like me downloading stuff!!), go to Crewe and start building me a Princess tomorrow!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ianLMS Posted June 17, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2016 Stubby - I must apologise for my haste in responding - after taking another look and going through the menu options (instead of just stopping at the homepage), I realised there is an abundance of information contained in separate sections. This will compliment my highly detailed book from Nearholmer and I will soon become an expert in all things steam powered!!!! Thank you both again, and hopefully this will help others in a similar position to myself!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 That book might, just about teach the rudiments, ready for you to fire,then drive one; if you want to build one, you will need another stack of books, stuffed full of maths, about four feet high! K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 ...some of the terminology didn't quite match ... Keep that in mind. The terminology was never fully standardised, what with this being the work of rude mechanical empiricists, rather than classically educated impracticalists who would still be arguing what colour the fire should be rather than having made any progress toward a working job. (Thank you Douglas Adams!) Simple example, the exterior metalwork covering the boiler and cylinders - the painted bit that's actually on view when the loco is in service - can be any of cladding, cleading or clothing. All are perfectly correct in UK usage - and there may well be others - so disregard drones who think that the term they know is the sole correct one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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