Big Bertha- a few questions

Now for a number of reasons i dont normally post on here but tonight i have been reading into big bertha and more specifically i came across a scale drawing now to my surprise i found that this Huge machine was in fact fitted with Four cylinders but only two piston valves in what i have read described as cross over steam ports
now how the devil does this system work? Is it that the RHS cylinder is offset from the RHS middle engine? and vice versa on the left hand side? and in absence of valves on the middle engine would there of been valve gear attached?

I now pose a question of tender does anyone know what the diagram of the tender attached to the locomotive would of been please and where they used with any other Midland loco ?


kind regards

Jordan Leeds

 

I'm sure someone on here will know, but when I was doing some research in the NRM's Search Engine a couple of weeks ago the 1920 (or maybe 21 or 22) copy of Railway Engineer I was looking at had an article on it with drawings. I think the cylinder block was preserved - at York?

Dave

 

I believe it was intended for the block to be preserved but it wasn't.

 

I'd love to see the cylinders for that... Was the headlight saved ?

 

Have you seen this?
Lickey Incline: Working the Lickey Incline - 1949 - 1956

Richard

 

Has anyone got any drawings of the Decapod?I'd love to make a 7 1/4" gauge model. - Should kill a few club tracks!!!

 

AFAIK it was transferred to 9F 92079 when 'The Banker' was withdrawn, but I'm not sure what happened to it when 92079 was withdrawn

 

:laugh:

 

What size wheels did she have , and were there any special braking arrangements... ?

 

Showing my age now............I remember seeing this as a 8 or 9 year old.......just remember it as big LUMP

 

From what I gather, the cylinder block was saved when the engine was cut up at Derby and hung around for a few years (there are photos of it), but it eventually went in the melting pot because no museum could take it.

The ports were cross connected, so that when the (e.g.) left hand valve was supplying steam to the front of the left hand outside piston, it was also supplying steam to the back of the left hand inside piston........you get the idea.

A little known fact about Big Bertha is that it had two crank axles! The cylinders drove onto the middle axle, but the leading intermediate axle was cranked to clear the inside connecting rods. Must have been a real headache if the engine was moved with the coupling rods dropped, and the inside con rods still in place.

 

Ahem... http://webzoom.freewebs.com/echillsrailwayobserver/KINGSBURY ALBUM 2011/IMG_7836REV2LRes.jpg

 

that's the GER decapod.

 

In fairness the original request was for 'the Decapod', which tends to mean the GER loco. Note also that the user requesting it was named '69621' - a BR(E) ex-GE number...

 

I cabbed Big Bertha at Derby when it stood in a line of engines waiting to be cut up all the fittings and the headlight were missing i was told the headlight had gone to a museum but they couldnt tell me what one.Shame it was scrapped specially as she was a one off

 

Here we are, regarding the headlight
Locomotives and trains of the lickey incline
"In 1956, Big Bertha (now numbered 58100) was superceded by BR standard class 9F No. 92079, which acquired Big Bertha's electric headlight."

Other links
Big Bertha and the Lickey Incline

And
MR 0-10-0 Lickey Banker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've often considered building the 4mm kit, but can't really justify it

 

in 7 1/4 it wouldnt kill that many tracks to be honest if it was given enough play on the boxes and rods it should go around most club and private railways.

now does anyone know if the tender is a standard midland 2050 gallon one or one built to go behind this engine specifically

 

I understood (and really knowledgeable posters will correct me) that the tender originally saw service behind Sir Cecil Paget's locomotive. The latter dated from the Edwardian era and can be considered as the Midland Railway's equivalent of the Leader(!)

Paul H.

 

Wow... Just looked this locomotive up..
I'd say there's strong evidence, this was scrapped in 1919, after 4 years minimal use and being placed in store between 1912 and 1918... The tender would presumably be in reusable condition and quite new.
Big Bertha was completed in 1919, it's tender is not a standard MR tender and looking at pictures it is possible to make out modifications (rather than as built) structures that enclose the cab for the crew.
It would be a reasonable assumption that taking the tender in 1918, adapting it for re-use would be a much cheaper and faster option than building a new unique tender for Big Bertha.

Finally, looking at the pictures of both... It is possible to see many similarities in the tenders...but a giveaway is possibly the footplate steps on the tender.. Whilst being identical, they also have what looks to be 2 additional steps On the tender body side to presumably give the crew more stable access to the footplate, who's locomotive frame is raised inconvieniently higher than the tender frame... Both sir Cecil's and big Bertha tenders have these extra steps, on what to me looks quite a distinctive modification to a tender.
A difference between the tenders is the coal space, on BB it's not proportionate to the size of the tender, where as in sir Cecil's locomotive is the same as Big Bertha but with air vents making it more proportionate.
This suggests they were removed and left it with a long flat top on the tender..Extra coal space not being an issue and air vents would be redundant and obscure view presumably.

 

Looking at this picture, looks like something is exhausting from behind the right hand tender guard iron below the buffer.

http://www.photobydjnorton.com/RailwayPictures/58100BromsgroveIncline.jpg