PRR S1

PRR S1

Infobox Locomotive
name=Pennsylvania Railroad S1
powertype=Steam



caption=Industrial designer Raymond Loewy stands on the front of the S1
railroad=Pennsylvania Railroad
gauge=RailGauge|ussg|lk=on
builder=Pennsylvania Railroad
serialnumber=Altoona 4341
builddate=1939
retiredate=1945
totalproduction=1
roadnumber=6100
cylindercount=Four
cylindersize=convert|22|x|26|in|mm|0|abbr=on
valvegear=Walschaerts
driversize=convert|84|in|m|3|abbr=on
boilerpressure=convert|300|psi|MPa|2|abbr=on|lk=on
firearea=convert|132|sqft|m2|abbr=on
tractiveeffort=convert|71900|lbf|kN|2|abbr=on
weight=convert|608170|lb|t|abbr=on.
whytetype=6-4-4-6
numinclass=1
The PRR S1 class steam locomotive (nicknamed "The Big Engine") was an experimental locomotive that was the largest rigid frame passenger locomotive ever built. cite web
title = Raymond Loewy-Locomotives
publisher = The Avanti
url = http://www.theavanti.com/locomotives.htm
accessdate = 2007-09-02
] In 1937, Pennsylvania Railroad officials decided to build a new passenger locomotive to replace its aging K4s locomotive. In a collaborative effort, the Pennsylvania Railroad, Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Lima Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company contributed to the experimental S1 design. cite web
title = Actual Production Models Shown
publisher = www.lionel.com
work = Brochures
date= 2003
url = http://www.lionel.com/Brochures/2003_Brochures/penn_s1_duplex/pennsy_s1-duplex_page2.html
accessdate = 2007-09-03
] The streamlined Art Deco styled shell of the locomotive was designed by Raymond Loewy. cite web
title = It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's - an office tool
publisher = The Christian Science Monitor
work = The Home Forum > Essays
date= September 23, 2004 edition
url = http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0923/p18s02-hfes.html
accessdate = 2007-09-04
]

The S1 was the only locomotive ever built to use a 6-4-4-6 wheel arrangement. Also, the S1 class was a duplex locomotive, meaning that it had two pairs of cylinders, each driving two pairs of driving wheels. Unlike similar-looking articulated locomotive designs, the driven wheelbase of the S1 was rigid. The S1 was completed January 31, 1939 and was assigned locomotive number 6100. cite web
title=PRR Chronology 1939
publisher = Pennsylvania Technical and Historical Society
work = PRR Chronology
date= September 2004 Edition
url = http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1939%20Aug%2004.wd.pdf
accessdate = 2007-09-02
]

The S1 was displayed at the New York World's Fair of 1939 with the lettering "American Railroads" rather than "Pennsylvania Railroad". After the World's Fair, the S1 was relettered and numbered. It was assigned to passenger service on the main line between Chicago, Illinois and Crestline, Ohio. The S1 was used by the PRR for publicity purposes as well. Its image was featured in calendars and brochures.

It was hoped that the locomotive could haul 1,000 tons at 100 miles per hour, but this goal was not reached. There are apocryphal stories of the S1 reaching or exceeding 140 miles per hour, but there is no documentation of this and it is considered unlikely by experts. cite web
title = Milwaukee A class Atlantics cont.
work = Was German 05 002 The World's Fastest Steam Loco?
publisher =www.germansteam.co.uk
date = Page Added 21st April 2005
url = http://www.germansteam.co.uk/FastestLoco/fastestloco.html
accessdate = 2007-09-03
]

Furthermore, the locomotive's extreme length (convert|140|ft|2+1/2|in|m|2|disp=/) limited its usefulness as it was incapable of negotiating curves on most of the PRR track system. Wheel slippage was another problem with the S1. No further S1 models were built and the last run for the S1 was in December 1945. cite web
title=PRR Chronology 1945
publisher = Pennsylvania Technical and Historical Society
work = PRR Chronology
date= September 2004 Edition
url = http://www.prrths.com/Hagley/PRR1945%20Sep%2004.wd.pdf
accessdate = 2007-09-02
] The engine was scrapped in 1949.

Construction history

In 1937, Pennsylvania Railroad officials decided to build a new passenger locomotive to replace its aging K4s locomotive. The PRR officials also hoped that the new S1 steam locomotive would have performance equal to their GG1 electric locomotive.In a collaborative effort, the Pennsylvania Railroad, Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Lima Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company contributed to the experimental S1 design.

The S1 was the largest express passenger locomotive ever constructed with an overall length was 140 feet 2 1/2 inches. At convert|77|ft|m long, the cast steel locomotive bed plate made by General Steel Castings was the largest single piece casting ever made for a locomotive application.The boiler unit for the S1 was the largest built by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The six-wheel leading and trailing trucks were added as the locomotive's design became too heavy for four-wheel units. However, the locomotive was still overweight by a significant margin. The streamlined Art Deco styled shell of the locomotive was designed by Raymond Loewy.The final construction cost for the S1 was $669,780.00.

World's fair display

The S1 was displayed at the New York World's Fair of 1939 with the lettering "American Railroads" rather than "Pennsylvania Railroad". To reach the New York World's Fair, the S1 took a circuitous route over the Long Island Rail Road. Many obstacles had to be temporarily removed and other obstacles were passed at a slow crawl to reach the fairgrounds. At the World's Fair the S1 was a dynamic display; the drive wheels operated under the locomotive's own steam power. This was done by placing the S1 on a platform that had rollers under the drive wheels. By using this type of display, visitors could see the duplex drive in use. After the World's Fair, the S1 was relettered and numbered for use in the Pennsylvania Railroad fleet.

ervice History

The S1 class locomotive was so large that it could not negotiate the track clearances on most of the lines of the PRR system. In its brief service life it was restricted to the main line between Chicago, Illinois and Crestline, Ohio. It was assigned to the Fort Wayne Division and based at the Crestline enginehouse. The S1 hauled passenger trains such as the The General and The Trailblazer on this route. Crews liked the S1, partly because of its very smooth ride. The great mass and inertia of the locomotive soaked up the bumps and the surging often experienced with duplex locomotives.

However, the S1 had a serious design flaw; the locomotive had too small a fraction of its total weight on the driving wheels. “The Big Engine” put less than forty percent of her total weight on the eight driving wheels. The rest of her weight was carried by the massive six-wheel pilot (leading) and trailing truck. This left the two sets of four duplex driving wheels susceptible to wheel slippage, a dangerous condition for any steam locomotive.

When the powered wheels of a steam locomotive lose their adhesion to the rails and freely spin, the instantaneous result is over speed damage. If the locomotive's engineer does not detect and rectify this situation at once two things will occur, first, the metal tires that surround the driving wheels will be seriously damaged; second, the piston rods, their bearings and the other equipment associated with the reciprocating motion of the engine will be overstressed and destroyed; the engine will literaly tear itself apart; by its operation at speeds well beyond the design limitations.

Normally, in a standard locomotive when starting under load from standing start; the engineer would, observe his rear most driving wheels and compare its movement to the relative forward movement of his locomotive over the ground. As locomotives grew larger the engineer would have to listen to the rhythmic sound of the engine’s exhaust (the characteristic “chug-chug”) and compare the rhythm of this sound with the observed movement of his locomotive over the ground.

If, as he opened his engine’s throttle, the rate of increase of the “chug chug” sound was out of sync with the forward progress of his locomotive, he knew his wheels were slipping. A passenger locomotive with 72 inch diameter drivers would travel twelve (12) feet or four (4) yards per “chug-chug”. It was therefore easy to correlate the rhythmic sound of the exhaust of a starting locomotive with the locomotive’s progress from a standing start. An engineer could thereby avoiding applying to much power to a starting locomotive (by opening the steam throttle valve too much, and too quickly) and causing the wheels to slip.

The S1’s duplex engine design meant that two separate engines were concurrently and in sequence exhausting into the single smoke stack. This made it nearly impossible for a locomotive engineer to distinguish the behavior of an individual engine set, based upon the sound of its exhaust. Unless both sets of engines experienced wheel slip simultaneously, the sound of the normal set would mask the sound of the set that was slipping and over speeding. If the wheels began to slip he would have no knowledge of this fact until he had already damaged the tires of the duplex engine’s wheels; or he heard the crashing sounds of a duplex engine tearing itself apart, in over speed.

The S1 had a further handicap in the area of slippage. Unlike virtually all other steam locomotives that faced wheel slippage when starting; the S1 (because of the very light weight on the driving wheels) would experience engine wheel slip over the road at operating speed. The adhesion of the wheels to the rails was so light, that even minor variations in the roadbed would cause either the forward or rearward duplex engines to slip. This hazard more than any other doomed the operating life of this engine. The loss of adhesion at speed (30 – 50+ mph) always did serious mechanical damage to the engine which lost adhesion and to the locomotive as well.

No further S1 models were built and the last run for the S1 was in December 1945, and the engine was scrapped in 1949. The PRR continued developing the T1 class of 4-4-4-4 duplex locomotives, but they also met with limited success.

Its high speed capability was such that some have claimed the S1 may have even exceeded the convert|126|mi/h|km/h|abbr=on record steam locomotive speed set in 1938 by the LNER locomotive Mallard. However, it appears that no verifiable records are available to authenticate the claim.

Modern culture

The design of the S1 has proved to be very popular:
* The S1 appears in the Sandman comic series, book IX.
* A locomotive resembling the PRR S1 pulls the train in the "Billion Dollar Limited" episode of the 1940s "Superman" cartoon series.
*In the 1936 cartoon short "Play Safe", a boy drives a steam locomotive bearing a striking resemblance to the S1.
* The S1 is was also represented in a (c)1939 painting by railroad artist Griff Teller that appeared in the Pennsylvania Railroad's picture calendar.
* The PC Game Grim Fandango's "Number Nine" train resembles the S1 very strongly.
* Scale model railroad versions of the S1 are available
* Prints, paintings and lithographs are also available
* A limited HO Scale brass model version of the PRR S1 was produced by Gem Models during the 1960s to the 1970s. These models are now very rare, although they could be found on eBay from time to time. Not much information exists about them.
* In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Christmas With The Joker", the train that fell into the valley after the bridge was blown up strongly resembles the S1

See also

* PRR locomotive classification

References


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