The double ended steam locomotive - Fairlie Locomotives 

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 RU-vid, including on my channel.

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.

*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

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

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

so unsual yet so defective

“I’m mighty Mac and I do the mighty crack”

Nice refrence

that is a real mood

*THATWOULDNEVERSUITHISGRACEINTENSIFIES*

@@saltbombcreations8336 Yess

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.

Yes

Ngl I just assumed the show makers just made something up, but apparently not!

You should know better ​@@garrettbates9124

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

"thomas had never seen such an unusual engine"

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.

Those enjoyed a fair amount of success.

*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.

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

Erzähl mehr

@@the_retag Google mal Rollbockbahn Reichenbach-Unterheinsdorf

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!

Ok and?

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

whats a Golwe locomotive?

Lexi’s inspiration

Indeed they were called shays!

That character's name is Mighty-Mac and you are right.

didn’t you know?

Yee every character in thomas is based of a real engine Ddit : not counting lady

yes

they decapitated Mighty Mac

The Swakopmund Windhoek Staatsbahn (present day Namíbia) beat you to it by 130 years, with 50 such locomotive pairs, known as Zwillinge ('twins').

"Why my last name is martinez martinez?"

mighty mac parent's: maybe blood made us brothers, but alabama made us lovers

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.

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.

im mighty, and im mac, together, we're high on cr4ck

.... or Mr.Bulleid's semi-successful "Leader"?

it was