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...but I've strewn a certain name around a bit too much. Actually, it was Mr. du Bousquet who did most of the work on this I believe. De Glehn being merely the father of the concept.



It's a de Glehn atlantic of the Cie. du Nord. Slightly different versions where used by the other major french companies (and the G.W.R... but I get the impression they'd sometimes rather deny ever buying something abroad ), excluding the P.L.M., who preferred a home-grown design.

Loads of information still missing so I have absolutely no clue whether or not this will ever see actual in TS use.

You've finally gone totally insane Welcome to the club Looking great!

regards

Edward

Would love to comment on this, but I've just got to clear up a rather large pool of drool on the floor, give me half an hour or so....

Isn't this the one which has got two regulators and two reverser's to contend with

Edward

Basically, yes*. A single screw reverser permits independent working of the low and high pressure valve gears. Both valve gears could also be manipulated at the same time. It's a rather ingenious device that permits this. There are two regulators**, one supplies live steam directly to the H.P. valve chest, the other bypasses the H.P. side of things and allows steam into the reciever (effectively the steam chest for the low pressure cylinder). Finally, there's a pneumatically operated set of valves that permit the exhaust steam of the H.P. cylinders to escape directly in the blastpipe rather than feed the L.P. cylinders; in together with the L.P. regulator this effectively turns the engine into a four-cylinder simple expansion locomotive. As I gather it, there's five modes of operation being:

1. Compound is the normal way of doing things.
2. Simple permits easier starting, as when in compound, the reciever pressure only starts to rise after a few revolutions of the wheels, and those small H.P. cylinders won't start a train for you.
3. Reinforced Compounding is effectively the same as working the engine as a compound, but letting a bit of extra steam into the reciever by means of the L.P. regulator. Incidentally, the reciever had its' own safety valve set at 6 atmospheres; presumably to prevent an uneven distribution of work.
4. And finally there's two breakdown modes, where you'd work the engine with either the H.P. or L.P. side isolated. No good at all but it'll sort of get you to the next loop.

If I haven't gone insane yet, I shall soon .

* But not the only one. The vast majority of express locos built in France after this one seem to be some variety of this idea.
** So regulator implies a long metal lever, which some of 'em have, but very often the L.P. regulator is just a valve with a handwheel, much like a injector steam valve.

Sounds like it will be great fun to learn to drive. Always up for the challenge of a new loco type!

I sort of look forward to doing the scripting on this. I think I'll be able to adapt my existing physics, but there's loads more to think about and loads more to go wrong I fear...

Pro tip: HD IK solvers work wonders on these sort of mechanisms. The HI version might be more stable and easier to use, but this was pretty easy to rig.

mesmerizing

Looks great, well done !

Cab. In mostly WIP state. I want to have at least the major bits done before I pack in the UV's. But by tradition, I'll forget something and have a 256x256 cheaters texture.

And I thought the ergonomics on Beyer Peacocks products where horrible. There's barely a place to stand for the driver.