{"id":4166,"date":"1920-11-28T00:02:16","date_gmt":"1920-11-28T00:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/?p=4166"},"modified":"2020-11-28T01:54:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T01:54:00","slug":"crampton-loco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/?p=4166","title":{"rendered":"Crampton Loco"},"content":{"rendered":"

<- Back to exhibits<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

5\u201d Gauge Crampton Locomotive<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the 1840s, when Thomas Crampton, who was a versatile engineer, was developing his designs for the steam locomotive, it was thought that a low centre of gravity (hence a low-slung boiler) and large, rear-mounted driving wheels (for speed and stability) were necessary for success.\u00a0 At first, he designed some unusual-looking engines, but these evolved into what we now regard as the classic Crampton \u2013 four or six small carrying wheels beneath the boiler, and two driving wheels mounted behind the firebox.\u00a0 There was relatively little weight on the driving wheels; to improve adhesion, it was found necessary to put cast iron weights beneath the cab footplate.<\/p>\n

These engines were not very popular in Britain, where there were only 42 in use, mainly in the Kent area, but there were large numbers in regular use on the continent, especially in France and Germany, and smaller numbers in Denmark, New Zealand, North America and other countries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This 5\u201d gauge locomotive, designed by Brian Arridge, does not represent any particular prototype, but is unmistakably a classic Crampton, with a single pair of large driving wheels set behind the boiler, and outside Stephenson\u2019s valve gear with large eccentrics.\u00a0 The tender is of simple design, with coil springs above the axle-boxes.\u00a0 The emergency hand-pump is hidden beneath the tool-chest.<\/p>\n

The locomotive has leaf springs on the carrying wheels, and coil springs below the drivers.\u00a0 The slide valves above the inclined port faces are operated by Stephenson gear with large eccentrics on the outer side of the driving wheels.\u00a0 The front and rear flanged plates of the smokebox are identical apart from different apertures.<\/p>\n

The copper boiler is a conventional locomotive type.\u00a0 No superheating is provided, as the regulator valve is situated directly on top of the boiler.\u00a0 There are seventeen 7\/16 in. (o\/d) tubes.\u00a0 Some of the original Cramptons had boilers with an oval cross-section so that they could be placed lower inside the frames.<\/p>\n

It was necessary to use three solders of different melting points and an epoxy adhesive in order to build up the splashers and apply the half-round beading to them and the cab side plates.<\/p>\n

This engine had a successful steam test in September 2019.\u00a0 It was intended to paint and complete it before the 2020 running season, but the Covid-19 lockdown delayed matters.\u00a0 Reassembly after painting (my thanks to Ken Shipley for this) was not finished until October 2020.\u00a0 It is hoped that steaming will take place sometime in 2021.<\/p>\n

Room was found beneath the cab footplate for a 5lb lump of lead.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see the effect of this on the loco\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

<- Back to exhibits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<- Back to exhibits 5\u201d Gauge Crampton Locomotive   In the 1840s, when Thomas Crampton, who was a versatile engineer, was developing his designs for the steam locomotive, it was thought that a low centre of gravity (hence a low-slung boiler) and large, rear-mounted driving wheels (for speed and stability) were necessary for success.\u00a0 At […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-virtual-exhibition-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4166"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4215,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions\/4215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bradfordmes.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}