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It is my understanding that all steam locomotive drivers required counterweights to assist in the conversion of linier motion to rotational motion. Some outside frame locomotives had cast or separately applied weights on the wheel itself, some had independent counterweights fixed to the axles outside the frame and some had a mixture of both. Does anyone know of any engineering reason that one method would be prefered over another or why methods would be mixed? The Oahu Railway's Mikados (similar to the D&RGW K-28s) and the two early Baldwin 2-8-0s (#76 & 98) had counterweights outside the frames fixed to the axles at the main rod connection only. The remaing drivers had counterweights on the spokes. All other outside frame OR&L locomotive counterweights were on the spokes. Just wondering why.
Jeff Livingston
Kaneohe, Hawaii
Jeff Livingston
Kaneohe, Hawaii