Engine Balance - Steam Locomotives

Steam Locomotives

Steam locomotives commonly have balancing weights on the driving wheels to control wheel hammer caused by the up and down motion of the coupling rods and, to some degree, the connecting rods. Again, the balance is a compromise.

Read more about this topic:  Engine Balance

Famous quotes containing the words steam and/or locomotives:

    ““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
    “And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
    —Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)

    “The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring
    In the days of long ago,
    Ranged where the locomotives sing
    And the prairie flowers lie low:—”
    —Vachel Lindsay (1879–1931)