USA and Australia
Gresley conjugated valve gear was used by the American Locomotive Company under license and the 4-12-2 locomotives they built for the Union Pacific Railroad between 1926 and 1930 were the largest locomotives to use this valve gear. It was also used in Australia for the Victorian Railways S class 4-6-2 of 1928 and New South Wales Government Railways D57 class 4-8-2 of 1929.
As in the UK, the mechanism was not without its problems. Some of the Union Pacific 9000 class locomotives were converted to a "double Walschaerts" valve gear, while later examples were built with roller bearings for the moving parts of the Gresley mechanism. In Australia, later VR and NSWGR 3 cylinder locomotive designs used alternative mechanisms to the Gresley system in an effort to overcome its high maintenance overhead. The Victorian Railways H class of 1941 was fitted with a German Henschel und Sohn conjugated valve gear mechanism which was judged to be superior to the Gresley system, while in New South Wales the D58 class of 1950 utilised a rack and pinion system which while in theory an improvement over the Gresley system, proved in practice to be even more problematic.
Read more about this topic: Gresley Conjugated Valve Gear
Famous quotes containing the words usa and/or australia:
“It is hereby earnestly proposed that the USA would be much better off if that big, sprawling, incoherent, shapeless, slobbering civic idiot in the family of American communities, the City of Los Angeles, could be declared incompetent and placed in charge of a guardian like any individual mental defective.”
—Westbrook Pegler (1894–1969)
“I like Australia less and less. The hateful newness, the democratic conceit, every man a little pope of perfection.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)