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| Copper through the ages, Copper Development Association, 13th printing, 1956 |
This locomotive, the William Shakespeare, was featured in a book published by the (British) Copper Development Association as an example of modern use of copper in transport. The firebox, 10ft long, 7 ft 1 inch wide and 7 ft high was made of 5/8 inch copper sheet, with the crown sheet 1" thick. Presumably calculations determined that the crown sheet would withstand the boiler pressure of 250 lbs per inch, but...
I had one of them (4-6-2) - Britannia - as part of my Tri-ang electric model railway. My nephew has that now, and I have a clockwork "O" gauge set. Going backwards... D.
ReplyDeleteI usually stay away from British locomotives, they don't really resonate with me, but this one with the unusual firebox material makes me wonder... I did always wonder how clockwork trains were controlled by the operator, do they just go round and round till they wind down?
ReplyDeleteMostly, aye. There's a couple of levers whereby you can make it stop or go backwards, but it's just a simple Tri-ang thing. There were more complicated German and American sets available. D.
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