George Abdill, A Locomotive Enginers Album Bonanza Books, 1965 |
In Britain in 1843 Thomas Russell Crampton designed a high speed locomotive with a low center of gravity for a Belgian railway. This locomotive had a four wheel leading truck with single pair of 7 foot drivers located behind the low mounted boiler. The locomotive lacked traction on startup but ran very well at speed and several more were built for various other roads in England and Scotland.
The president of the Camden and Amboy railway saw these in operation and back home, with the help of Issac Dripps, designed their own version with even larger drivers and a 6 wheel leading truck. Though it too was fast, it did not track well and was known for a habit of derailing. Nonetheless, several more were built and one of them is shown above, displaying its strange and inelegant proportions. Below, other images found online.
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