Always like the dynamo sound. On the old WWII type of radios, there was a dynamo (not steam powered) used to power you finals (final stage amplifier). When you keyed or turned on the high voltage for the finals, you could hear the dynamo slow down under load. Very unique sound, and fun to listen for.
You didn't mention the one bit that I found got the biggest reaction of surprise out of people when I was running steam back in the day: that the current generated is 32VDC, and we used special 32VDC light bulbs that are special order, and not from the hardware store down the street. :)
The "Weird lightbulb under the cab" is still used today in modern diesels. Today, there's two of them, one each side of the nose. About where class lamps would be on British locomotives in fact, and whenever the engineer blows the horn or hits the switch to turn them on, they flash in an alternating pattern, first one side then the other. In modern parlance, they're called "ditch lights".
I think in some ways a better equivalent would be the lights by the steps of some diesels. The ones I have been on actually do have individual lightbulbs facing downwards, to illuminate the steps or other areas around the lower half of the locomotive at night.
The first electric lights on trains were actually arc lights powered by dynamos driven from the wheels. Once metal filament (tantalum and later tungsten) bulbs got good enough to be used under the high vibration of a train, they banned the arc lights for being too blindingly bright.
An old trick we employ at our railroad on locos with no cab lights is cracking the firedoor open every so soften to reflect light off of the back wall onto the gauges. Most of our equipment have acetylene gas lamps which are crap and best left alone, hence the aforementioned trick, but one or two have electric lights... run by a Pyle dynamo!
Interesting that the Rio Grande placed the dynamo right next to the cab. On the Sumpter Valley we placed them next to the stack, which required some drain extensions to get around the larger onion stacks used at the time and the larger diamond stack still used on 3 today.
I met an ex-railwayman who use to drive and fire steam locos from the 50s to 70s for NSWGR. He has this story of this particular movement where he and his driver took a train to Richmond (or somewhere like that). The driver would knock off early and leave this guy alone to take the train back at night and to prevent others from finding out that he was the only one on board (two people required to crew a loco) he would unscrew some lights
Most people think of chuff-chuff, whistle-whistle sounds of a steam locomotive but if you’ve been in the cab of one long enough the constant whirring sound of the dynamo is important also.
While maintaining fire, close one eye. That keeps it from re-adjusting to the bright light and makes it way easier to look for coal when you turn around. Same trick also works when you need to go into dark room on a sunny day. Close one eye ten or so seconds before going in and let it begin adjusting to darkness. Now you can somewhat see when you get inside. Night vision! :D
I would think that it would be better to have red lights in the cab, so the light does not mess with night vision as much. I know it was not really understood then as it is now how light affects the eyes, but it seems like they would have accidentally figured it out. The weird light below the cab is ingenious. Too bad it could not be a dual purpose light to be able to see the running gear too.
They have to be white lights because red would not shine through the sight glass or the hydrostat bullseyes very well. The gauge lights don't mess with night vision as much as you think. And diesel locomotives today still use ground lights under the cab on both sides.
I remember learning about the Dynamo through a pretty hefty, fairly comprehensive book entitled "The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances" by a variety of authors (it's a collection of essays, best I can tell), but Project Gutenberg and Google Books both choose to primarily credit Thomas Curtis Clarke. Although the chapter had to almost gloss over the definition because of the other further details of the essay. Or maybe that's just my brain reeling from all the information revealed in the book? Either way, it's great to see a Dynamo up close and personal and get a few clarifications through this video.
In the heritage rail-yard I volunteer at the dynamo is on the side of the boiler in-front of the firemans window on the engine I mostly do work on. Might send a pic of it in discord some day when I can be bothered.
Already commented this on another video, figured putting it on a more recent one would increase my chances of you seeing it. There are two tourist railroads nearest to me, both very nostalgic and significant to me. The Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway Museum, and the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad. The W.W.F. is 2 foot narrow gauge steam, and the Belfast and Moosehead Lake is standard gauge diesel locomotives. The Unity shops on the BML also services Maine Switching Services locomotives. I like both railroads and both are reasonable distances to volunteer over the summer or something. I was just wondering if you had any advice on deciding.
Having fired steam at night, the important thing is to maintain your night vision to watch the road ahead and check train conditions when looking to the rear on curves. It also is necessary when taking hand signals or knowing where your ground men are. So, the one eye closed when firing does the trick. Alternating eyes when putting in or checking a fire condition. As for LED lights, the idea is great as it would reduce the load on the dynamo. However, the brightness must be controlled as you only want (need) enough to see the various items and not take away from viewing ahead. Your eyes will try to adjust to the brightest light within their range. Shielded 15 Watt bulbs for most cab, marker/class, ground, reading lights is fine. 25W for shovel sheet/coal work or switchable machinery lights works good. One question would be it the same bulb shape could be maintained otherwise this might create a problem in existing sockets and shields. Wonder how many bulbs would be necessary to purchase for a special order? Headlights at 100w for yard switching and 200/250 for road work. The 100w bulbs will not blind the ground men as much. As for reading lights, having one on the left side helps much for doing cab work at night. Also found out that when using radios powered by dynamos, that using the dynamo to recharge a battery, then taking to battery power to run a cab radio reduces the load and damage to the dynamo. Radio power pack needs to set up for 12vdc. More to it than that, but different ways to skin the cat. If one could use all LED bulbs, maybe one could use a 500w dynamo with no damage as cab radios take a lot of power. The old heads had many tricks to do the job safely, the alternating eye use when firing was one of them.
Will it be helpful to use red lights at least on engineer's side? Red color does not "bleach out" your night vision, so at least in theory the engineer would be able to see inside and outside a bit better.
I was going to ask what sort of voltage do the bulbs run at, someone further in the comments mentioned 32V (closer to 36?). With some added circuitry to filter and regulate the supply you could retrofit some (12v) LED’s in the cab which would be probably be brighter than the old incandescents
Can you use the dynamo to power something off of it like you can a diesel? For example a power outage happened and a diesel locomotive was moved to a town square and provided emergency power during a winter (CN 3502).
not really. The dynamo produces enough power to maybe run all the electronics needed to run a Modern Semi Truck down the road, but not enough to do what the modern diesels do to power a city block.
Tiny dynamo like that, I doubt it can output more than a few hundred watts. Also it's DC, not AC like the wider power grid. So I don't think it would be possible to power anything large off it.
@@zacksstuff @Dallen9 So what I’m hearing is the dynamo can’t power a building or two but it can power a welder or a machine to fix something on the locomotive if necessary.
@@Johndoe-jd you can get a welder that plugs into a standard 15 amp US socket, so 1800w. If we assume that's the dynamo's output, we might be able to light a whole building with LED lamps. But we're not running any of the other systems, especially climate control.
The diesel can do it because I think they tap into the traction circuit and that usually drives the train. This loco only have electric auxiliary, it would be like a beefier version of car electrical, so this couldn't power a town.
This would definitely be something to improve on for new builds (like for instance, "PRR" T1 #5551 -- wish that it would have been a New York Central Hudson or Niagara, but too late for that). Both in placement further away from the cab, and in having a more standard output (like what a diesel locomotive would use for cab power, so that you can use diesel cab lights and even positive train control without modification). For the current preserved locomotives, I wonder if it would help to do something simple like strapping on a small square of soundproofing material to block the direct sound path from the dynamo turbine (and its exhaust) to the cab?
What voltage does that thing output? Are specialist lamps required, or are they regular old incandescents from the hardware store -presumably the "rough service" type? And the sight-glasses remind me; was it ever tried to use crystal or Pyrex or other exotic glasses to make more robust sight-glasses? It surprised me greatly that glass, which is extremely hard and chemically impermeable, would become a wear item!
@@Hyce777 I vaguely recall it being 25 or 30 amps. It was 30-odd years ago I ran steam, and now you've got me trying to remember the wattage of the headlight. I think it was 75W? I remember being surprised how low the wattage was .. makes you realise just how much the reflector does! I think our instrument and class lights were all 25W.
Hyce, the standard military tactic to deal with bright light exposure while retaining night vision is to close one eye when exposed to the bright light. This would allow you to see the coal in the tender and check the fire without the dazzle/ night blindness effects, but you would give up some depth-perception. Also, it doesn't help with the gopro.
Now I would complain that one of the locomotives that's nearby me is ancient, and so it doesn't have cab lights, but the thing is so damm modernized, it probably has em, heck, it doesn't even have the same valve gear! (Argent lumber Co. 6)
I would kinda love to see some of your videos on floatplane because of the higher bit rate for video and audio. Especially the one about the importance of narrow Guage. Ooo the audio would be superb on that one x3
That moment when the credit roll is 1/4 the video length. I actually watched it all the way through expecting a blooper or something at the end, but nope. Lol (Yes, I know it had the cut scene during, but still...)
@@paulmonce7625 Thanks. That is a decent amount of power. I did not know but suspected it was more like my old VW bus generator 13.6 volts at about 300 watts when new from the factory. Is the output controlled the same way with a points type regulator and is there a battery in circuit, I suspect not.
Not gonna lie to you, I'm surprised nobody has done that or made it an fra requirement yet... Most dynamos make 32 volts DC current, so it's totally feasible.
I’ve had a fantasy of building full size replica of the Santa Cruz Rail Road’s Jupiter that’s in the Smithsonian. Buuuut I wanted the headlight to be actually useful for seeing sooooo… Well, I’m poor. So fantasy it will remain. But I totally get upgrading the lights. I like the thought of selectable settings just to illustrate what the original operators had to deal with. Original output then switch to more usable lumens, and then people can go “Okay, I get why you changed this”.
@@jeffreyhallam5517 A man can dream, right? For the most part, headlights are really more for everyone else seeing the train more than they are about seeing too much from the cab. Really makes you appreciate how much engineers rely on their knowledge of the territory...
Honestly I’d your eyes were adjusted, that dynamo puts out plenty of juice to see everything you need to pretty well! Also did you guys redo the throttle on 491? She broke loose pretty easy.
Yeah, we adjusted the clevis that sets the bar. After we'd done the last annual, she ended up with the throttle sticking really far out - like, 1.5" or so of dead spot on the quadrant before it actually admitted steam, and so I was used to that, and then tightening it up so there was hardly anything made muscle memory go out the window... lol.
@@Hyce777 Holy cow. isn’t it amazing with linkages when round holes get turned into ovals and the slack adds up exponentially? (Not as dramatic, but had a related issue with my ‘71 MGB with throttle linkages and pedal box-when the 1” or take up was fixed I did a burnout in a car that doesn’t do burnouts 🤣)
I suspect it's possible, but then you're constantly changing between looking at a very bright light and looking out into the darkness. That would mess with your night vision a lot.
@@Hyce777, if you'd clean the reflector, it would light up the track better! lol! I think the engine I used to run would light up about 500-600' really good on bright.
hey there ^_< / an interesting view of steam locos is how do the axle drive wheels are steering in tight curbs, i mean there must be strong forces there right ? if example a 2-8-2 how can that line of 8 drive wheels articulate or they don't need ? or is it me or one of the pair don't have the ring that follows the track and is able to slip to the right or left ? i mean is kinda crazy to think that all have rings that follow the tracks and no articulation i mean yeah the 2 and 2 are articulating but is such a big difference between 8 oh wait a sec i'm stupid i guess so they can't articulate because of the drive bar that connects all of them right ? so then remains that maybe still it must be a pair in the middle that are able to slip to left and right ? or maybe articulation is slightly possible m i don't know since is kinda hard to find those answers or is just me sorry for bad english and thank you for the videos - God Bless you and all !
No permanent paperwork holders with light fixtures in there? Didn't those generators have some kind of muffler installed? The ones on German locomotives are a lot less loud (which is a good thing as they need to be running 100% of the time)
I’m actually curious about this: would you actually gain more energy if the dynamo was an electromagnetic generator setup instead of the turbine generator setup? I know what that the copper bristles on the shaft have a lot of resistance, causing a loss in electrical power from the KE of steam turbine.
@@Yarf.McBarf electromagnetic generators use magnetic resonance to produce electrical energy whereas turbine generators use mechanical power to produce electrical energy. A great example is this is are windmills.
@@maxwilson7001 It's called a hydrostatic lubricator and has a self-contained oil reservoir. Saturated steam from the boiler feeds into the hydrostat and the area underneath the reservoir is thus filled with boiling water in a sealed chamber, and the steam is also in the oil reservoir. This pressurized steam forces the oil through a tube and into a brass nipple that you can see in the bulls-eye. A valve underneath the bulls-eye controls how many drops per minute are released to float up through the water to be mixed with the steam to be delivered via copper tube to whatever appliance(s) need running lubrication. The loco I used to run had five: left valve, left cylinder, air compressor, right valve, right cylinder. If Hyce hasn't yet done a video on the hydrostat and how it works, he needs to! :)
Seeing electric lighting on a steam locomotive is really unfamiliar to me. For some reason, electric lighting was never employed on British steam, and many early diesel electric locos were still fitted with the occasional non-electric lamp, despite being built with massive generators. I personally don’t mind the dynamo sound, however I’m sure purist enthusiasts and locals living around heritage railways wouldn’t be so keen if we started fitting our steam locos with dynamos.
American Locomotives always bring to my mind the approbation of the BR Standards (as compared to the far more spartan GWR engines) I heard from an old Canton Driver - "It's like driving from your living room"
I have an idea for a derail valley video, get the multiplayer mod, get KANs in on it, and have a shunt off. Whoever gets their yard shorted out by color order first wins, but instead of wagons or boxcars. Explodey Boi's 💥💥💥
Always like the dynamo sound.
On the old WWII type of radios, there was a dynamo (not steam powered) used to power you finals (final stage amplifier). When you keyed or turned on the high voltage for the finals, you could hear the dynamo slow down under load. Very unique sound, and fun to listen for.
My GRC9 does it. A faint whine also comes through on your transmitted audio. Instantly recognizable.
You didn't mention the one bit that I found got the biggest reaction of surprise out of people when I was running steam back in the day: that the current generated is 32VDC, and we used special 32VDC light bulbs that are special order, and not from the hardware store down the street. :)
ooo that is very interesting.
The "Weird lightbulb under the cab" is still used today in modern diesels. Today, there's two of them, one each side of the nose. About where class lamps would be on British locomotives in fact, and whenever the engineer blows the horn or hits the switch to turn them on, they flash in an alternating pattern, first one side then the other.
In modern parlance, they're called "ditch lights".
I think in some ways a better equivalent would be the lights by the steps of some diesels. The ones I have been on actually do have individual lightbulbs facing downwards, to illuminate the steps or other areas around the lower half of the locomotive at night.
These lights are not ditch lights. They are called ground lights and have zero relation. Ditch lights point forward.
@@pootispiker2866 Ah, thanks for the correction.
The first electric lights on trains were actually arc lights powered by dynamos driven from the wheels. Once metal filament (tantalum and later tungsten) bulbs got good enough to be used under the high vibration of a train, they banned the arc lights for being too blindingly bright.
An old trick we employ at our railroad on locos with no cab lights is cracking the firedoor open every so soften to reflect light off of the back wall onto the gauges.
Most of our equipment have acetylene gas lamps which are crap and best left alone, hence the aforementioned trick, but one or two have electric lights... run by a Pyle dynamo!
Interesting that the Rio Grande placed the dynamo right next to the cab. On the Sumpter Valley we placed them next to the stack, which required some drain extensions to get around the larger onion stacks used at the time and the larger diamond stack still used on 3 today.
Lots of Pennsylvania Railroad engines have the dynamo at the front end too, the K4 for example. They piped the drain to come out by the stack.
I met an ex-railwayman who use to drive and fire steam locos from the 50s to 70s for NSWGR. He has this story of this particular movement where he and his driver took a train to Richmond (or somewhere like that). The driver would knock off early and leave this guy alone to take the train back at night and to prevent others from finding out that he was the only one on board (two people required to crew a loco) he would unscrew some lights
Most people think of chuff-chuff, whistle-whistle sounds of a steam locomotive but if you’ve been in the cab of one long enough the constant whirring sound of the dynamo is important also.
While maintaining fire, close one eye. That keeps it from re-adjusting to the bright light and makes it way easier to look for coal when you turn around.
Same trick also works when you need to go into dark room on a sunny day. Close one eye ten or so seconds before going in and let it begin adjusting to darkness. Now you can somewhat see when you get inside. Night vision! :D
I would think that it would be better to have red lights in the cab, so the light does not mess with night vision as much. I know it was not really understood then as it is now how light affects the eyes, but it seems like they would have accidentally figured it out.
The weird light below the cab is ingenious. Too bad it could not be a dual purpose light to be able to see the running gear too.
They have to be white lights because red would not shine through the sight glass or the hydrostat bullseyes very well. The gauge lights don't mess with night vision as much as you think. And diesel locomotives today still use ground lights under the cab on both sides.
My favorite dynamos are the ones mounted up in front of the smoke stacks where I can't hear them.
I remember learning about the Dynamo through a pretty hefty, fairly comprehensive book entitled "The American Railway: Its Construction, Development, Management, and Appliances" by a variety of authors (it's a collection of essays, best I can tell), but Project Gutenberg and Google Books both choose to primarily credit Thomas Curtis Clarke. Although the chapter had to almost gloss over the definition because of the other further details of the essay. Or maybe that's just my brain reeling from all the information revealed in the book? Either way, it's great to see a Dynamo up close and personal and get a few clarifications through this video.
When he said there was a light for the engineers to read orders, i immediately thought of a drive thru for trains
😮
I’ve never wondered about the whirring sound that a locomotive makes
Yessss!!! I've been wanting a dynamo video for so long! I hope you do another when you need to service it so we can see the inside!
That deck light lol
In the heritage rail-yard I volunteer at the dynamo is on the side of the boiler in-front of the firemans window on the engine I mostly do work on. Might send a pic of it in discord some day when I can be bothered.
That’s why American steam locomotives make that noise, I’ve always wondered what it was.
That definitely made for some light viewing.
Are you going to throw limes at me now?
Like-deserving perfection
Come a little closer; whack!
Already commented this on another video, figured putting it on a more recent one would increase my chances of you seeing it.
There are two tourist railroads nearest to me, both very nostalgic and significant to me. The Wiscasset, Waterville, and Farmington Railway Museum, and the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad. The W.W.F. is 2 foot narrow gauge steam, and the Belfast and Moosehead Lake is standard gauge diesel locomotives. The Unity shops on the BML also services Maine Switching Services locomotives. I like both railroads and both are reasonable distances to volunteer over the summer or something. I was just wondering if you had any advice on deciding.
Having fired steam at night, the important thing is to maintain your night vision to watch the road ahead and check train conditions when looking to the rear on curves. It also is necessary when taking hand signals or knowing where your ground men are. So, the one eye closed when firing does the trick. Alternating eyes when putting in or checking a fire condition. As for LED lights, the idea is great as it would reduce the load on the dynamo. However, the brightness must be controlled as you only want (need) enough to see the various items and not take away from viewing ahead. Your eyes will try to adjust to the brightest light within their range. Shielded 15 Watt bulbs for most cab, marker/class, ground, reading lights is fine. 25W for shovel sheet/coal work or switchable machinery lights works good. One question would be it the same bulb shape could be maintained otherwise this might create a problem in existing sockets and shields. Wonder how many bulbs would be necessary to purchase for a special order?
Headlights at 100w for yard switching and 200/250 for road work. The 100w bulbs will not blind the ground men as much. As for reading lights, having one on the left side helps much for doing cab work at night.
Also found out that when using radios powered by dynamos, that using the dynamo to recharge a battery, then taking to battery power to run a cab radio reduces the load and damage to the dynamo. Radio power pack needs to set up for 12vdc. More to it than that, but different ways to skin the cat. If one could use all LED bulbs, maybe one could use a 500w dynamo with no damage as cab radios take a lot of power.
The old heads had many tricks to do the job safely, the alternating eye use when firing was one of them.
Will it be helpful to use red lights at least on engineer's side? Red color does not "bleach out" your night vision, so at least in theory the engineer would be able to see inside and outside a bit better.
@@AgentWestIn practice, red light is not compatible with sight glasses.
@@pootispiker2866 Not compatible? How so? Makes it more difficult to see water level in the glass?
@@AgentWest Yes. White light is the only way to see the water in the glass. As per another comment, the red light makes the water level invisible.
Good stuff, you have got to LOVE what you do! What a life.
Nice little video, thanks for sharing.
I finally know what weird device things on steam locomotive was for.
I think the fire is brighter than all of the lights combined
A good video to "brighten" my day
I was going to ask what sort of voltage do the bulbs run at, someone further in the comments mentioned 32V (closer to 36?). With some added circuitry to filter and regulate the supply you could retrofit some (12v) LED’s in the cab which would be probably be brighter than the old incandescents
We actually have LED bulbs in the RGS 20. Definitely possible.
I honestly cannot but think of ways to improve that, LED lights come to mind obviously, or a solar panel charging a modern battery bank.
Unfortunately they didn't have such commodities in the 1930s
Can you use the dynamo to power something off of it like you can a diesel? For example a power outage happened and a diesel locomotive was moved to a town square and provided emergency power during a winter (CN 3502).
not really. The dynamo produces enough power to maybe run all the electronics needed to run a Modern Semi Truck down the road, but not enough to do what the modern diesels do to power a city block.
Tiny dynamo like that, I doubt it can output more than a few hundred watts. Also it's DC, not AC like the wider power grid. So I don't think it would be possible to power anything large off it.
@@zacksstuff @Dallen9 So what I’m hearing is the dynamo can’t power a building or two but it can power a welder or a machine to fix something on the locomotive if necessary.
@@Johndoe-jd you can get a welder that plugs into a standard 15 amp US socket, so 1800w. If we assume that's the dynamo's output, we might be able to light a whole building with LED lamps. But we're not running any of the other systems, especially climate control.
The diesel can do it because I think they tap into the traction circuit and that usually drives the train. This loco only have electric auxiliary, it would be like a beefier version of car electrical, so this couldn't power a town.
Need to get yourself some shoveling shades. Shades for when you need to look into the heart of the fire!
I was on 2685 at night once
Long story short
Its absolutely terrifying
Sweeeet! You can hide up there? Lucky…. All secure….
The high amount of intelligence and information you have is flawless!!!!
This would definitely be something to improve on for new builds (like for instance, "PRR" T1 #5551 -- wish that it would have been a New York Central Hudson or Niagara, but too late for that). Both in placement further away from the cab, and in having a more standard output (like what a diesel locomotive would use for cab power, so that you can use diesel cab lights and even positive train control without modification).
For the current preserved locomotives, I wonder if it would help to do something simple like strapping on a small square of soundproofing material to block the direct sound path from the dynamo turbine (and its exhaust) to the cab?
Cool! So back in the 1880s, no night running? And super sad the video ended at the best part
They had oil lights before these, which were a very "we die like men" level of safety. Lol
Loves it my dear Hyce 💪🏻💪🏻
Great video
Lamp.
Did firemen have a higher case of cataracts? I heard of glassblower’s cataracts from working with the hot glass and furnaces.
What voltage does that thing output? Are specialist lamps required, or are they regular old incandescents from the hardware store -presumably the "rough service" type? And the sight-glasses remind me; was it ever tried to use crystal or Pyrex or other exotic glasses to make more robust sight-glasses? It surprised me greatly that glass, which is extremely hard and chemically impermeable, would become a wear item!
32 volts DC - at a scary number of amps. Lol. Can't recall the figure but it's more than 20. They are special bulbs rated for that.
@@Hyce777 I vaguely recall it being 25 or 30 amps. It was 30-odd years ago I ran steam, and now you've got me trying to remember the wattage of the headlight. I think it was 75W? I remember being surprised how low the wattage was .. makes you realise just how much the reflector does! I think our instrument and class lights were all 25W.
Wake up babe, Hyce uploaded a new video
Wonder if there's a way to make a muffler or a wind pipe to change the sounds of the dynamo exhaust
yayyyyy coo coo for choo choo-ness! Also dynamo go brrrrrrrr
Very interesting. Thank you!
Are you going to the railroad show in Salt Lake City?
Hyce, the standard military tactic to deal with bright light exposure while retaining night vision is to close one eye when exposed to the bright light. This would allow you to see the coal in the tender and check the fire without the dazzle/ night blindness effects, but you would give up some depth-perception. Also, it doesn't help with the gopro.
So what I'm hearing is the fireman should wear an eyepatch.
@@emm4rmstrong While I'm sure that Mark would look awesome with an eyepatch, the idea is to just an eyelid.
Now I would complain that one of the locomotives that's nearby me is ancient, and so it doesn't have cab lights, but the thing is so damm modernized, it probably has em, heck, it doesn't even have the same valve gear! (Argent lumber Co. 6)
i guess the lightbulbs stay in 491 until osha says they can't.
need to put some led bulbs in the cabs.
We did with the 20. The others will likely get the same soon enough.
@@Hyce777 Good 👍 cause you guys need every ounce of useable light you can get.
How often do you have to replace the lights if they come on every time you turn on the dynamo.
Decently often. Maybe one or two bulbs a year with how often we run.
I would kinda love to see some of your videos on floatplane because of the higher bit rate for video and audio.
Especially the one about the importance of narrow Guage.
Ooo the audio would be superb on that one x3
That moment when the credit roll is 1/4 the video length. I actually watched it all the way through expecting a blooper or something at the end, but nope. Lol (Yes, I know it had the cut scene during, but still...)
Any idea of the output voltage and max current available from 491’s dynamo?
32 volts DC at something like 20 amps or so. It's a pyle national K2 type.
@@Hyce777 beefier than I expected. Thanks for the quick answer!
@@Hyce777 Yep 32 volts, 16 amps. about 500 watts of power.
@@paulmonce7625 is the man who would know!
@@paulmonce7625 Thanks. That is a decent amount of power. I did not know but suspected it was more like my old VW bus generator 13.6 volts at about 300 watts when new from the factory. Is the output controlled the same way with a points type regulator and is there a battery in circuit, I suspect not.
Could you put something on the dynamo exhaust to change the sound?
aye, a pipe that has a doubble Diameter change or chambers in it would work.
They did make mufflers, but 491 never historically wore one so she didn't get one.
That makes sense that got to keep it historically accurate
My fellow foamers would hate me if I ever got a real steam engine.. I'd upgrade all the lights with modern LED's 😆
Not gonna lie to you, I'm surprised nobody has done that or made it an fra requirement yet... Most dynamos make 32 volts DC current, so it's totally feasible.
Same man🤣
Shhhhh... We did that with RGS 20. The old bulbs don't have the best life and you really can't tell the difference...
I’ve had a fantasy of building full size replica of the Santa Cruz Rail Road’s Jupiter that’s in the Smithsonian. Buuuut I wanted the headlight to be actually useful for seeing sooooo… Well, I’m poor. So fantasy it will remain. But I totally get upgrading the lights. I like the thought of selectable settings just to illustrate what the original operators had to deal with. Original output then switch to more usable lumens, and then people can go “Okay, I get why you changed this”.
@@jeffreyhallam5517 A man can dream, right? For the most part, headlights are really more for everyone else seeing the train more than they are about seeing too much from the cab. Really makes you appreciate how much engineers rely on their knowledge of the territory...
Random idea probably someone can use a welder's mask to quickly switch between sunglasses mode and clear glass mode.
Hyce shedding some light on another topic that isn't much discussed
Honestly I’d your eyes were adjusted, that dynamo puts out plenty of juice to see everything you need to pretty well!
Also did you guys redo the throttle on 491? She broke loose pretty easy.
Yeah, we adjusted the clevis that sets the bar. After we'd done the last annual, she ended up with the throttle sticking really far out - like, 1.5" or so of dead spot on the quadrant before it actually admitted steam, and so I was used to that, and then tightening it up so there was hardly anything made muscle memory go out the window... lol.
@@Hyce777 Holy cow. isn’t it amazing with linkages when round holes get turned into ovals and the slack adds up exponentially? (Not as dramatic, but had a related issue with my ‘71 MGB with throttle linkages and pedal box-when the 1” or take up was fixed I did a burnout in a car that doesn’t do burnouts 🤣)
I just watched the video by the museum about 491 from 5 months ago...what a coincidence...
Is it possible to switch the lights to LED bulbs to possibly get some better lighting?
I suspect it's possible, but then you're constantly changing between looking at a very bright light and looking out into the darkness. That would mess with your night vision a lot.
LEDs are made in any configuration voltage not a problem and they make them warm with a glow that mimics the old lamps
How much does the headlight actually illuminate in front of the locomotive?
Not enough to tell you far enough in advance that you're going to hit something at track speed, but farther than you'd think.
@@Hyce777, if you'd clean the reflector, it would light up the track better! lol! I think the engine I used to run would light up about 500-600' really good on bright.
Did they put aspestos in the boiler and the water tank?
hey there ^_< /
an interesting view of steam locos is how do the axle drive wheels are steering in tight curbs, i mean there must be strong forces there right ?
if example a 2-8-2 how can that line of 8 drive wheels articulate or they don't need ?
or is it me or one of the pair don't have the ring that follows the track and is able to slip to the right or left ?
i mean is kinda crazy to think that all have rings that follow the tracks and no articulation
i mean yeah the 2 and 2 are articulating but is such a big difference between 8
oh wait a sec i'm stupid i guess
so they can't articulate because of the drive bar that connects all of them right ?
so then remains that maybe still it must be a pair in the middle that are able to slip to left and right ?
or maybe articulation is slightly possible m
i don't know since is kinda hard to find those answers or is just me
sorry for bad english and thank you for the videos
- God Bless you and all !
oh you already made a video on this
th-cam.com/video/j3f4e0F_Rp4/w-d-xo.html
thank you ^_< /
No permanent paperwork holders with light fixtures in there?
Didn't those generators have some kind of muffler installed? The ones on German locomotives are a lot less loud (which is a good thing as they need to be running 100% of the time)
You said that the class lamps on 491 have rotary lenses, do you turn them from the cab or do you have to go to each lamp and do it there?
I didn’t realize there were so many lights all over the cab. Some carefully placed fiber optics and a micro LED could work for my HOn3 models. Hum… 🤔
This is awsome
I’m actually curious about this: would you actually gain more energy if the dynamo was an electromagnetic generator setup instead of the turbine generator setup? I know what that the copper bristles on the shaft have a lot of resistance, causing a loss in electrical power from the KE of steam turbine.
What's the difference between the two? Either way you'd need the steam to spin a turbine, right?
@@Yarf.McBarf electromagnetic generators use magnetic resonance to produce electrical energy whereas turbine generators use mechanical power to produce electrical energy. A great example is this is are windmills.
A dynamo is an electromagnetic device.
you should put a led light in the cab.
Whats the Bulls eye for?
Shows the oil flow to the air compressor.
@@Hyce777 Wait that's not manually lubed? Where's the oil tank then?
@@maxwilson7001 It's called a hydrostatic lubricator and has a self-contained oil reservoir. Saturated steam from the boiler feeds into the hydrostat and the area underneath the reservoir is thus filled with boiling water in a sealed chamber, and the steam is also in the oil reservoir. This pressurized steam forces the oil through a tube and into a brass nipple that you can see in the bulls-eye. A valve underneath the bulls-eye controls how many drops per minute are released to float up through the water to be mixed with the steam to be delivered via copper tube to whatever appliance(s) need running lubrication.
The loco I used to run had five: left valve, left cylinder, air compressor, right valve, right cylinder.
If Hyce hasn't yet done a video on the hydrostat and how it works, he needs to! :)
@@bw4t Huh that's really intresting
Where do you use the bathroom?
Would rebuilding the dynamo make it quieter?
Nope. A muffler would though. They did make them, but our engines never historically wore them so we don't have them on.
Seeing electric lighting on a steam locomotive is really unfamiliar to me. For some reason, electric lighting was never employed on British steam, and many early diesel electric locos were still fitted with the occasional non-electric lamp, despite being built with massive generators. I personally don’t mind the dynamo sound, however I’m sure purist enthusiasts and locals living around heritage railways wouldn’t be so keen if we started fitting our steam locos with dynamos.
American Locomotives always bring to my mind the approbation of the BR Standards (as compared to the far more spartan GWR engines) I heard from an old Canton Driver - "It's like driving from your living room"
So when I went to download the unity mod manager it said I needed to be logged in to do so, are there ways to get them without being logged in?
can you put a suppressor on the dynamo?
They made them, yeah!
No way! Super cool!
I have an idea for a derail valley video, get the multiplayer mod, get KANs in on it, and have a shunt off. Whoever gets their yard shorted out by color order first wins, but instead of wagons or boxcars. Explodey Boi's 💥💥💥
Love this
its march why ya still going to the north pole?
Nice
Nice
do you think they will add this to railroads online
?
Hey, Hyce, did you know that a dynamo is basically a DC motor used to generate power?
Yup!
Makes filming "fun."