Lesson plan
Booster engine
A booster engine for steam locomotives is a small supplementary two-cylinder steam engine back-gear-connected to the trailing truck axle on the locomotive or one of the trucks on the tender. It was invented in 1918 by Howard L. Ingersoll, assistant to the president of the New York Central Railroad. A rocking idler gear permits the booster engine to be put into operation by the engineer (driver). A geared booster engine drives one axle only and can be non-reversible, with one idler gear, or reversible, with two idler gears. There were variations built by the Franklin company which utilized side rods to transmit tractive force to all axles of the booster truck. These rod boosters were predominately used on the leading truck of the tender, though there is an example of a Lehigh Valley 4-8-4 using it as a trailing tender truck. A booster engine is used to start a heavy train or maintain low speed under demanding conditions. Rated at about at speeds from , it can be cut in while moving at speeds under and is semi-automatically cut out via the engineer notching back the reverse gear or manually through knocking down the control latch up to a speed between , depending on the model and gearing of the booster. A tractive effort rating of was common, although ratings of up to around were possible. Tender boosters are equipped with side-rods connecting axles on the lead truck.…
Article summary
A booster engine for steam locomotives is a small supplementary two-cylinder steam engine back-gear-connected to the trailing truck axle on the locomotive or one of the trucks on the tender. It was invented in 1918 by Howard L. Ingersoll, assistant to the president of the New York Central Railroad. A rocking idler gear permits the booster engine to be put into operation by the engineer (driver). A geared booster engine drives one axle only and can be non-reversible, with one idler gear, or reversible, with two idler gears. There were variations built by the Franklin company which utilized side rods to transmit tractive force to all axles of the booster truck. These rod boosters were predominately used on the leading truck of the tender, though there is an example of a Lehigh Valley 4-8-4 using it as a trailing tender truck. A booster engine is used to start a heavy train or maintain low speed under demanding conditions. Rated at about at speeds from , it can be cut in while moving at speeds under and is semi-automatically cut out via the engineer notching back the reverse gear or manually through knocking down the control latch up to a speed between , depending on the model and gearing of the booster. A tractive effort rating of was common, although ratings of up to around were possible. Tender boosters are equipped with side-rods connecting axles on the lead truck.…
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Discussion questions
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- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
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