Powellite

Powellite
"Powellite" Bagnall 3ft gauge locomotive at Black Sands, Victoria - 1938. Photograph: P.G. Dow

10 August, 2010

A little more about the Røros railway

One thing I noticed about this line is that it seems to have many curves, and many reverse curves (flattened S-shape). It seems to have been designed to follow the contours to reduce costs and earthworks to a minimum, and for a line in difficult country has remarkably few tunnels. Seeing all those curves I can begin to understand why, 150 years ago, Carl Pihl was so pleased with the outcome of his work with Charles Beyer, of the English locomotive builders Beyer, Peacock, in coming up with the iconic 2-4-0T loco with it's leading Bissell truck and compensated suspension. They would have gone very well on such a curvy railway.

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