South Africa's Diesel busting Steam Locomotive - SAR "Red Devil"
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- In today's video, we take a look at the "Red Devil", a locomotive built intended to bust diesel power.
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Picture & Information References:
www.trainweb.org/tusp/firebox....
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_A...
advanced-steam.org/5at/modern...
advanced-steam.org/5at/modern...
📷Franciscus3668
📷Malcolm Best
📷Col André Kritzinger
📷Steamhunter
📷Robert Maidment-Wilson
📷Malcolm Best
"It's me, the Devil! I'm here to convince you to do sin. Steal candy from babies and small businesses! I'm not talking about Walmart" - The Devil, 2005
"Nice reference, I also love star trek"
Heyyy shadow the hedgehog fandub reference 😂
Pole stream when?
@@tha_tram_man I was wondering the exact same thing
Insanely unexpected reference, and I am so very here for it
Never thought this day would come.
LONG LIVE THE BOER !!!! 🇿🇦
Same here
Same
Me neither
Same love 3450
This is by far one of the coolest engines I've ever seen
Currently she is in Table Bay Harbour in Cape Town, Ceres Rail Company are trying to get permission to restore and run her again. They say that perhaps for starting, it would have been better if she were a 2-10-2 for the little extra weight but once underway went like a Boeing.
There was a 3rd gas-producer in South Africa, currently at Sandstone Heritage Trust in Ficksburg, it is a red NGG16 2ft gauge Garrett - also referred to as the mini-Red Devil. The 19D was unfortunately scrapped, but her wheels still exist and will go to use.
Would love to see a video on tge 16e.
Going "like a Boeing" sadly doesn't sound like a compliment at this point... orz
@@WillowEpp bwahahaha! To be fare, the Class 25 Condensers sounded like Boeing or jet engines.
So the doors would fly off? LOL.
@@bryancosby2262 check all the pics - no doors 😜
I remembered seeing this engine in my local library talking about this beauty when i was a kid in the 90s. Its nice to see a video about it instead of a book
25 percent less fuel.... that is a huge improvement. makes me wonder if steam power (using coal) was still being researched were the technology would be. I'm sure this techneque could be improved and who knows what other kind of systems could be created.
It takes 8 hours to start up steam engine, it takes one turn of the key to start up a diesel. Maintaince and operation vise there was no competition, technology was doomed.
@@randomnickify I understand/know all that, but I always wondered about efficiency, and he seamed to make huge improvements by himself so I can only imagine if real money and minds were thrown at it how efficient steam could be.... I'm sure they know and have more effiicient engines that have never made news, and I know it still wouldn't be as efficient as other power sources, but this was a cool video.
@@randomnickify Much of the maintenance can be avoided. It was menial shit like sweeping tubes, cleaning fires, and lubrication.
GPCS eliminated boiler wear, allowed the use of low quality coal (when implemented correctly as on the RFIRT 2-10-2's), and reduced particulate emissions.
Roller bearings reduced lubrication needs, as did different valve gear mechanisms like poppet or rotary valves.
Piston rings and gland seals could also be made to be entirely maintenance-free.
Boiler water treatments and metal coatings greatly reduce the need for boiler washouts or even blowdowns.
Self-cleaning smokeboxes and ashpans, mechanical stokers, and automatic fire and boiler controls could make steam locomotives one-mannable (so long as the cab is sensibly placed)
Operationally, steam locomotives were kept hot. They didn't let them cool down unless they needed work. Otherwise a fire was to be kept in them at all times to keep the boilers hot, even if it wasn't hot enough to generate much (if any) steam. Then when they were needed for use a proper fire could be put in and you'd have steam within the hour.
Operationally today this wouldn't be an issue, especially not with computer fire control that's already on some minimum-gauge locomotives. But even without it at my railway locomotives are usually ready for trains hours before the train is ready, so they sit (ideally) idling in the ready roads until we need them. Usually they get shut down because the railway's all about saving fuel to hell with the 50 year old prime movers in its locomotives.
It's kind of a bummer that building locomotives is not an artform or science experiment but something one has to do for commercial reasons, otherwise I agree that indeed so many more innovative designs would've been possible that could really push railroading technology to its limits... It'd never beat out diesel for operational cost effectiveness but it'd be the most fascinating engineering.
@@Julia_and_the_City other technoilogies could also be pearred with it. A ultra light steam engine with airpressure tanks powering all wheels (while the steam pressure rose) would help with powering steam engines and allowing them to be more efficient... I'm sure other technologies (some they had back in the day also (air pressure)) could make them better than they were.
someday you should talk about Livio Dante Porta
he's probably one of the most influential steam locomotive builder of his time and to this day
Porta and Chapelon really don't get the credit they deserve among railfans
Holy shit hi dan
@@Joseph_InTheDark oh hey joe, that's a fun coincidence, how are you?
Agreed. Some of his designs were applied to many locomotives in South America, where he is still held in high regard. Steam traction from these countries in general is unfortunately not highlighted internationally. Hope this changes some day. Greetings from Argentina.
@@francora4763el es el que hizo la Argentina no? si no me equivoco, termino sus dias en los talleres ferroviarios de Tafi Viejo en Tucuman, y carneada como chatarra por la gente. Lo ultimo que vi que dejaron sin vender o poder robar fue la chimenea😢 saludos desde Tucuman
L D Porta was involved in the design of the gas producer steam locos on the 2ft 6 inch Rio Turbio coal railway in southern Argentina. These small 2-10-2 locos could haul 1700 ton trains, and were reputed to produce a continuos1200 hp.
And still exist
@@the_retag Nope
Thank you so much ToT for finally making a video on this epic train! Just thought I'd add some extra information:
After being withdrawn from service in 2004, it sat in storage for about 14 years before being restored by the Ceres Rail Company in 2018. It hauled exclusive passenger services for about a year, which is mainly what popularized the company. However this massive and powerful engine was not suited to running on the shorter, twistier branch lines used by the Ceres Rail Company, and was withdrawn one again, in 2019. It was put into a rail yard where it sits to this day, still under the ownership of the Ceres Rail Company.
Hi Michael, not under their ownership, they are working on being allowed to restore and run the loco but TFR has tons of bureaucracy to get past.
Hello, South African here to tell you all our steam locos are practically gone now, they've all been scrapped ):
I'm sorry man, you guys did good (American here ) 😢🚂
Fortunately not all of them.. Quite a few still around in museums and a few still running around the country like Umgeni Steam Railway where I voulenteer at 🙂
@@BradvT13 fortunately indeed, you're doing good work man. Cherish them with all your heart just as we will cherish ours over here 🙂☺️🚂
@@JAdg75oo00 I saw a video on an American locomotive that runs on the same gauge as ours but it is absolutely tiny! You could hardly sit in it. Is there any history of such a gauge being used commercially in America?
@@jaidenvandeventerSometiems amusement parks will have small 2ft or 3ft trains, but there are many narrow gage railroad in the U.S.. Such as the Durango and Silverton, once owned and operated by the Durango & Rio Grande railroad. They had a lot of narrow gage
It makes you wonder what that guy could have done if he got hold of a Union Pacific Big Boy.
Broken couplers.
To much power/weight already...
There's actually a guy in South Africa who makes HO/OO scale models of the Red Devil (both the Porta and the latter version) as well as a number of other locos. I have one of his Class 25 Condensers and it's beautiful.
Heschel built.
in the mid 1990's, phil girdlestone, who had worked with david wardale, assisted in redesigns to two victorian railways r class locos, r711 and r766 to get more power from them to enable them to maintain a diesel timetable from melbourne to warrnambool. there was a noticeable power increase to the extent that r class pulled trains were permitted to reverse at geelong station so they could get a run at the climb inside a tunnel and the 'super r's' never needed to reverse for the run-up. however r711 threw a connecting rod probably because of the extra power. the modifications have been removed from both locos. it seems that all the removed components have been stored.
I remember this was the last steam locomotive available in Railroad Tycoon 3, very cool!
this is certainly a modern steam moment
5:50
Seeing this "Henschel" plate makes me smile... so far from home.
The Doom theme was a nice touch
This engine is the "Cyber-Demon" analog of the Steam Engine Universe...
As usual, the narration and content is top notch! And what a gorgeous looking design!
James the Red Engine could never! It is a fascinating story of the sole SAR Class 26 "L.D. Porta/Red Devil." A locomotive encyclopedia I have has an whole page about this monster!
That ending had me in stitches with laughter and blossoming. Hope it's what I want to do with my life. Find a way to bring steam back however I can. Thanks train of thought. ☺️🙂🚂
My prayers have been answered! Thanks for talking about this train!
Thanks for doing a video on this beast! Keep up the great content! Much love from South Africa and the Umgeni Steam Railway 😎
I first heard about the Red Devil back in the early 90's while reading about it on USENET (I can't remember if it was rec.railroads or uk.railways). The thread was about surviving steam locomotives around the world. Someone in the thread had compared the largest surviving UK steam locomotive to the Red Devil. Due to the large size of the Red Devil and the narrow gauge tracks it ran on some WAG replied -
"South Africa was the only country to run standard gauge trains on narrow gauge tracks whilst England was the only country to run narrow gauge trains on standard gauge tracks".
The few times I've been to the UK and rode trains there I always think about that quote.
You could do the story of each engine on its own and the people involved.
19D was sadly scrapped and not that long ago after theft of her main bearing from where she was standing.
Red devil has move around a little in recent years and ran (some of it mentioned by others). Some have even said that it can no longer be refered to as a class 26 because some parts are back to being a 25 class. Lost is long to know this.
The idea and implementation is amazing and was modified over the years of development. The results were far reaching and affected far more than locos but never reached there full potential.
There is a book and a reprint called Red Devil and Tails from the age of steam. Very interesting and technical and well worth it. SA has and produces some amazing things.
Keep posting, Love the channel.
Thanks
You need to make a video about Livio dante porta and his engine "Argentina"
Red devil is probably the closest we will ever get to a modern-day steam locomotive in terms of technology. Honestly, I think I read somewhere that when compared to diesel engines it was even more efficient than first generation diesels, and I think it was almost as good as diesel locomotives of that time, although stuff like the wheelslip problem and politics, ended up stopping the class 26 from ever becoming standard
Running a diesel or electric train is also So much easier. You only need one person at the cab. It starts with one push on the button and it doesn’t spray everyone around in layers of sud. The steam locomotive was already out of date in the early 1900s when cities started to run the first electric metros
That's really why engines are paired now...... Two smaller engines instead of one....
There were coal-hauling railroads here in the US that clung to steam power and tried to make the locos as efficient as possible. But the real problem with steam locos is the insane amount of maintenance they require compared to diesel.
Yes! So glad you covered something from SA, much appreciate and brillaint video once again!
Fancy seeing you here 👍
@@forrestrobin2712 surprise surprise 😊
Love the use of E1M1: at dooms crossing
I second this opinion.
and I third this option ;)
@@foxxojones4757
Let me please introduce myself, I'm a train of speed and strength
An absolute beast of an engine I love it
I used to be a volunteer for Atlantic Rail where the Red Devil resided before being returned to service. The crew let me climb inside the firebox. Its about the size of a garage. I also got to see the double blastpipe system. Truly is a gorgeous loco. Its wheelbase is actually too long for some of the curves on our lines so its restricted to certain routes.
The second I heard that Doom music kick in, I had to drop a thumbs up!
I saw this loco at Cape Town station while waiting to board an over night train to Johannesburg in late December 2017. And then a year later it made the news (as it says here) by doing a test run along local tracks. Quite a formidable looking machine.
He could get more out of this train. He made only changes in the engine but the outer body is stil creating very much drag. A streamline design, like on the Mallard, would increase the performance too. Strange that he didnt thinked about it.
It's awesome to know that someone is very dedicated on making steam locomotives efficient and powerful as if not better then diesels and electric combined. With some of the classes of steam locomotives coming back from extinction like the PRR T1, LNER P2, B17, and BR Standard Clan class 6 i wonder how advanced will these steam locomotives turn out once each of them are fully build?
Never thought youd be doing any SAR engines, especially red devil and then pair the engine with a doom song
That's pretty badass. Imagine if this was a new built locomotive with weight and size matched to the power it could put out.
Super lekker, thank you !!🇿🇦
Reminds of BattleBots
OMG a Picture of the HSB🥰. My local Railway! :D
Back in 90 I had a tour of the engine shed in Kimberly,the 26,Red Devil was there. Very impressive machine. The mechanic explained the running gear and most everything could be kept going for ever,make the parts. The boilers have a life,only so much can be done and that's what kills them.
Excellent job as always! I like the fiddle jab at the end. Nice touch.
Your almost off-the-cuff comment towards the end about it not even being the last hurrah of steam... so if not this, what was? Great video as always.
I recognize the engine from one of my railway books. The Red Devil is quite the locomotive. The power, the size, everything. It’s a beast!
Love that you used a photo of 4472 from one of its visits to Seymour (whilst on tour in Australia)
This info has been very helpful.
Always nice to see steam engines from lesser known countries
The writing and research on this channel is getting better and better.
I still think it's crazy that we abandoned many of the benefits of steam power right as more precise machining and computer-aided design came into the scene. If anyone has ever watched the Union Pacific Big Boy help push a stalled freight train up a grade while coupled to 30 passenger cars, you will understand their unique power.
Notes: decreasing the amount of airs coming into the fire box via the grate, having a thicker layer of coal and some exhaust from the pistons helped to get more of the reactions from the coal creating more heat for the water but less buring of coal so even less chance of any of it getting sucked with the strong pull of the air damaging the engines or creating fires out the smoke box,
It also saved fuel, could out put some more power and was silent..
But it made ot hard to fire and needed good Quilty coall. ash builed up with the few holes not able to empty it more
(This engine type itself had a problem with traction and could apply its power)
The obsession with primary airflow was a problem. You reached the state where 50% of the fuel fired was expelled through the chimney in unburnt form. You need to minimise the disturbance of the firebed and also make sure that all particles of fuel are consumed within the firebox hence the use and control of secondary air above the fire. You had to know how to use the stoker because the distribution needed to be even (a bit more development work needed here maybe) and the rocking grate system needed looking into.
I remember seeing this train 2 years ago in a trainyard at first,now i pass by there alot more times and i see that red beauty
altough unpractical today , their charm will not fade away
Very interesting - thanks for making this video.
I know a bit about these locomotives because I was a student mechanical engineer at SAR&H from 1997 to 1982.
During the University vacations we were required to undergo practical training at the workshops and the main drawing office in Pretoria where these modifications were designed.
They were very proud of what they had achieved. During the 2 weeks I spent there I was given the drawings for the condensing class 25 to study and given a lecturer on how it all worked.
The real reason for the condensing was because the rail line between Pretoria and Cape Town ran through a desert region where water was scarce and brackish, so a real problem.
Of course condensing did also improve efficiency.
The company really wanted to change over to diesel because the maintenance of steam locomotives was very labour intensive and therefore expensive. The lower cost of coal did not offset the maintenance cost.
Oh so this is the end game steam engine in railroad tycoon 3.
Wardales ideas though does give me theories, imagine if his designs were passed on into locomotives like the challengers or fef3/Niagara or even big boys.
That would actually make them able to compete power wise with modern diesel electrics.
Big Boy can out pull almost any Diesel loco given its 138,240 Lb tractive effort.
Kinda reminds me of the Czechoslovak class 476 steam engine, which was also painted in red, and also called "Red devil".
Now if the Red Devil went on a publicity tour of the US and ended up travelling through a certain Southern state........
That would be cool, but is physically impossible as the red devil uses a different track gauge
@@fatpigeon008 It was a joke about the song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia".
“Hey, it’s me! The Red Devil! I Run on the South African Rails. I Used to have these deflectors. I used to Crash the diesel record of speed!” - SAR Red Devil
Well this certainly seems to be Hell's Greatest Engine.
You could make a video, if it's not too much trouble, of Latin American or South American locomotives pls, like "la burrita" from Mexico and other similar trains.
By the way great video, great inspiration for my stories, keep it up!
Thanx for this video. The fact that steam still is a viable alternative against diesel really should be more acknowledged. With modern techniques steam can in fact be made more CO2 neutral than diesels. And also with far less NOx emissions.
Great choice of backing track. Subtle but good sound 🤣👍
Doomguy the engineer and beastmaster, tending to several Pain Elementals in the tender, throwing their Lost Souls into the firebox to generate steam.
Liked the video. First saw mention of the Red Devil on some South African railway DVDs I have.
One DVD mentioned the condensing locomotives and the problem the system
had with damage to the fan in the exhaust caused by char.
Maybe the gas system in Red Devil may have made the condensing system more viable.
A great story. Thank you for posting
I remember seeing this loco on a special about railways in South Africa during its first excursion career and immediately became interested in the "Red Devil". The performance of the engine when first converted sounds like the stuff of legends and makes me wonder what would happen if similar features were added to a larger standard gauge loco here in the US. Sadly interest of improving steam beyond what it was in the late 50s-early 60s isn't on the table for the people who matter as far as locomotive development in the states and with the trend of trying to move away from burning fossil fuels in favor of hydrogen fuel cells or electrification such development wouldn't fit in anywhere here.
I forget, have you done an episode on the ACE3000 project?
Eh, a wood-gas powered external combustion engine might see some interest if it becomes absolutely necessary to wean US supply chains off of fossil fuel.
You know its really advanced for its time when its designed with the help of computers in the 70s and 80s
>Makes a video about the Red Devil
>Has Doom playing in the background
Take my like
I’ve never heard of a engine who rebuilt to make them a diesel-steam hybrid
And plus the engine does looks cool
Wait until you learn about the Swiss Steam-Electrics 😀
We had the Kitson-stil diesel-Steam hybrid in the UK.
The diesel was a direct drive to the wheels using the front 1/2 of the cylinders and the exhaust was used to make the steam.
the Engine was started on steam and the diesel was started at around 20R.P.M.
@@railwayjade They should really be called "Electric-Steam" given there were some actual Coal fired "Steam-Electrics" made for the French railways.
@@railwayjadeI do know of their existence
Learning about a devil with only the most innocent devilish grin. 😈👹
I well remember us (family VW Karmann Ghia) racing those humongous SAR steam locos especially the Beyer-Garretts in the late 60's - early 70's. The engine drivers had fun too...
You forgot to mention the red dragon, a ngg 16 as I remember
Hey tot, in the netherlands. For a long time we have used locomotors (or locotractors like the ns-100 & the ns-200 series) which are a simple type of locomotive. They have simple brakes, not an extreme amount of power and a mechanical brake.
It would be amazing to see a video about these engines
Traffic effort is pounds-force (usually shortened to lbf). Pounds-feet (lb-ft) is tge unit for torque.
South Africa never had oil, so they hung onto coal and wood fired trains long after other countries.. Now they do not have electricity either.
I think the main reason for keeping steam locomotives was due to embargoes on the then apartheid south Africa. They had lots of coal but no oil. I was in Durban in the late 70s and Garrett locomotives were being used for shunting. Impressive, but maybe not too efficient..
"The Devil went down to Africa, he was lookin' for a soul to steal, he was in a bind cause he was way behind and he was willing to make a deal, when he came across this young man firin' on a freighter, runnin' it hot, and the Devil jumped up on a hickory stump and said Boy let me tell you what"
I guess you didn't know it but I'm a beast of Bay and if you can make a dare I'll make a bet with you. Now you fire a pretty good freighter boy. But give the devil his do I bet my iron soul against your soul to think that I can destroy you 😈🚂
Very interesting, I've never heard of this. The power the engine exerted on narrow-guage track is impressive. This is one occasion where a trailing-truck booster might have been useful for improving adhesion on starting.
Goddamnit ToT u couldn't resisit putting a devil went to georia reference
Hunslet of Leeds, UK did a similar thing with the 'Austerity' 0-6-0 saddle-tank in the 1960's due to the advent of the Clean Air Act.
There is still untapped potential in steam power, but the dice are loaded against it being developed....
Very cool! It wasn't like he wasn't successful, the loco he chose wasn't getting it done. We still use steam at sea. I would guess as we improve AI design, if we look hard at the steam engine and let it think outside of the box for us, we can probably refine the whole system greatly. These things take a lot of persistent development time and conviction to make progress. I would guess it all needs redesigned. Material science has come so very far since those days. All science has.
Cool video.
Sounds like the GPSC system was the answer, at least in fuel efficiency, that steam locomotives needed to stay modern compared to diesel and/or electric locomotives.
I Like The Steam Engines Thay Are Awesome
Steam locomotives may be out of date by today, but that didn't stop other countries to keep there steam engines running, even making them modern by todays standards
Wonder how much the sanctions played a role in letting the engine be built, given SA has coal but not oil
I wonder sometimes what would happen if they introduced microprocessors into a steam locomotive, controlling the various bits. You'd get traction control, fire temperature control with automatic coal stoking and so on.
Was that a The Devil Went Down To Georgia reference at the end of the video?
Wondeful, informative video! Thank you. Steam cannot compete with diesel. How can adhesion be improved?
What's the purpose of that large silver-colored pulley just a bit out from one of the driving wheels? It looks like it takes the rotation of the driving wheel to drive a smaller pulley up and forward of it. (And it looks like it is mounted on the crank pivot, so that the rod goes between it and the driving wheel.)
This exact method is used on the kirkless light railway and some other narrow gauge railways as far as i'm aware
It is remarkable that GPCS wasn't used in period, given that Gasworks predate railway mania by half a century.
Maybe because original gasworks were relying on carbonization while this process seems rather like gasification which was later invention. on the other hand it seems bit strange that they did not try to use it earlier, given the fact that small scale coal gas generators for internal combustion engines were already made during late 19th century.
After all these years, I never noticed it was narrow gauge
Given the problems of supply of decent coal for the heritage lines, why haven't they looked at the gas reduction combustion system?
as a south african, all i’ve got to say is fuck yeah.
I guess that explains why this was an endgame locomotive in Railroad Tycoon 3.
Poor old lad. I need to catch the 9.33 from Marks Tey.
We need to look at this loco' around the world , if we ever get a CME and get sent back 200 years we will revert to this tech' we need to keep up on this development in the background
I am of the opinion that battery electric steam engines have potential, or oil-fired steam engines, as long as firing can be automated by computer - allowing steam to be built on the engine’s own. It’s likely automated safety systems would need to be put in place as well, i.e. an EFCO if the water level gets too low
At Dooms railway? 🤔