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brication. Lubrication was vitally impor- tant to any geared locomotive. Heisler started with a horizontal lo- comotive boiler, which used the heat energy much more efficiently. He then used two standard slide valve cylin- ders but arranged them in a “vee” on each side of the boiler, meeting at a crankshaft under the centerline of the boiler. Not apparent in his patent drawing or from photos, the cylinder on the fireman’s side is offset forward from the other side to give clearance for the connecting rods on the crank- shaft. Heisler used a center shaft like the Climax and Dunkirk, and univer- sals and sliding shafts like the Shay, Climax and Dunkirk, but once he got to the axles on the trucks, he changed things. He used a beefy, straight cut bevel gear, but only on the front axle of the front truck, and the rear axle on the rear truck. Power was transmitted to the other axle on the truck with a side rod. In ad- dition, these gears were encased in a metal housing filled with heavy oil. This kept the gears protected from rocks and the elements while providing them with a continuous lubrication bath. In prac- tice, lubrication chores were only slight- ly eased for the enginemen, and indeed servicing was made more difficult by the need to disassemble the gear covers, but Heisler touted the lubrication angle and “half the gears” per locomotive as a selling feature in their ads.
Dunkirk built one prototype to Heisler’s design in 1891 for F.A. Addington of Little Washington, North Carolina, which by all accounts was a successful locomotive,
but circum-
stances caused it to be the last Heisler from Dunkirk. Heisler’s benefactor, Ed- ward Nichols, died in 1892, and Dunkirk had no interest in building his locomotive and renounced all rights and patents to Heisler. After leaving Dunkirk,
Charles
Heisler moved to Philadelphia and met George Burnham of the Baldwin Loco- motive Works. Burnham was also a large shareholder in the Stearns Man-
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
ufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsyl- vania, a firm that specialized in sawmill machinery with close ties to the logging industry. Heisler entered into an agreement with Stearns in 1894 to manufacture locomotives that closely followed his 1891 patent design. A few locomotives were built as Heisler improved the design. In 1896, Stearns built A. W. Stevens Lumber No. 1, s/n 1007, for a lumbering line in Chatawa, Mississippi. Named the A.W. Stevens Jr., this was Stearns’ first 14-ton Heisler and the likely prototype for the Bachman model. See the website at:
http://gearedsteam.com/heisler/images/ a_w_stevens_lbr_1-sn1007.jpg. There are a couple of interesting items to note on this locomotive. It fea- tures a “tee” or boot boiler, which mir- rors what Shay and Climax were doing in that same period. This is a transi- tional style in boiler building with the tubes running in the horizontal section for greater heat transfer. The vertical section has the firebox in the lower part of the section, and the crown sheet is in the middle part, which gives a much greater surface area than a sim- ple vertical boiler. The upper section acts as the steam dome. Also of note, the spoked wheels had no counterweights, and this was true for all the early Heislers. The need for counterweights would be recognized quickly and all Heislers from 1897 on were fitted with them.
Cast-iron
weights that could be bolted between the spokes were made available to retrofit the earlier locomotives. Bachmann’s 14-ton On30 model cap- tures the proportions of Stearns’ pre- 1897 straight-framed Heisler geared lo- comotives. With the cab, boiler, frame and cylinder block made from finely- die-cast metal, the locomotive weighs in at a beefy 12.6 ounces which, when cou- pled with the low gearing of the drive train, gives the model impressive trac- tive effort. The Heisler model can easily haul a train of ten average On30 cars around 18-inch radius curves with ease. When run, the locomotive operates
81
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