At 05:06 PM 9/1/04 -0400, you wrote:
>Now, my turn!
>If you can, the best way to begin to understand valve gears, is to sit
>along side a model that has the gear in question, and gently move the
>locomotive along the tracks, and while it slowly revolves, watch to see
>what the different links and lever do!
Keith,
Knowing what the little sticks do is not the problem. The problem
comes when I decide I need to consult, say, my Auchincloss ("Practical
Applications of Slide Valve and Link Motion", Van Nostrand, 1875) and do it
too late at night. Then all those little lines and digits run together.
>was an ancient cut away model of a Stephenson's Link Motion,
For whatever reason, in rural Southern quasi-suburbia, we had one too.
>But, you can do the same by taking the diagrams in any of the books, make
mockups
Forget that, use Dockstader. Do you know that when designing a true
Walschearts gear from scratch there are over 50 variables to be chosen or
set and most of them affect all the others. It boggles the mind.
Regards,
Harry
