# N&W Jawn Henry



## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

Does anyone have any ideas who might make a three axle diesel truck of the type used under the N&W Jawn Henry. I have access to the tooling to build them, but would rather spend the time doing other parts of the build.

Thanks in advance.

Bob


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Bob,

Because it is not an even spaced axle design, I think you are going to have to make these yourself. Some of the guys here have made their own dies and cast sideframes themselves. The bigger headache will be figuring out how to power all the wheels, unless you plan to leave some as unpowered. If that is the case, you might be able to use the USA trains PA trucks. They drive the third axle with a shaft. You could simply unhook that, cut the sideframes, and then that axle simply goes along for the ride. 



Mark


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

*RE: N&W Jawn Henry*

Mark, 

It is not a surprise that I will have to scratch these. I took this as a long shot in the dark. I do plan to power all 12 axles. I will have plenty of length to get a good power plant in side, and the shell is full width. I will most likely scratch the whole drive train. You didn't mention in your reply, but the C+C-C+C is a span bolstered arrangement. I will be working from the drawings published in the October '76 RMC if you have access to them. As for fabricating the side frames and such, I have access to a water jet cutter that will make easy work of the brass for the side frames and equalizers. I am not sure of the span bolster yet, I haven't done the gearing. I am sure this is going to be a LONG project (no pun intended).


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Not that familiar with this locomotive, just looking at a line drawing on paintshop:

http://paintshop.railfan.net/images/moldover/nw_jawn.html


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## Terl (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: N&W Jawn Henry*

This will be a very impressive model. I'm not sure, but I think that this must have been the longest railroad engine ever made. 

Terl


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

*RE: N&W Jawn Henry*

Terl, 

I am not sure if it is the longest, but it sure will rank up there. The prototype is 161'-1 1/2" over the pulling faces, engine and water tender. At 1:32 it will be slightly over 60" long. My goal is to pull a 100 car coal drag, prototype style - no helper. Lofty goals, being as I will have to build the 100 ton hoppers after the engine.  

Bob


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## Terl (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: N&W Jawn Henry*

Bob 

For planning purposes, I can pull 55 freight cars with four USA F units. That's 8 motors. You may want to put power units on the tender wheels also, just be sure to mach the motor and gearing of the locomotive unit. Your're going to want generous curves for this baby. What do you have now? 

Terl


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

*RE: N&W Jawn Henry*

Holy Cow!! That thing is humungus!!! How can the engineer see anything in front of him? At TV link maybe?


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

I have seen many photos of this loco. I was just browsing YouTube for a possible video of it, but could find none. Does anyone know if this loco was ever filmed?


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

One of the members of our Roanoke Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, Louis Newton, was a N&W Motive Power Department test engineer (not the locomotive engineer - observed the test instruments instead) on this locomotive. He gave a presentation on his experiences while riding with the Jawn Henry during those tests at one of our Chapter meetings. This presentation was done about ten years ago, so my memory may be faulty on some details.

The electrical control equipment, traction motors, and generators were built by Westinghouse. The boiler was a water tube boiler built by Babcox & Wilcox of Lynchburg, VA. This type of boiler was not common for steam locomotives, the fire tube - or flue type being the normal design.

The locomotive experienced a lot of problems with "flash over" in the generators and traction motors. The boiler also could get starved for steam. Apparantly the water tube boilers worked better for marine and stationary applications. On at least one occasion the steam pressure started dropping steadily while climbing a grade. The train would have stalled, had not the Y class assigned as a helper for that district "snuck up" behind the test train to give it a boost.

By the time all the bugs were worked out of the locomotive, N&W had decided to give up the steam/electric propulsion concept. No more examples were tried.

The locomotive was exceedingly powerful when everything was working right. It was sometimes too powerful for the draft gear of that time, and could yank couplers right out of the car frames if the train were too long. On one occasion when it was tried as a pusher, it crushed a caboose. The crew escaped without injury because they were instructed to ride on the caboose steps to observe the locomotive, and were able to jump to safety.

If this locomotive could have been tried about thirty years later, most of its bugs would have been eliminated in other applications. It was just too innovative for the technology of its time.

Yours,
David Meashey


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Thanks Dave. That was interesting.


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