Wheel Specification Book

by Mike Sharman

About this book: Now that the modeller is taking more notice of the details below the footplate, the author Mike Sharman felt that a 'Quick Reference' means of identifying some of the many different styles and sizes of wheel would be of interest. There are many hundreds of different styles and sizes and for the purpose of this booklet, they have been divided into main types and coded as shown in the illustrations on pages 6-7 in the section 'Wheel Type Code'. The period chosen is from British Railways steam back to about 1870, but as with all things historical, the author points out that there are grey areas which a work like this cannot hope to cover. The information presented is based on gleanings from the locomotive magazines of long ago, RTCS where available, on any photographs the author could find, and any drawings which have appeared in the specialist magazines over the years. The author asks that readers wishing to research to a greater depth bear in mind that every locomotive built between these periods will not be here as documentation is sketchy on the many methods of classification used, and the fact that many early locos were 'one offs' anyway, so the author has therefore tried to list the details as far as possible in an 'as built' state, hence the inclusion of most of the pre-grouping railways. The reign of the respective Chief Mechanical Engineers listed give a clue to the date built, but some machines appeared after the end of a reign, so were credited to their successors, and in many cases re-built by them, therefore the author has avoided rebuilds! Also, a locomotive credited to Stirling, for example, may have been built by outside contractors and therefore may not have the expected number of spokes and the crankpins in the same position. So, the reader should get a photo of the loco first before building it just to verify the details. The tables specify builder, arrangement, loco class, date built, leading spokes, driver, spokes, trailing, tender

64 pages, Paperback

Published November 8, 1978