The Quintuplex locomotive was put in by a patent that was granted by George R Henderson; the Quintuplex locomotive was included in a Patent for a Quadruplex Locomotive.
Plans for the Design[]
The Quintuplex Locomotive was a 2-8-8-8-8-8-2, it was designed to have two boilers on it as going off of a single boiler was absolutely absolutely not going to be enough; according to the patent this was a compound locomotive, engine cylinders 7 & 9 would receive high pressure steam to drive the 1st & 3rd sets of driving wheels and the exhaust as lower pressure steam from cylinders 8 & 10 would power the 2nd & 4th sets of wheels; as well as the idea that the engineer's/driver's cab was at the front of the locomotive as it would be way too long to put it at the back, the fireman's cab was behind the firebox, so the crew were separated like with a camelback locomotive, he had proposed a communication system between the cabs that would use cables or rod operating devices (much like the engine ordered telegraph that was used on steam ships, or even a voice-pipe), The boiler would be jointed and have a flexible coupling so it can have it's own articulation on tight curves, the two boilers would be served by only 1 firebox, Henderson also included a turbine driven extractor fan that was within the smokebox that would be intended to maintain a constant draft of the flues in both boilers, that's because Henderson calculated that a conventional blast pipe utilizing steam from the low pressure cylinders wouldn't have been enough to provide a sufficient draft through the boiler while the locomotive was in motion, he clearly figured this motion out. But sadly, the 2-8-8-8-8-8-2 Quintuplex was never Built.
Another Quintuplex[]
An even larger 2-10-10-10-10-10-2 Quintuplex (that's 50 driving wheels) had appeared as an artist’s impression in the August 1951 issue of Trains magazine. However, this idea appears to be speculative on the part of the magazine author and the artist, possibly because AT&SF Railroad already had a fleet of 2-10-10-2’s in 1913. There is no evidence that George Henderson, nor Baldwin, proposed such a version of this Quintuplex; Though the 2-10-10-10-10-10-2 Quintuplex had the same things that were used on the 2-8-8-8-8-8-2 Quintuplex.
Trivia[]
- A 4-8-8-8-8-8-4 Quintuplex was featured in a game called "Transport Fever 2" but this was only an in-game idea and not an actual proposed design by Henderson nor Baldwin.
Gallery[]
