Davenport Duplex Geared Steam Locomotives - Geared Steam Locomotive Works

Davenport
Duplex Geared Steam Locomotives

Geared Steam Locomotive Works ©

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Insular Lumber Co. #4 - Manila (Negros Is), Philippines ³⁴⁰p

Doniphan, Kensett, & Searcy RR #3 - Doniphan (White County), Arkansas ^240dp

Duplex Rod / Gear Hybrid

The duplex model was built with the boiler, crew cab, and tender mounted on a single elongated frame similar to a "forney" rod type locomotive. The frame rested on two independently powered and geared trucks. Each truck consisted of four drivers, two steam cylinders, valve gearing, main and side rods, and a sealed "oil-tight" gear box. Except for the gear box crank disk, the truck looked similar to a miniature 0-4-0 rod type locomotive without the cab and boiler. ^> One of the shortfalls of the overall design was the extensive "flexible" steam plumbing required to supply steam from the boiler to the cylinders which were mounted on the constantly swiveling trucks. ^240d

Very little technical and owner information is known about these locomotives. From image observations and an incomplete owner roster we have learned they were at very least built :

From May, 1912 through August, 1916
In 36", 42", and standard gauges
In a production quantity of 5
Used in the United States and the Philippine Islands

The locomotives looked similar to the non-geared duplex locomotive built by the Vulcan Iron Works of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.

Gear Case:

The gear case housed a complex arrangement of several spur gears in an sealed, oil tight and dust proof case.

Power Trucks:

As mentioned earlier, each truck swiveled independently of the other. Each consisted of four drivers, two steam cylinders, valve gearing, main and side rods, and a sealed "oil-tight" and "dust proof" gear box. Except for the gear box crank disk, the truck looked similar to a miniature 0-4-0 rod type locomotive without a cab or boiler. Flexible steam piping supplied the steam to the cylinders.

Roster:

C/N	Built	Ga. inches	Wt. tons	Cyl. inches ^12d	Owners (1st to last)	Location
1240	05/1912	42"	_	10x14	Insular Lumber Co. #4	Manila (Negros Is), Philippines
1412	07/1913	Std	_	10x14	Doniphan Lumber Co. #3 (Doniphan, Kensett, & Searcy RR)	Doniphan, Arkansas
1472	05/1914	36"	32 ^290d	8x12	Walker-Hopkins Lumber Co. #2 - sold 1921 Vida Lumber Co. #5 - ______purchased 1921 - scrapped 09/1926	Moyers, Oklahoma Lomax, Alabama
1474	11/1915	Std	_	10x14	Kansas City, Ozark & Southern Railway ¹⁶d^d	Mansfield, Missouri
1535	08/1916	36"	_	9x12	Walker Logging Co.	Moyers, Oklahoma

Roster compiled and furnished courtesy of Roy Keeley. Superscripted foot notes denote additional information provided by other sources.

^12d^-Christian Halpaap of Hohenhameln-Bruendeln, Germany - provided cylinder sizes compiled from Davenport builder records.
¹⁶^{d
-}Jeff Saxton - provided a correction of the company name and location from a photo in a newspaper article.

Page changed: March 16, 2020 07:22:44 AM