Greetings friends! In the last post in our series about the history of locomotion, we introduced you to the Golden Steam era when railroads started expanding and covering the whole world. We also talked about the first locomotive in the game and its historical counterpart, the beautiful Jupiter, the first train that crossed America from coast to coast. Today we want to show you the second and the third locomotives of this era, and the real-world machines they were inspired by.

The Claud Hamiltons and the B4 class locomotives
England is one of the most important countries in the history of the railroad after all, it was an Englishman who invented the first high-pressure steam engine, and steam locomotives were developed in Great Britain during the 19th century. The UK still holds the honor of keeping the oldest operational railway: the Middleton Railway, which has been working since 1758 (although, truth be told, only for recreational and historical purposes now).
But the locomotives we want to introduce you to do not haul from this early days, but the early 20th century. The first one is the Claud Hamilton, a 4-4-0 steam locomotive named after the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway. It is universally considered one of the classic locomotive designs: you will surely recognize its iconic cylinder-shaped locomotive with big wheel arches that remind of the art-deco style.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

Claud Hamilton shares some traits with the locos of the B4 class. Both of them were powerful machines, capable of hauling the heaviest trains, be them full of passengers or goods. The B4 and its revision, the B4X, were slightly more powerful, but the Claud Hamiltons were much more popular: only 33 B4 / B4X were built, against 121 Claud Hamiltons.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

This is the in-game counterpart of those two beautiful machines. As you can see, it features their long, sleek body, as well as its big wheel arches.
Again, it could use a nickname let us know if you have any ideas!



The Prussian P 8
This German locomotive was so successful that, having been built for the first time in 1908, it has been in service until the 70s. More than 3,700 were manufactured and sold all over Europe, and more than 500 P 8 engines were in service for 50 years. Not bad for an old steam machine, huh? It used a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement (four leading wheels on two axles and six powered and coupled driving wheels), a setup that had been really popular in the USA known under the name of "Ten-wheeler".
The iconic aspect of the P 8 comes from its practicality: its inventor, engineer Robert Garbe, was a no-nonsense type of guy who just wanted the simplest and most efficient design. Thanks to the superheated steam technology, it was really fast for its time (up to 100 km/h), so Garbe wanted it to be as aerodynamic and easy to drive as possible.

(Photo from Wikipedia)

As you can see, its in-game counterpart shares some characteristics: check the two steam domes behind the chimney, for instance. Steam domes were a measure of security, a way of keeping the main steam pipe above the level of water to minimize the risk of water entering the cylinders of the engine. Although locos tended to have just one steam domes, the P 8 featured two. Theres another important (if subtle) difference: the drivers cab was tapered to give it lower wind resistance.



Now, how should we call this little machine? Its up to you, engineers!

Thats all for today and for the Golden Steam era! In the next post of this series well talk about locos of later Silver Steam era. Stay tuned! tvloco

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