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Mark, to cut a corner I was looking for the locos with the highest starting tractive effort and found that the steam locos have the edge over the electric locos ... by a hairbreadth. Don't know exactly why this result makes me proud.


[picture source: www.patentpending.blogs.com]


Locos in order of their highest starting tractive effort:
Triplex - 710kN (159614 pounds)
Big Boy - 602kN (135335 pounds)
Iore - 600kN (134885 pounds)

The flaw in the Triplex locomotives was that as the tender emptied they lost considerable traction as the weight over the 3rd set of drivers was reduced, which sometimes did occur on some lines because of distances between re-fueling stations, one reason they were an evolutionary dead-end and only 3 were built, around WWI. The Big Boys which came later didn't have that problem and were used from 1941 all the way to 1959...when I was in 4th/5th grade!

Ok, here are further pictures of the Duesy. The engine looks as if restored by dip coating.

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If an electric motor develops maximum torque at 1 RPM, would it not be more powerful over steam and diesel at start up given the same KW rating?

(o{}o)