Elvas Tower: 22-Ton Class A Climax (ORTS only) - Elvas Tower

The earliest Climaxes only weighed 10 tons, had vertical boilers and two-cylinder vertical engines. These were mounted on a wood frame, had mostly wood trucks, and were built to run on wood rails or “pole roads”. Even though Climaxes evolved to the all metal side mounted engine versions that are more common today, the wood frame Class A evolved to the 22 Ton, model and was one of the last locomotives to be built when the Climax factory closed on 1928.

Hundreds of these locomotives were made and used all over the world, but few were used in the Pacific coast, because many logs there were too large for them.

A unique feature of these locomotives was a “gear shift” that provided two options for speed and power. High gear produced a speed of about 10 mph, while low gear allowed about half that speed, but provided considerably more power. Their boiler pressure was 160 pounds, and this produced a tractive effort of 9,680 pounds in high gear, and 19,360 pounds in low gear.

This model was built from plans by Al Armitage published in the Nov/Dec 1996 issue of the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette, and the above historical data is from the same publication.. Herb Kelsey performed all testing and upload packaging, and supplied the screenie. Tom Werb supplied the crew, and the cab wood pile came from Rick “thegrindre”. It was modeled in 3D Canvas (now known as 3D Crafter).

To install, unzip this file to a convenient location. Open up the root of the route you wish to equip with the Climax. Drag the “Trains” folder to the route’s root directory. Accept overwrites. This installation will install the locomotive as well as a Pratt Lumber Climax No. 1 Lite consist.”

Notice - The original upload had a problem in the .eng file that caused erratic running. The original problem package has been replaced with one containing a corrected .eng file The corrected .eng file is also included separately for those that have already installed the Loco, and don't want to reinstall the entire package.

Mu apologies to those who have been inconvenienced by this error, and my thanks to Wellsburg for pointing out the problem.

Enjoy, Bill