[Frank Musick]

I was finally able to decipher most of the drawings illustrating the odd valve gear Ross Winans used on the "camels". It was actually simpler than I thought, at least from an animation standpoint. There are 6 eccentric cranks with corresponding rods, but only the "forward" set need move in the sim. I cannot tell from the drawings exactly how it was done, but I did surmise how the camshaft came into play. The cams control which "hook" engages the rocker that drives the valve rods. Unllike the expansionn link in a Stephenson, which has a somewhat simpler up or down position, Winans connects his reverser to a rack and gear. Moving the reverser causes the rack to turn a gear that rotates the camshaft. The cams lift or lower the eccentric rod "hooks" over the the lower rocker shaft. Going forward, for instance, the cams for reverse and cutoff lift those correspondinng rods so their hooks do not engage the rocker shaft.

The valve gear is modeled in the forward position with the forward eccentric rod engaged on the lower rocker shaft. This rotates the rocker back and forth which in turn drives the valve rod. I made no attempt to be precise, the model is rudimentary at best, but it does approximate the valve gear operation. The one thing I couldn't see in the drawings was how the cams on the camshaft were actually operating against the eccentric rods. The camshaft is shown directly beneath the lower rocker shaft. It seems to me that the cams could not touch the rods because the lower rocker shaft interferes. To me, moving the canshaft closer to the axle would have enabled the cams to operate the rods without any interference. If the drawings are correct it would seem Winans had some other manner of making this work.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/34/c6/dc/34c6dc61996be29672b9bfe4a4579c7a.jpg


Anyway, I did make a video of the thing assembled and operating in B&O 170. You'll notice that one lever is swinging back and forth, possible maiming or kiilling the engineer. That lever is the "starter bar" described by a fellow who actually operated a camel. back in the 1870's. The starter bar was used to positiion the rocker to engage the eccentric rod hooks. I'm supposing the engineer had to work both until the proper eccentric was engaged before the locomotive could move. The starter bar was removable. During operation it was kept stored so it wasn't actually flailinng back and forth in the cab. I left it "on" in the video just to illustrate how wonky this design could be. In practice ioperatinng these engines was relatively conventional and they performed as intended. The camels were workhorses of the time and quite capable of handling their usual assignment, hauling lots of coal at very low speeds.

https://youtu.be/a7rjOIwahr0