Absolutely fascinating stuff! A 0-10-0 with drivers the size of dinner plates running through the grass...wow.
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The rear driver (wheel closest to the Engineer) doesn't appear to be connected to the other drivers via side rods. I wonder if this is intentional? From amount of detail in the photo, I don't see any place where a side rod would connect to the rear driver. Would that make this a 0-8-2?? Thanks for sharing this unique photo.
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Jeff, here is the answer to your question: Steam locomotives with several axles or wheelsets connected to one another by coupling rods are not able to negotiate tight curves well. In order to assist such locomotives, the manager of the Orenstein & Koppel factory in Berlin, Dr. Luttermöller, built the axle system named after him. With this system, the outermost of several sets of successive driving wheel sets are not connected by coupling rods to crankshaft journals on the outside of the wheels, but by cogwheels located in the centre of the axles. The axles are housed in the locomotive frame such that they are able to move at right angles to the axis of the rails to a certain degree, likewise the cogwheels are able to slide relative to one another. In this way curves can be negotiated with less friction being generated.
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