New Zealand's unusual logging locomotives - Johnston, Price & Davidson's "16-Wheelers"

[@skoldmo762]

"No design is absurd if it works" every engineer approves!

[@snowstorm9310]

As a 28 year old man. I read "Caterpillar on Wheels" and was immediately beset with images from my core memories of the green train from Thomas the Tank Engine.

[@1309westernmaryland]

Our boy, Percy!

[@benj.kerman609]

A green caterpillar with red stripes!

[@godlugner5327]

The lightweight boiler really shows each component with the firebox, water tubes, steam dome, and smokebox

[@garryferrington811]

Very interesting little engines. Lightweight but powerful. Just what the railways needed.

[@roberthuron9160]

The Reading Company,had an early 10 coupled engine,as a pusher,on one heavy grade! And it was a Camelback! Add the 10 coupled Tank engines used by

[@1_railfan]

16 DRIVING WHEELS?! Wow... Like...If you think about it, The New Zealand type D's broke the record of having the most driving wheels, even surpassing AA20, a Russian locomotive with 14 driving wheels (I remember you doing a video about it long ago, plus that was when I first met you.).

[@Gayacegunslinger]

Technically, any locomotive with at least two sets of 8 or more driving wheels beats the AA20, so the Big Boys for example, the 0-8-8-0 Camelbacks, the 2-10-10-2s used by the Virginia RR or ATSF, and so on!

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

@@Gayacegunslingeryeah, but the AA20 still holds the record for most driving wheels on a single frame

[@Gayacegunslinger]

@@lyokianhitchhiker Indeed! For good reason too, 12 drivers on a single frame are already pushing the limits of rails and locomotives, 14 was a bridge too far. Still, I reckon somewhere out west the US could've made it work, but I digress.

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

@@Gayacegunslinger yeah, once you get past 12, you pretty much need articulation

[@chrisstaylor8377]

Great film I’m involed in a museum that has a big bush tam display

[@SittingDuc]

I used to live down the road from A&G Price's shops in Thames. And no, just because they work, does not mean they are not absurd! ;)

[@teamidris]

A lot of old machinery would work really well with modern oils and metals. Imagine that with oil immersed top driven axels and aluminium wheels, it would be unstoppable :o)

[@JacqueTheInsaneEngine]

4:04 that engine looks like the one from choo choo charles

[@DennisLora2001]

Amazing video well done man

[@K1W1fly]

NZ bush "Lokies" were awesome bits of engineering - not just these ones, but "rail tractors" and "Jiggers" made from cut up tractors, bulldozers and trucks. Some were operating right up to the late 1970s... some even had chain drive powered bogies under the leading logs...

[@naerbo19]

If it looks absurd and gets the job done it is eccentric.

[@braxtonmathews6434]

A&G Price LTD is still around today, sgill making railway gear aswell

[@primrosevale1995]

Everybody mentioning Percy but Awdry only call him that cause he was too fat.

[@ЛЬВИНИ]

Very nice video, likes from me .

[@travisworts6249]

Cursed locomotives got even more cursed

[@harrisonallen651]

New Zealand is the home of the real wooden railway

[@ryangriffin5362]

crazy that these no budget, rinky-dink locos empowered some of the most destructive industrial activities ever all over the world

[@diesel10rules23]

The real caterpillar on wheels is Percy the small engine

[@alicehodges9964]

I Like Steam Engines Thay Are Amazing

[@Kepler42BMP]

Yet another "Goofy ahh" train

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

You have to admit, they worked wheely well!

[@sebastianthomsen2225]

BA-DUN-TISH!🥁😆

[@CooperTheHunter]

Well that was a wheely corny joke.

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

@@CooperTheHunter I wood have thought you'd go with a different pun.

[@ljphoenix4341]

In NZ, I live somewhat close to both a traction engine preservation group, and a steam rail society, so I get to see steam vehicles relatively often. I have a massive appreciation for steam history.

[@TheDarkFalcon]

Nz used to scrap so many of the unique trains by just driving them into lakes and rivers 😭

[@the_retag]

Luckily. That gives some a chance of being recovered at least for static display, unlike a blast furnace would

[@ajaxengineco]

See NZR K88 and K92.

[@unvaxxeddoomerlife6788]

Many have been pulled out and restored over the years. At least they weren't chopped up and melted down.

[@dantemadden1533]

Across the pond our railway companies sent them off to be scrapped, or abandoned in paddocks in buttfuck nowhere😂

[@_Zekken]

Being a Kiwi rail fan, Ive been up a couple of these tramways, that have been preserved. They are very steep and narrow, and often built literally into the side of hills. They are very cool honestly. There are a few preserved logging style locomotives, not many though.

[@bobshellby8876]

where abouts are these preserved tramways?

[@_Zekken]

@@bobshellby8876 ive been to the Glen Afton line which is out from Huntly, and the Driving Creek railway in Coromandel. Theres also the Bay of Islands Vintage Railway in Kawakawa, though I dont think that one was a logging track

[@TheInvoice123]

Seen tressels and log dams in NZ bush

[@MiG21aholic]

Driving Creek was built in the 80s and 90s mostly for tourism.

[@drexcitement9579]

“A green caterpillar with red stripes” -Thomas the tank engine

[@AceBriggs6]

Ah yes, my favorite saying in the shop: if it’s stupid but it works then it isn’t stupid 😂

[@nicuzn1197]

A suggestion for a future video. The Wolgan Valley Railway. It was a standard gauge line in the blue mountains going to Newnes and it's oil shale refinery. It used 4 Shay locomotives (since the grades were difficult for traditional locomotives) and interestingly enough, the remains of one of the locomotives is used as a bridge on one of the hiking trails near the glowworm tunnel.

[@THEWAILFULCARP]

Is this how Thomas sees Percy? A green type D?

[@ThomasSpettel]

Thomas: "what ugly wheels you've got." Terrance: "They're not ugly, their caterpillars :)"

[@VRBroadcasting]

Much like their Birds, Kiwi trains are delightfully weird

[@yeoldeseawitch]

bro why do you keep getting sick?

[@templar_1138]

Whereas Heavy Harry and Big Boy would nod "Hello" as they pass, I imagine the Type D and the Shay jovially shouting at each other as they pass. Geared engines are rather loud, after all.

[@Iknowwhoyouare396]

WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SICK💀

[@bertspeggly4428]

3:55 Wouldn't they be bevel gears rather than spur gears? Really interesting video, thanks.

[@Hybris51129]

I'm now wondering just how they changed out the gearing when it wore out or stripped especially considering that it was probably done in the field and that is assuming that the gears weren't integral to the drive shaft instead of being pinned in or something of the like.

[@asteroidrules]

Ironically it looks like it'd be harder to change out the gears than on a normal Shay design due to the entire driveshaft being between the wheels, you'd likely need to get underneath the frame and/or completely disassemble the driving axles.

[@MiG21aholic]

those kind of things don't wear out very fast provided they're lubricated properly.

[@Varinki]

@@asteroidrules Before 1923 they were keyed to the axles and a wheel would have to removed to replace them. From 1923 split gears mounted to hub on the axle were used.

[@metal_wheels]

Ain't no way choo choo charles locos in real life 😨

[@Tom-Lahaye]

I have seen one of the A.G. Price locomotives when I visited NZ, it's preserved in Christchurch but not operational. I don't remember if it had the standard 8 wheel design or more than that, but it had the vertical cylinders in the cab behind the boilder.

[@Varinki]

If that's the one at Ferrymead it would be Cb113.

[@nikiTricoteuse]

Would be brilliant if it were in Ferrymead as l'm not far from there.

[@jonasaboye]

Look like a drawing made by a 5 year old.

[@theromanorder]

I always get really happy whenever someone talks about my country, thank you Feel free to skip this next part please do a video on eletric trains (evaluation of them and some of the mechanics) and evaluation of diesel and steam, atualy just evaluation of different types of trains the porters steam loco the Japanese class d5, the Chinese QJ 2,10,2 or just exsamples of asian trains how do gear trains work double ended diesel trains (and electric) American and European switches other then the British class 07-09 what to do if the train stalls one talking about the different types of steam funnles and there uses, all the flags and signel light color meanings how do fire box door controls e work steam locomotive combination breaks (steam and vacuum brakes) the breaks commonly on wagons that you turn like a valve/leaver mechanical breaks a short video on how a Armstrong turn table works a basic video on flagmen/break men who would ride with the train and any other "small" jobs what did trains (mostly steam) do when going in tunnels, ive heard of gas masks or just useing a wet cloth, or did they bring in other engines like later on they used electric trains, or were there no big tunnels. why are some trains wagion tops (the stream lining thing to boilers sorry if it makes no sense ive only heard it once) railway terms and slang the different types of cut offs/reversers/Johnson bar some are a big lever, some are a screw reverser, and ive also seen some that are like rods, one exsample is train sim World 3 with the scre reverser like a stairing wheel wet vs dry/saturated vs super steam, is there any disadvantages to having the positions and stuff at the rear of the engine other then limited fuel .. like mechanic problems?

[@rovingrom]

Fascinating! I've seen a couple of pictures of the 16-wheelers before but didn't know the history behind them and I'd never seen the Heavy 12-Wheeler. Thank you for this video! 🙃

[@Angrymuscles]

Human powered locomotives: Powered by sandwiches and beer, not some kind of combustible. Weird? Maybe. Still a locomotive? You decide.

[@rbpgaming8503]

Why does this look like the train of "choo choo Charles" (I haven't played the game)

[@odintheallfather4863]

A green caterpillar with red stripes and you crawl like one too

[@FunAngelo2005]

I get the refrence

[@S.P.foamer]

During the American dieselisation Baldwin mad a diesel with like 18 wheels or something close

[@Gayacegunslinger]

I believe that was the Baldwin Centipede, with a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement. A few railroads bought them, with N de M of Mexico using theirs into the 80s.

[@1309westernmaryland]

​@@GayacegunslingerBig Boy (also a 4-8-8-4): YOU DARE CHALLENGE ME BALDWIN?!

[@Gayacegunslinger]

@@1309westernmaryland 😂😂😂, Big Boy's got that hands down!

[@rls1438]

can we get a talk about the goofy looking first electric train in chile?(that thingamabob u can find at traigen)

[@Silverlink28]

I thought Percy was a caterpillar on wheels

[@SodorStudiosAndCoProductions]

The trains we drew as kids be like:

[@Zino-Phoenix-68]

Train of thought I hope that you get feeling better.

[@JonManProductions]

Next yer gonna tell me they strapped sheet metal and vickers guns to it as a costal defense train to compliment the Bob Semple Tank. XD

[@K1W1fly]

we actually had something like that in NZ, but not with these engines. guns mounted on railway wagons were used to defend the harbour breakwaters at the critical coal export ports of Westport and Greymouth...

[@mlgodzilla4206]

A green caterpillar with red stripes

[@LBSC70]

Life size wooden railways

[@ecyor0]

There's all kinds of crazy stuff from this era - a lot of places used gravity rails which are pretty much exactly what they sound like - a rail on a slight incline from the logging site down to the lumberyard, and instead of using an engine to haul the logs, they would just let the trolleys roll downhill with a guy lying prone at the back to feather the brakes and stop it from building up too much speed. Also, they didn't really bother to tie the logs down, they just relied on the weight to hold them on the trolleys, and there were occasions where a log would shift slightly as the trolley took a curve and just crush the brake operator under several tons of Kauri.

[@Ice_Karma]

We have a saying in my field, software development: "If it's stupid, but it works, it's not stupid." 🤣

[@woobyvr9654]

i mean it aint stupid if it works

[@AlwaysCensored-xp1be]

More prototypes I want to model.

[@ZalMoxis]

And we're supposed to believe they built all the beautiful structures of the old world in NZ and Australia ?? What a joke....

[@steelblue8]

My absolute favourite were the horrifically bizarre ones made by a steam-crane company that had built in winches and universally sucked horrendously

[@cerneysmallengines]

this also happened in a lot of the logging industries in America. I've heard of them out in Colorado, and even up here in Minnesota. Near my hunting property is a straight stretch of roadbed. It was never a road, I've looked. It appears more like a railroad bed, however it is much too hilly to be a railroad bed. Even for small train 3 foot gauge, its too much. What it may be is an old wooden rail, or even a log railway, where they join actual logs together and run the locomotives on these logs. I've never been able to prove this, never been able to verify this theory of mine, other than that there are several other documented wooden rail lines in the area.

[@nikiTricoteuse]

Wow. Had no idea these had ever existed. I would love you to do a story about the Denniston incline. According to Wikipedia, it was a technical triumph. "The incline plunged precipitously, 548 m in a distance of just 1670 m, with some grades as steep as 1 in 1.25 (80%)." In the early days of the settlement the only way up was on the coal cart up the incline. The settlement itself was a godforsaken place and the living conditions were grim, that said, apparently the ride was so steep and so terrifying that many of the women who rode it up to the settlement of Denniston chose to spend the rest of their lives there rather than ride it down again. There was no cemetery as the ground was too hard so their last ride on the incline was in their coffins. Most of the buildings are gone now but, one of the buildings has been turned into a museum and there's a walking track that goes past lots of relics from the mining days, up to the plateau were the township was. Magnificent views on a clear day too. If anyone likes historical novels, Jenny Pattrick has written a couple of books based on life at Denniston; The Denniston Rose, and its sequel Heart of Coal. Both are worth reading.They have also been republished in an illustrated edition.

[@FlyingDuckMan360]

0:19 - There's the engine that served as the basis for Bash and Dash from Misty Island Rescue.

[@johnchipper9499]

Some of the first bush locos were built by the Dispatch foundry in Greymouth. Any chance of a further utube commentary on them?

[@ukaszwalczak1154]

Fun fact, one of the Type A locos survives today, known as 'Bruce'

[@stijnVDA1994]

I might have a possible support/cure for your cold, first get some fresh lemons and juice them, put the juice in a mug and add hot water to it and drink it as warm as possible but if it's to sour just add sugar. Repeat that up to 4 times per day for up to 5, this wil give your body the energy needed to fight off any form of cold. A bonus is it cán be used with cold medicine since it's just lemon juice with hot water and optionally sugar

[@Bubbarain717]

How many wheels do you want? Yes

[@lukechristmas3951]

Looks what's crawled out of the bush! It was worth being a day late to have seen this video! One would think that all of these engines were scrapped but what I found is that some are preserved, mostly those that were built by Price. One of the Davidson's engines is on display in Ngahere. It honestly surprises me that a good number still exist to this day in various states.

[@TrentFalkenrath]

My first thought was, "Charlie the Choo-choo."

[@RedPigSpartan]

You mean Choo Choo Charles right?

[@TrentFalkenrath]

@RedPigSpartan probably. Between Charlie the Choo-choo and Choo Choo Charles, i tend to get a bit confused. Ever read Steven King's Dark Tower series?

[@RedPigSpartan]

@@TrentFalkenrath Yes, I've read all the Dark Tower books, just that the train looks more like the player train/the train Charles is rather than Charlie the Choo Choo

[@TrentFalkenrath]

Totally agree. I just mistook one for the other

[@RedPigSpartan]

@@TrentFalkenrath understandable

[@simonmcowan6874]

Are there any of these in existence?

[@thomasshaftoe461]

That's right

[@fishabledelis7798]

Now all they need to do is paint them green with red stripes…

[@countluke2334]

Define why these are tramways and not railroads, please.

[@Collateralcoffee]

A slideshow on KZbin. Fail.

[@SebastianRangel-j8k]

a green caterpillar with red stripes

[@kimpatz2189]

If any one wants to try and build this same setup, use the Tatra center differential and lock the independent vertical swings per wheel. Since the Tatra system can be easily modified to have even more ridiculous powered wheels, you can design a true caterpillar type locomotive.

[@Aieieo]

Tbh it sounds better then our current rail network

[@kurtmolo1747]

we all ready have a caterpillar a green with red stripes

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

The fireman wore out his boots, running back and forth, feeding the hungry boiler.

[@STUDIO_YF]

WE FOUND PERCY IRL 💯💯💯💯

[@stevenmosco20]

now whenever thomas calls percy a green catipiller with red stripes, show him this

[@templar_1138]

Thomas pondered. "Alright then," he said, "You're not a caterpillar. You're a green stink bug."

[@Old-reliable]

Oh last time I checked green caterpillar with red stripes was percy

[@roberthuron9160]

[Continued] used by,the Canadian National,as they inherited that line from its predecessor! And supposedly England had oddball engines,the US,and Canada,could give points and then some! Thank you 😇 😊!

[@PaulG.x]

3:24 These are bevel gears as they have teeth cut on a bevel. A spur gear is a conventional gear , so named because it looks like a spur ⚙

[@Varinki]

You can't see it on the top down drawing but the bevel gears drive a jackshaft above the axle. On the other end of the jackshaft are some spur gears that drive down to the axle. The drawing of the B class at 2:39 shows them as the two designs shared a lot of parts.

[@brenlc1412]

You have sixteen wheels, whaddya get?

[@lukechristmas3951]

Another day older and deeper in debt

[@brenlc1412]

@@lukechristmas3951 St. Peter, don’t you call me, ‘cause I can’t go.

[@lukechristmas3951]

@@brenlc1412 I owe my soul to the company store

[@brenlc1412]

@@lukechristmas3951 I was born one morning when the sun didn’t shine.

[@Noodlewerfer]

"How many driving wheels do you want?" "More"

[@vctrsone]

We had the ruins from these tracks up behind our farm in tangowhahine here in nz. Bunch of old axels and some tracks.Tangowhahine had the biggest Kauri trees found in NZ, one tree was building 3-4 3 story villas, many 100 foot steam boats here were built from a single kauri logs heart wood.

[@johnathonmcjohn3]

Ugly indeed im- a green caterpillar with red stripes

[@Productions-mh4yt]

Only if the Rev w Audrey could see this lol

[@nathandeal9703]

Anyone else smell a modelers challenge? I know I do!

[@joshuaW5621]

You think that’s weird? That’s nothing compared to the Lartigue Monorail in Ireland, which put steam engines on a monorail track with a very weird result.

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

You talking about the 3-wheel engines?

[@joshuaW5621]

@@lyokianhitchhiker I might be. Don’t remember if they are 3 wheelers though.

[@highloughsdrifter1629]

The Listowel and Ballybunion. Used three rails on A frame sleepers, though only the top rail was weight bearing. Locomotives were double boilered 0-3-0s (though with the balance wheels they must actually have been 2-3-2s) . It was still necessary to balance loads, so if a cow were sent she had to travel with 2 calves, which then returned on the two sides of the wagon. Some of the track is preserved at Listowel and demonstration rides are available, though the loco is a replica powered by a diesel engine.

[@azuma892]

Can you talk about the South Manchuria Railway? Please? Maybe a video on the history of their streamlined locos?

[@sebastianthomsen2225]

🐛🚂👍

[@addisonlim6808]

First

[@stevebarnes2]

So?

[@azuma892]

Congrats.