this has been done and put into one locomotive it has two front ends it is used on narrow Gauge railway called a fairlie which is sometimes used in the welsh mountains.as they also have tight corners on the railway from one place to another.
actually two locomotives with a train of carriage in between still has the same issues because the one at the back is still dragged along. locomotives tend to be the heaviest part of any train.
so it defeats the whole object.
two locomotives one behind the other are used with heavy loads and steep inclines some even use 3 locomotives too.
diesel locomotives don't have this issues as the main driving locomotive has a cab at each end so they just move it from what was the front to what is now the front formally the back.
Well i know that it is possible to have a "double header" http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
Not sure about back to back, i know diesels can and i guess that if you had the set-up with the tenders in the middle such as. (LOCO-Tender).(Tender-LOCO) then i don't see why not. The problem with reversing is not really about it being harder to move along, more that the engines are usually designed for going forwards, such as a car. However another difficulty is observation, much harder to say past tenders, but it is possible and is used regularly on heritage railways. I guess it looks better on mainline locomotives too :)
http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk/kkm/good...
Sam
First I think what you read was meant to be funny.
Steam locomotives went faster in one direction than the other because of timing bias introduced to increase pulling power in the forward direction because they were not meant to push a load.
Steam switchers didn't have this problem but they don't pull really heavy loads.
Diesel Electrics Engines don't have that problem, they go fast either way..
As Sam says they were designed to run forward and would only be run backwards if they were on a branch line with no turntable at the terminus. Also if you are running backwards all the dust from the coal and rain comes straight into the cab so it is not very comfortable for the crew
Yes, it might work. But steam locos are no longer used, and even if they were, you have a large inconvenience factor of always running two locos, plus the added controls, which are presently mechanical and would have to be automated.
Really random question here, but it's for something I'm working on.
I've read that steam locomotives with tenders can only travel fast when going forwards. They have to go slowly when in reverse because the tender is in the way. This means you've got to turn the engine around when you want to go the other way.
Ok question time. What if you had two locomotives facing opposite ways with their tenders between them. With some system of duplicating the controls so one driver can operate both locomotives from either end. Would this work?
