Transport Fever 2 - MR Paget Uniflow Locomotive

This is next on the list of ‘single example experimental locomotives that ultimately failed and have no place in a transport simulation game’

The Paget locomotive was a brave attempt at a radically improved locomotive design. It had eight inside uniflow cylinders powering all three driving axles. Another new feature was a firebrick firebox.

So, whats a Paget, how does it uniflow and why does this exist?

Paget refers to a bloke called Cecil Walter Paget, the son of the current chairman of the Midland Railway. Paget funded the building of his own locomotive at Derby Works to a radical new design.

His design featured uniflow cylinders. These are cylinders that are only powered from one side by steam. This engine had eight of them.

Eight.

All eight cylinders drove the three axles of the locomotive in near perfect balance, allowing for very smooth running and little to no hammer blow on the track. It is reported the locomotive reached 81mph but I think that may be a bit… embezzled so I set it to 72mph instead in-game so fight me.

Okay cool so a new kind of steam loco, why weren’t there any more if it was so successful?
Well… it kinda wasn’t successful. It cost a lot of money and was low on tractive effort, so slow to accelerate.

And there’s also the fact that once it broke down so bad that it seized up completely and managed to block the mainline for hours.

So basically, they waited for Paget to go to France and scrapped it behind his back.

oof.

Authors: SteveM4