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Real Life "Kerbalisms"


Lisias

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Trains have had plenty of kerbalisms before aircraft and rockets. I imagine every technology had its own ridiculous 'adolescent' phase, when practical solutions were extracted from the weeds of unweildly optimizations and impractical extremes.

In the 1940s, the Pennsylvania Railroad built the class S2, one of the more famous examples of steam turbine locomotives. It was powerful and fast, but only at its designed optimal speed. When starting or stopping it had unacceptably poor fuel efficiency. It also required a second turbine to reverse, that when not in use was just dead weight.

PRR_S2_6-8-6_Turbine_locomotive_1944_Bal

 

Or the AA-20 Andreev, the Soviet "improvement" on the successful Union Pacific -9000 family. Its driver set (14 wheels in all) was so long that it would destroy track couplings when it drove over them.  So they ground off the flanges of the first and last axles (turning them into zero-force wheels on sharp turns). Its firebox was too small to heat the gigantic boiler, making it practically useless for its long-haul coal route. It was shown off at an expo in Moscow in 1935 then quietly put in a shed.  It was finally scrapped in 1960.

300px-Andreev.jpg

Or if you want more driving wheels, you could go for the Virginian Triplex.

28884.jpg

Edited by starcaptain
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(At the very center of the very big picture,
from peripheral reflective target to the round-white-with-black-dot SVS target, and below it.)

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STS-111_PMA-2_view.jpg

wLw0CB3.jpg

 

Even in space, when it seems nobody around, you should use

Spoiler

the barbed wire to protect the copper handles from stealing.

Galvanized-Steel-Barbed-Wire.jpgCopper_T_Pull-Proper_Copper_Design-Pure_

 

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