new haven besler steam engine

Not sure if this has been discussed before but I just saw a film of a bresler steam product that was built for the New Haven.

The action includes shots of the Reading Company Wayne Junction car shops as well as shots on the NH and PRR.

What ever became of the engine and anyone know how successful the testing was in the long run

It was spelled "Besler". It was a two-car self-propelled mini-train with a small steam engine in one car, and it was known informally as the "Blue Goose". Numbered 9210-9211, it ran in revenue service from 1936 to 1943, mostly on the Naugatuck Valley line between Waterbury and Bridgeport but had frequent mechanical problems and so was never successful enough to be duplicated. Gas-electric railcars, and then the Budd RDC, got the branchline market that Besler was looking for. Following its retirement, the Besler set was depowered, broken up, and the two cars continued in service a while longer on the NH as a standard coach and combine.

In addition to its run on the Naugy, it also made runs between Waterbury and Hartford over the Highland.

The Brothers George and William Besler were developers of small reciprocating steams engines for cars, trains and even a plane. Their work seems to have been prominent in the early 1930’s. The first link below contains the video that shows some of their achievements including the manufacturing of the New Haven Besler and the unit in action. The second from youtube shows the plane with great period music. I always thought the only alternate power source to combustion engines for aircraft, was large rubber bands.

http://www.archive.org/details/BeslerCo1932

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw6NFmcnW-8

You may have to scroll down to see the video screen on the first link.

Stories of the Besler train on the NH agree that it was staggeringly maintenance-intensive and breakdown-prone and thus only lasted a few years in service. i believe it began in 1936 or so.

I was told that the boiler on this train was very similiar to the flash boilers on the electric motors. They could put out plenty
of steam so the problem was probably in the mechanical engine end rather than the steam end itself. It is too bad that this
idea didn't work out much better, it could have been very interesting.
Noel Weaver

How did the thing work, anway? Did it have a transmission, or did the pistons drive the axles directly?

The "drive" was basically like a conventional steam engine with the cylinders truck mounted. The Besler utilized Stephenson valve gear.

Rick Abramson wrote:The "drive" was basically like a conventional steam engine with the cylinders truck mounted. The Besler utilized Stephenson valve gear.

That right there must have caused problems in feeding steam into the cylinders from the boiler.

One of the V-scale modelers has made one of these for N3V Trainz.

I've been wondering, though. It seems that everything the New Haven owned that wasn't conventional, suffered some kind of mechanical problems. Could this have been the way their shops were? The people running the shops couldn't handle out of the ordinary equipment such as the Besler train set and much later the Roger Williams train set.

John

John, that’s a good question and it has crossed my mind as well.

The shops may have not been properly prepared for the new technology, but the train sets may have not been the right technology at the time or proved flawed or cost ineffective. New Haven management received both positive and negative results by embracing innovativion. In the latter years however; management was eager to take unconventional approaches to rectify ever worsening financial conditions and retain ridership. At times management and even the engineering staff did not fully understand the technology they received. Other railroads learned this hard lesson; the C&O with its giant steam turbine electrics come to mind.

Now one could argue how effective was the New Haven’s maintenance of conventional units; especially in the declining years.