The Steam Locomotive Table, v1 If you’re reading this; you either like steam trains, or want to know more about them. Hopefully, either way, I can scratch your itch with this; a set of randomizer/dice-roll tables of my own making; as inspired by some similar tables for tanks and aircrafts. Bear with me, I know not everyone knows the things I do, and I sure know I don’t know a lot of things other train enthusiasts do; but hopefully the descriptions and examples will be enough to get anyone through this smoothly. To begin, you’ll either want a bunch of dice or any online dice-rolling/number generating site (or just pick at your own whim); and somewhere or something to keep track of the details. These tables will give details of a presumed (roughly) standard steam locomotive. No sentinels or other engines with vertical boilers; no climax, shay, etc specially driven locomotives; are considered for this listing as they can change many of the fundamental details of an engine. Go in expecting to make the likes of mainline, branchline, dockyard, etc engines; not the likes of experiments like Bulleid’s Leader or specific industry engines like the aforementioned logging shays. Some dice rolls will have uneven distribution, such as “1-4, and 5-6”. Typically this means that the less likely detail is also one that is/was significantly less common in real life, or significantly more complex to depict. For clarity sake examples will be linked, but you’re always encouraged to look up more as you would like or feel necessary. Be sure to read thoroughly for explanations of unique/more complex details; and, read thoroughly because some tables will tell you to go to a certain table for further specifications of a roll, or a roll will have its own instructions. In the event you do not see a certain detail defined; such as the gauge, whistle placement, window shape, sandboxes, the type of coupling, buffers, cowcatchers, etc; feel free to take liberties with these details at your own discretion. If you plan to draw/depict the engine you are in the process of rolling for, it is recommended you please make a note of your rolls for EVERY applicable table you go through BEFORE you begin a visualization, because certain details and aspects can potentially overrule/cover up other later ones. Fundamental Table The following will determine some core aspects of your engines, from here you will begin to generally shape where everything will be pieced together in turn. 1d20 NAME INFO FURTHER INSTR. 1-9 Tank engine Tank engines carry their fuel and water onboard the main Use the table for tanks later. vehicle, the engine; with water in tanks and fuel in bunkers. Proceed to the setup table. Ex: LB&SCR E2 (basis of Thomas the tank engine) Many American switcher/shunter steam locomotives JNR Class C11 10-18 Tender Engine Tenders are the vehicles attached behind the engine that Use the table for tenders later. carry the fuel and water. Proceed to the setup table. Ex: LNER Flying Scotsman CPRR Leviathan Union Pacific Big Boy 19-20 Tender-Tank An uncommon type, where the water is carried on board the Use the tank table later, and optionally engine engine in tanks, and the fuel in a tender. Alternatively, a tank omit bunker/fuel options; then use the engine simply carrying a tender for extra capacity. tender table, and optionally omit any water options. Ex: Ffestiniog Railway Welsh Pony and Blanche Proceed to the setup table. DHR 778 Setup Table There are some variations in how a locomotive’s wheels are set up, for varying reasons of attempting to enhance performance in different ways. 1d20 NAME INFO FURTHER INST. 1-11 Standard The usual locomotive type with one set Proceed to wheel config. table. of driven/powered wheels. 12- Divided Drive A locomotive where separately Proceed to the divided drive table, and then the wheel config. 17 powered pistons/cylinders power table. separate groups of drive wheels. 18 Double Fairlie A complex locomotive, a tank engine If you rolled tender/tender-tank, ignore that or reroll this. that is double ended. Essentially two Use the tank table, but know that the bunker can only be in front tank engines, conjoined at the cab. Two of the cab, on both sides; whether bunkers are between the cab boilers, two sets of wheel bogies/trucks; and tank, atop/built partially into the tank, or what have you. one cab between them. Coupling and/or buffers are mounted to the On principle Fairlies only have powered wheels, if your wheel bogies/trucks and not the frames. config. roll has leading or trailing wheels, simply ignore them (unless you’d like to use them anyway, essentially becoming a Ex: Fairlie Mallet of sorts). Mexican fairlie E.g.: roll a Pacific, 4-6-2; it becomes 0-6-0+0-6-0, or 0-6-6-0 Ffestiniog Railway double fairlies Proceed to wheel config. table. 19- Garratt Garratts are a complex engine type. If you rolled tank/tender-tank; ignore that or reroll this. 20 (Beyer Garratt) Essentially the boiler connects to Use the tender table and ignore the wheel options, and assume powered tenders at either end. Saying front tender is focused on water and rear tender is focused on they are powered means each tender fuel. has its own set of wheels under it, as opposed to the typical standard of the For whatever wheel configuration you roll for your engine, add wheels being under the boiler. that to the front tender, and then mirror it for the back tender. E.g.: a Pacific, 4-6-2; would become 4-6-2+2-6-4 Ex: Welsh Highland Railway garratts Australian garratts Proceed to wheel config. table. "William Francis" locomotive Divided Drive Table This is intended for the divided drive setup option, and will specify how the wheels are divided up. The general idea is that you will apply the ruling here to the wheel configuration you get, where the drive wheels there will be doubled. COIN FLIP: Heads/1 means the engine will have the same number of drive wheels in each set (ex: 2-2-2-0); tails/2 means one set will have one more or one less pair of drive wheels than the other (ex: 2-4-6-2) 1d20 NAME INFO FURTHER INST. 1-7 Duplex Both sets of drive wheels are rigidly Proceed to wheel config., and add the new set of drive connected to the frame. wheels in. Ex: Pennsylvania Railroad T1 E.g.: Atlantic, 4-4-2; becomes 4-4-4-2 PLM 151A 8-10 Compound For the sake of variety and cutting to the Proceed to wheel config., and add the new set of drive chase, assume “compounds” refers to wheels in. You can disregard valve gear later, as one set the style as set by Francis Webb’s of pistons/cylinders will have to be inside, the other will engines: drive wheels are connected to have to be outside. one rigid frame, with one set powered E.g.: 2-4-0, becomes 2-4-4-0 by the inside cylinders, the other by the outside cylinders. Ex: LNWR Greater Britain LNWR No. 777 (2-2-4-0) London and South Western Railway T7 11 Mallet Articulated locomotive, where the rear Proceed to wheel config., and add the new set of drive -17 wheel set under the cab is rigid on the wheels in. frame; the front set is on its own articulated frame (can pivot, swivel, etc) E.g.: 2-8-2, becomes 2-8-8-2 Ex: C&O 2-6-6-2 Mallet NWE Mallets Union Pacific Big Boy 18 Meyer Articulated locomotive where both sets Coin flip: 1/Heads, inwards facing cylinders; 2/Tails, -20 (or Kitson-Meyer, of wheels are on separate articulated outwards facing cylinders. which spaces out frames. Proceed to wheel config. The configuration will apply to the wheel sets to Ex: Ferrocarril Transandino 0-8-0+0-6-0 the front set, and mirror for the back set. make room for a (has outward cylinders) bigger firebox) French Meyer (has inward cylinders) E.g.: 2-4-4, becomes 2-4-4+4-4-2 Wheel Configuration/Arrangement Table The wheel configuration is a very defining feature of a locomotive, lending itself to various aspects of the engine’s size and performance/traction capabilities. While engines with 6 leading and/or trailing wheels exist, and some with over 10 coupled driving wheels exist; these will generally be avoided for sake of space and simplicity. This chart will refer to wheel configurations in the Whyte notation standard. This system counts the wheels in the three standardly accepted groups of an engine: the leading, unpowered wheels; the powered aka drive wheels; and then the trailing, unpowered wheels. When an engine lacks leading and/or trailing wheels, that space is given a zero. Ex: a locomotive under the 2-4-0 notation is a locomotive that has two leading wheels, four drive wheels, and no trailing wheels. Typically trailing wheels will be placed under the cab or further back under the bunker on tank engines; and in turn the leading wheels are found roughly under, or in front of the smokebox. So to, when there are no leading and/or trailing wheels, the drive wheels will typically be spaced out to roughly take up the space that those unpowered wheels would have occupied. For some examples; the LB&SCR E2 tank engine is an 0-6-0, and the drive wheels are essentially spaced out across the length of the engine.