Russian Nuclear Train Named "Big Joe"

[chuff_n_puff]

I have been trying to find a drawing of the referenced train that I seen on the net years ago. I saved it on my PC, but it got destroyed in a house fire. There was never any photos were allowed of it, as Russia tried to cover up this big blunder. They even placed all involved building it under close guard to keep it quite. It was a two story nuclear powered locomotive and dwarfed the "Big Boy"! It made it about 100 feet out of its shop, where it was built, and had a nuclear melt down. It melted the permafrost beneath it, sunk between the rails and disappeared. Any help finding this info would be appreciated.

[Seasaltchap]

I think you're a day early on this one!

[pdlethbridge]

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/index.htm
this site has a lot of info on odd locos and links to several other great sites. A brief check didn't find what you were looking for

[Hamish K]

I think you're a day early on this one!

Remember it is already tomorrow in some parts of the world, or from my perspective its yesterday where you are.

Hamish

[pdlethbridge]

Even a silly question deserves a silly response, did you see some of that stuff?

[Hamish K]

See http://www.mremag.demon.co.uk for some interesting stories. Note the date!

There has been a raging debate on that site about the accuracy of british track and the debate between those who run 1:76 scale on HO track (British OO) and those who would use more accurate scale track for 1:76 scale.

Hamish

[chuff_n_puff]

Here is an article I just read on the net about "Big Joe":

Little known fact that during the early 50's the Russians decided to claim the "Worlds Largest Locomotive" title by building the nuclear powered "Big Joe" a 4-12-12-12-12-0 monster built in super secret isolation at a secret military base located on the frozen Siberian tundra. Once completed, it was rolled out of the train shed onto the tracks only to realize that it was too big to go through tunnels and too long for any curves, and while they were figuring out what to next, the heat from the nuclear reactor melted the permafrost under the engine, where upon it crashed thru the rails, the crews leaping from the two-story control cab, sinking under its own ocean liner weight, thru the permafrost to the center of the Earth, never to be seen again!
All records were destroyed to prevent word of this huge embarrassment from reaching Western ears, the crews and builders were dispatched to the gulag's were they were put to work perfecting the Trabant automobile. The accounts are only now coming to light as the old timers who survived the gulag's recount the story to their great grandchildren on cold Russian winter nights...they tell them, if you put your ear to the ground, you can still hear the whistle bellowing deep under the Earth...
The "Big Joe's" were apparently quite Amazing sight to behold.
Imagine the largest articulated locomotive you've ever seen. A 4-12-12-0 in a cab-forward designation. The forward cab was 2 levels and looked more like a jet plane than a steam loco. Now take a second section 0-12-12-0 articulated with a secondary crew cab at the rear. Now imagine, straddling between these two monsters, pivoted mid-way of one of the articulated portions like a large square steel boiler section of a Bayers-Garret, looking much like a huge transformer, the Reactor Core, whose nuclear heart was the boilers heating source. To feed these steam monsters 3 huge water tenders trailing behind.
Of course no one knows just how heavy this beast was, but the fact that it essentially crashed thru the rails and sank under its own weight testifies that it never would have lasted past its first bridge!

[CAB_IV]

i call this as a fake. while there have been nuclear locomotives, (a test bed was built back in the 50s in the US) , and they would be large, it is not likely that they would melt through the ground.   

first of all, its not like the russians haven't been using steam locomotives.  If the heat coming from the locomotive was that horrifying that it began to melt its way through all that ice, people would have been dead.  more importantly though, the reactor probably would have melted through the locomotive, or lit the ties on fire.   

they don't give you a date either.  it sounds like its a completely fabricated story to me, and your supposed drawing was probably just an impression of it.

[pdlethbridge]

maybe they got the idea from this 9 foot dia. driver monster

[WoundedBear]

Don't suppose April 1st has anything to do with it.....does it?lmao

Some of you guys take this waaaaaaay to seriously.

[ebtnut]

OK, we're past 4/1, and this is no joke.  The "Big Joe" story is a fabrication with some basis in fact.  The Russians did in fact decide to built the world's largest rigid frame locomotive, and proceeded to built a 4-14-4.  It apparently made one long test run, and it is only some exaggeration to say that it spend as much time on the ties as on the rails.  "Urban legend" says that the locos designers got sent to the gulag, and the engine quickly scrapped.

[SteamGene]

The Nut is correct.  It straightened out a lot of rail!
Gene

[vic]

Are you sure its fake? Or is that just what the Soviets wanted you to think?

Remember this was a regime crazy enough to use atomic bombs for construction projects in Kahzakstan, nuclear material for heating elements and that are places in Siberia so contaminated by atomic and chemical contamination that they will be off limits for centuries to come.

Admitting to the creation (and sudden demise) of a large mobile nuclear pile that ended in a mini-Chernobyle would be a massive embarrasment to any regime there, not to menntion facing charges of nuclear contamination of the research facility, no, there will never be an official admittance to this, it only lives on in the realm of legend.

Fake, yeah right....then where did this drawing come from

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/Big%20Joe%20Model%20.pdf

Based on what scant information survived the official purge after Stalins death and descriptions from the very few scientists who survived the Gulags and didnt succoumb to lung cancer from  years of working on perfecting motors for Trabants in Siberia. The only known photo was said to be buried with Stalin and it was rumored the disaster was the cause of the shadowy health attack that led to the dictators demise.

PS the AA20, ( the 4-14-4 ) wasnt a success as it had an annoying habit of trying to straighten out every curve it was on, it also had a knack for demolishing every set of switchpoints it ever crossed.

heres a link to some info on the AA20, about 1/2 down the page is the only known photo, and this is an engine that survived for about 40 years stored behind the place it was built.
http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/bw-apoc4.html

[SteamGene]

A drawing proves nothing.  After all, I've seen drawings of an aircraft carrier made from ice, dwellings on the moon, and even a parched Martian gracing my first ever published piece.
As for the use of nuclear explosions for construction, I remember a '50 era article in Mechanics Illustrated proposing the use of them to build a second Panama Canal.
I'd say the name "Big Joe" might be a tip, too, considering the Milwaukee Road's "Little Joes."
Gene

[Ken Schei]

Chuff_n_puff's story is extremely unbelievable to me.  It is beyond belief that scientists and engineers with the intelligence and technology to build a nuclear-powered locomotive would "realize that it was too big to go through tunnels and too long for any curves" only after it was completely designed and constructed.

As a registered professional engineer with years of experience designing foundations for structures on permafrost, I can assure you that the locomotive would not be able to melt through the permafrost to the center of the earth.

Cheers, Ken