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Click here for the introduction to Articulated Steam Locomotives of the World.
Wiener classified Semi-Articulated Steam Locomotives in
two parts:
1. Semi-articulated Locomotives with a single engine and
two driven trucks eg Luttermöllers and Klien-Lindner axle locomotives
2. Semi-articulated Locomotives with two engines and two
sets of driving wheels eg Mallets
A. Semi-articulated Locomotives
using chains
Wiener records that early experiments were not
perpetuated.
B. Semi-articulated Locomotives using gears
Early experiments with gears (such as the true Engerth
locomotive which had an 'engine' under the tender) failed to produce a
successful locomotive. The locomotive 'Genf'
normally based at the Swiss Transport Museum in Lucerne was designed and
built for Engerth himself. It is universally called after him although Wiener would
have called it a 'modified Engerth', as the boiler and firebox weight is
part supported by the tender which can still swivel under it, it has no
gears. There are other so-called Engerth locomotives and
these are covered elsewhere in these pages under
Stütz tenders - they actually work in the opposite sense to this
locomotive. This picture comes from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SCB-Ec-2-5-001.JPG
and may not be reproduced except under the conditions stated on that page.
However, the
chief engineer of Orenstein and Koppel, Gustav Luttermöller, perfected a
system in which the outer axles were connected not by rods but by an
internal gear train. Typically these were 0-10-0s and this allowed axles
to have much greater 'play' which allowed them to get round curves with
which a conventional locomotive would struggle. This is taken from
the OK book - see Bibliography. 
Luttermöller
locomotives could be built with both inside and outside frames. Although
the pictures below are some years old, all these examples survived active
in sugar mills in Java, Indonesia in 2009. Lucky enthusiasts like me saw
similar locomotives working in the oil palm estates of North Sumatra but
they all finished by 1993. Externally Luttermöller locomotives appear to
be 2-6-2s but all the wheels are necessarily the same size and when such a
locomotive slips, it is immediately clear that the end axles are
connected, this is especially so for those with inside frames. For
a YouTube video that shows this see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a21i208J80.
#6 is a 700mm gauge inside framed Luttermöller at
Pagottan (near Madiun, Java, Indonesia) at work in 2004
This is a close up of sister locomotive #7 taken out of
season in 2008.
This is 750mm gauge outside framed Luttermöller Tasikmadu
VI near Solo (Java, Indonesia) in 2002.
600mm gauge Luttermöllers were in a minority, I don't
believe any went to Java or Sumatra but inter alia they went to South
America and Japan. E18 (OK 9538/1921) was delivered for use by the Imperial
Japanese Army and was sold on to the Seibu Railway. It is now preserved in
Tokyo, you can read about it here - https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/e-18-war-train.
James Waite who took the pictures below suggests to take some of the details
with a pinch of salt but it's useful for the location. (Added 27th January 2021)
Similar locomotives were built by Henschel and 700mm gauge
#12
survived active at Rejosari near Madiun (Java, Indonesia) until recently, although I confess that this
picture was taken in 1975!
A rare Jung 'semi-Lüttermoller'
0-8-0T (8301/1939) is on display in front of the RSVG bus depot west of Hennef (Sieg) in the Reutherstrasse in
Stossdorf in Rhein-Pfalz, Germany. Only the first and second axles are
joined by gears. These are Thomas Kautzor's pictures (added 21st June 2015).
C. Semi-articulated Locomotives using reciprocating
mechanisms
Wiener lists no less than 24 such systems in 5 different
groups, probably no more than 5 systems were of any real significance...
Transmission by rods located on the axis of the locomotive
- a non starter
Convergent Axles coupled by Oscillating Levers
Of the four systems listed, only the Hagans system
saw the light of day - see http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/hagans/hagans.htm.
Such locomotives had two sets of wheels, the forward set were
conventional. The rear set was driven by a set of rods and oscillating
levers, which meant that the rear bogie could be allowed to move
laterally. Gölsdorf axles could do the job just as well and the
system was rapidly consigned to the history books. No such locomotives
survive.
Convergent Axles coupled through Driven Countershafts
Of the eight systems listed, only the Fink's System
saw the light of day - see http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/fink/fink.htm.
No such locomotives survive.
Convergent Axles coupled by means of Coupling Bars of
Variable Length
Again of the five systems listed, only the Klose
system was actually incorporated into locomotives - see http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/klose/klosetothe.htm
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Klose.
Such locomotives were used in the former Yugoslavia on the 760mm
gauge, see pictures on this page http://www.angelfire.com/co3/drustvo/Cira/Cira.html
(classes 189 and 191).
Quill Transmission
I have used the phrase above which appears in
Wiener's book but I prefer to use 'Hollow Axles'. It seems that Arthur
Heywood was the first to describe and apply such a system - http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/heywood/heywood.htm
-but the chief patent belonged to two Germans after whom 'Klien-Lindner' axles are now known (and please note that the first of these
two gentlemen is not 'Klein' as frequently appears). The Orenstein and
Koppel locomotives of the Matheran Hill Railway used this system and
were 0-6-0T - see elsewhere
on this site for pictures of them at work. However, the vast majority of
locomotives that used this system were 0-8-0T. Necessarily
all such locomotives had outside frames - there are more diagrams in
Wiener's book see Bibliography.
The
diagram below shows how the drive on the outer axles was transmitted
by a pin attached to a large ball to the actual driving wheels, this
is taken from the Du Croo and Brauns book - see Bibliography.
Underneath that is a picture of an actual axle (broken, with contents
exposed) in Java where a huge number of locomotives were so equipped
and a number were still active in 2009. 
In
practice, the original patent covered the basic idea and indicated
that the outer axles should be connected to pivots in the centre of
the locomotive to (hopefully) ensure that the outer axles behaved
themselves when curves were exited. In practice, leaving them to sort
themselves out passively was soon found to be inadequate and
modifications had to be made. In the case of Orenstein and Koppel
locomotives this meant adding springs, this is taken from the OK book
- see Bibliography. 
and for Maffei (and later
related Du Croo and Brauns locomotives) this meant coupling the outer
axles with a central pivot so they acted on each other, this is taken
from the Du Croo and Brauns book - see Bibliography. 
Other
manufacturers of such locomotives (eg Borsig, Hanomag, Henschel and
Jung also found in Java) had their own modifications but it
would need one of them to be jacked up to examine the details and
apart from a Borsig diagram in Wiener's book I
have yet to see details published. I have too many pictures of such
locomotives to include on this page:
Small 60
HP Olean 7 in 2005 is a typical example: 
On the mainline in Java, two (very
similar) classes used this system, this was D1503 on a Tegal to
Pekalongan train in 1976. These locomotives frequently worked as
0-6-2s with the rear rods off. 
Locomotives with extra Lateral Movement of Certain Axles
These are not included in Wiener's work and may not
strictly be considered a form of articulation. However, since they competed directly
with the types listed above, it is worth including them here. BMAG
(formerly Schwartzkopff) produced a series of 0-10-0T in which there was
extra lateral movement possible in the outer axles. The drive was taken on
the central axle which was flangeless and this meant that the first,
second, fourth and fifth axles could follow a curve while the third stayed
aligned with the cylinders. The second, fourth and fifth axles have extra
side play of about an inch with extended crankpins and naturally there had to be extra flexibility
in the way the rods were connected. The diagram below by Roger West was first published in the
Industrial Railway Record in 1975. 
A
feature of this design is a 'dummy' 6th axle which was intended to ensure
things got back to normal quickly on the straight, but was left out of
later designs. Both inside and outside frame varieties survive in Java,
the first picture shows Sragi 7 in 2002:
All inside frame locomotives of this type in the
sugar mills are out of service, but the Cepu Forest Railway has three of
them, used on occasional charter trains these days, this picture was taken
during such an event in 2002.
Compared to this system, locomotives with Gölsdorf
axles have all axles flanged and the one taking the drive can move
outwards on a curve. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6lsdorf_axle
which includes a diagram for such an 0-10-0. Lie Tjeng Chiao assures
me that the Hartmann 0-8-0T at Sragi sugar mill in Java have such a system, they
certainly do not have Klien-Lindner axles as I know from crawling under one a
long time ago... This picture was taken in 2002.
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