The AA20: The USSR's 'Big Boy'

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[TheDemocrab]

I'd wager that a 4-14-4 would have made for a great steam locomotive for the Trans-Australian railway back when that was Steam operated...478km (297mi) of perfectly straight track between Ooldea and just before Nurina, with most of the other 1, 200km of track being fairly straight too. Most of the trains through there have always been long-ass freight trains taking cargo to/from Perth to the rest of the country as well.

[Emcron]

after learning what “military-grade” really means in another of simon’s vids, hearing him call surfshark’s vpn security “military-grade” is simply hilarious 😆😆😆

[joeyr]

I love when Simon and Co. cover trains, boats, and planes lol

[JakeOrion]

The legend is several USSR engineers came to the US and saw the Union Pacific 9000 class (4-12-2) in operation. A relatively successful locomotive, the soviet engineers thought they could make it bigger and better. Obviously, it fell flat on it's face.

[teolynx]

One note from first minutes of view: AA locomotive wasn't known in USSR as "Stalins engine" it never was nicknamed this way. AA letter's in it's model means name Andrey Andreev (one of some heads of ministry of something) and this locomotive was nicknamed "Выпрямитель кривых" (Curves straightener) because of it's ability to break rails in tight turns and derail itself whenever possible.

[ZAV]

You aught to do a video on the Southern Pacific's Cab-Forwards one day Simon, or the Erie Triplex's.

[xfaster]

It’s like if Big Bertha (stupidly powerful banking locomotive) and Big Boy (legendary powerful locomotive) had adopted a Decapod (a 10 wheeled tank engine built for absolute traction meant to compete against electric trains) that was fed on pure whey.

[zaco-kmsu]

Too bad they scrapped it. It could have been a great museum exhibit! It was a curiosity. It might have been an engineering failure but the sheer size and power was impressive!

[Walschaerts]

@7:23 "7200 horsepower?" I just used the formulas and tables to calculate boiler horsepower provided by the Baldwin Locomotive Works along with the fairly limited information available to me on the boiler's direct and indirect heating surfaces and came up with a figure far less than 7000 HP. More like 2054 boiler horsepower. And we know boiler horsepower is always higher than drawbar horsepower.


I believe this locomotive, while not American would be better known and researched if it truly was a 7000 horsepower machine. A figure like that would have been comparable to the Norfolk and Western Class A, C&O's Allegheny and the Union Pacific's Big Boy.

But this locomotive, strictly from outward appearance did not fully embrace boiler technology at the time with a shallow firebox over the rear set of drivers (to accommodate additional driving axles for tractive force desired).

Just something to consider, nowhere near the same class as the American locomotives I mentioned above AND nowhere near 7000 boiler horsepower. 🤷🏾‍♂️

[ignitionfrn]

1:30 - Chapter 1 - The 5 year plan
4:45 - Mid roll ads
6:15 - Chapter 2 - Off the rails
8:30 - Chapter 3 - Back to the drawing board
10:00 - Chapter 4 - Out of the game

[Garrett_Thompson]

You should do a video on the Soviet Я class, the Ya-01 Garratt. The largest Garratt that Beyer-Peacock ever built. It's 4-8-2+2-8-4 monster.

[ryanm]

You should cover the more modern freight locomotives that have been in service across the world like the workhorses EMD GP-7 & 9, GP-40, GE Dash 7, 8 & 9 and the newest GE Evolution series.

[SD]

Do a video on the SD40-2! it set the industry standard for decades.

[Lordbread-M]

There's is a somewhat a actual Soviet big boy the engine is classified as the p38 2-8-8-4

[dadtype]

Another delightful briefing with Simon.

[HaddaClu]

7:28 For steam locomotives horsepower does not equal speed. To get the theoretical top speed you would multiply the diameter of the drive wheels by 1.25 - so in this case 63 x 1.25 = 78.75 . Not a horrible number but this isnt accounting for weigh of the locomotive itself, or the piston stroke, or if its superheated / saturated steam, hand fired or has a mechanical stoker.

[ryanwiese]

Their is another one as well. The Russian P38 was a soviet copy of the big boy.

[benjamin]

Always nice to hear about something you've never heard of!!!

[amadine]

That is the Soviet i knew -big in everything that would let it down eventually but some still work to date Mil Mi-26 for example.

[matthewcasey]

Soon as you said 4-14-4 ridged frame I thought well that’s derailing all the time that’s why Union Pacific Big Boy’s are a Mallet design so they can take curves at speed!