Spirit Tracks: Inverse-Piston

Yes, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks inspired me to reverse engineer those insane, sliding cylinders on its locomotives to come up with the “inverse-piston” steam engine. XD

Part A, the valve chamber (including paddle-shaped and stationary “ piston” ), is mounted to the locomotive frame. Part B, the cylinder-turned-piston proper, is mounted to part A such that the paddle is positioned snuggly inside of part B’s cylinder casing. Part A includes a guide and bearing that allows part B to slide back in forth. With a crank and eccentric connected, a steam supply will push part B back and forth just as if it were powering Link’s wild little train! XD

Advantages to this system might include a more compact size, owing to the fact that, like a truncated engine, a crosshead with guides is not really needed. Note that with this design, unlike with a conventional steam engine, you will want the eccentric to be “leading” the main crank for an inside-admission arrangement (as illustrated above).