For Railfans Only

[AndyHall]

Neat video of a narrow-gauge steam locomotive, a little more recent than CW vintage, but not by much, on a railfan excursion. Things to watch for:

@ 1:15, watering
@ 2:00, look at the cinders fly!
@ 3:50, long, hard pull up the grade

And this looks like every model railroad magazine shot you ever saw, but it's real:

 

[Patrick H]

Great, fun video, Andy! I'm glad you pointed out the cinders. You can see the dust on the "on-board" camera lens through the rest of those shots, but I might have missed all that if you hadn't pointed it out. The last 30 or 45 seconds of the video looks very much like a model railroad train, just as the still shot does--but then we see the bystander in the right of the frame and we know it's real. This was very cool.

 

[AndyHall]

One reads from old accounts of cinders from the stack blowing back into the passenger cars and burning holes in peoples' clothes, or even starting prairie fires, but that's the best video I've seen of it. It was enough of a problem that a lot of tinkerers committed themselves to solving it.

 

[Patrick H]

I guess they were still tinkering in the 1940s-50s. The sheet metal appendages on the Union Pacific's engine 844 are said to help channel the air flow (and related smoke, gas, and cinders) up above the cab of the engine and the following cars.

 

[Patrick H]

I guess I'm losin' it. I meant to attach this link to the previous post:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Unio...GVyASM4YLoAQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1108&bih=610

 

[Elennsar]

The Eureka is a beautiful locomotive, and the Colorado countryside a beautiful background for it.

Ten thousand thanks from a railroad history nut for posting this. Her time and class are among my very favorites as a steam locomotive fan since I was a little kid.

 

[AndyHall]

This is the locomotive W. R. Baker of the Houston & Texas Central, c. 1868, from the Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs Collection at Southern Methodist University. The locomotive is shown at Hempstead, Texas, where a relative of mine, Lawrence Daffan, lived and worked as a train conductor on the H&TC, running four mixed trains daily between Hempstead and Brenham. I'm sure he must have covered many, many miles behind this locomotive.

Except for the shape of the chimney, W. R. Baker is a very close match for the replica of the 1869 Central Pacific locomotive Leviathan, built by David Kloke in 1999-2009:

 

[unionblue]

Neat video of a narrow-gauge steam locomotive, a little more recent than CW vintage, but not by much, on a railfan excursion. Things to watch for:

@ 1:15, watering
@ 2:00, look at the cinders fly!
@ 3:50, long, hard pull up the grade

And this looks like every model railroad magazine shot you ever saw, but it's real:
View attachment 43232

From the 1959 movie, The Horse Soldiers, concerning a bit about railroad locomotives.

Miss Hannah Hunter: "Major Kendall a doctor. And Major Gray, an actor...and Colonel Secord almost a senator...but Colonel Marlowe, you must be a professional soldier.

Col. John Marlowe: "No, prior to this current insanity, I was a railroad engineer."

Miss Hannah Hunter: "Why, how thrilling! To think of being able to steer one of those huge things, puffing and steaming, ringing that little bell. Ding Dong! Ding Dong!"

Col. John Marlowe: "Not quite. My job was in the construction of railroads."

Miss Hannah Hunter: "Why, my, such brilliant minds. Poor little me barely squeezed through Miss Longstreet's Seminary for Ladies. How did you ever manage to remember all those books in college?"

Col. John Marlowe: "I didn't. I started driving rail spikes at ten cents a day and found."

Don't know why this thread reminded me of the above, but I thought it would go well here.

Unionblue

 

[Seduzal]

Great post, Andy. I have always been interested in trains and locomotives, as a kid in my younger days.
Thanks for sharing .

 

[Littlestown]

I'm a railfan too!

The Pittsburgh, Lisbon and Western Railroad (also known as the Pick up your Luggage and Walk)

The railroad that followed the North Fork of the Little Beaver Creek and served the towns, Lisbon, Ohio, to New Galilee, Pennsylvania.

A rare doubleheader of former PM&C (Pittsburgh Marion, and Chicago)#5; locomotive later became PL&W (Pittsburgh, Lisbon, and Western) #5, 4-6-0. Pushing on the grade to Signal, Ohio is former PM&C #4, 4-4-0. #4 was sold to W&LE in 1904 and #5 was retired before 1920.

Waiting on the mail. Elkton, Ohio Station. P,L &W line. 1899.

 

[diane]

Great! Love this. We had the Blue Goose Excursion Train as a tourist attraction for several years - the engine was ca 1910, much later. It putted along the half dozen miles from Yreka to Montague and back, with dinners and talks. Very popular! Then somebody messed up the finances and phfft! Don't know where the Goose herself is now...

The Oregon-California Railroad was the main lumber and cattle express, going through Montague and on down the valley. The Southern Pacific went all the way down California with lumber and came back with produce. There was a tunnel through the Siskiyous all trains couldn't avoid and the pull up the Anderson Grade was LONG! Dunsmuir was a railroad town - all the towns had the railroad through them. When Collier put through the Interstate and the freeways, pretty much killed the economy of the rail towns!

I miss the steady, gentle chugachugachuga of the wheels on the tracks. Now they are quieter and faster and have a nervous swish to them. There's only about two or three a week now but they do think about passenger trains from time to time.

 

[TinCan]

I have had the pleasure of making the Durango to Silverton run twice and would go again any time I'm there.

 

[Littlestown]

Nothing like the sight and sound of a steam locomotive!

Historic super-power steam locomotive no. 765 is a high-stepping, fourteen-wheeled, magnificent machine that stands 15 feet tall, weighs 404 tons, goes over 60 miles an hour and restored to the way it looked and sounded when it was built by the Lima Locomotive Works in 1944. Named for the mountainous terrain in which it was proven, the 2-8-4 Berkshire-type locomotive, with two pony wheels, eight driving wheels, and four trailing wheels, became the first embodiment of the "Super-power" locomotive design that would change the course of locomotive development in the United States. http://fortwaynerailroad.org/nickel-plate-road-no-765/

No. 765 at Cuyahoga Valley National Park -

 

[Littlestown]

Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive no. 765 will return to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for another series of exciting trips this September. I can hardly wait!

 

[ErnieMac]

Cass Scenic Railroad (Cass WV). It doesn't show well in the photo, but the locomotive is driven by gears instead of the normal direct drive arrangements. More power to overcome the steep grades.

Durango Silverton (Colorado)

 

[donna]

Wonderful thread and pictures. I love trains of all kinds.

 

[rebelatsea]

I guess they were still tinkering in the 1940s-50s. The sheet metal appendages on the Union Pacific's engine 844 are said to help channel the air flow (and related smoke, gas, and cinders) up above the cab of the engine and the following cars.

The only real way to prevent " fire throwing" is to achieve complete combustion in the firebox. (or burn oil or gas).
We've come a long way to achieving that, but are not there yet.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

"Punch in the presence of the passenjare!"

I've got to see if I have a photo around of my great-grandfather in his overalls; I know I've seen such a one but I can't recall where it's gotten to... he was a brakeman and occasional/reserve conductor on a line in eastern Ohio. I have his logbook and his conductor's watch.

 

[AndyHall]

Fun fact from the Golden Spike NPS website:

2,000 gallons of water will get a steam locomotive approximately 15 to 30 miles. Then they'll have to stop and fill up to get the next 15 to 30 miles.​

 

[Littlestown]

"Punch in the presence of the passenjare!"

I've got to see if I have a photo around of my great-grandfather in his overalls; I know I've seen such a one but I can't recall where it's gotten to... he was a brakeman and occasional/reserve conductor on a line in eastern Ohio. I have his logbook and his conductor's watch.

Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!

Punch brothers! Punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!


A Blue Trip Slip for an 8-cents fare.
A Buff Trip Slip for a 6-cents fare.
A Pink Trip Slip for a 3-cents fare.
For Coupon and Transfer, punch the Tickets.