I'd Walk a Mile for Camel. . . .

Thanks for your response.
I am unsure what you are asking- and why.
My comment was directed at my mistake identifying the locomotive as a Winans Camel. As you correctly pointed out, I got the "Camel" right, but not the builder's name. I was close, but....
You appeared to be saying that my identification was close, but no cigar.
 
If I recall correctly the reason for the design of the camelback locomotive was to carry a very large Wootten (post Civil War) firebox on whose wide grate the locomotive could burn culm anthracite coal rather than the more common and smoky bituminous. The Northeastern railroads with access to anthracite (the fields were in the Northeast) were the ones to use them. The Reading, Jersey Central, DL&W, L&NE, and the B&O were the biggest users of them. The railroads might be hauling bituminous in their cars for the iron foundries but were burning anthracite in their camelback locomotives when they could get it (the USN wanted it, too to reduce their smoke signature).
 
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Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there a difference between 'camels' and 'camelbacks'? Those two terms are not synonymous?

Away from my books at the moment...

Thanks,
USS ALASKA
 
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there a difference between 'camels' and 'camelbacks'? Those two terms are not synonymous?

Away from my books at the moment...

Thanks,
USS ALASKA
Jeeze, you are right. I looked up some of this in my railroad books and sure enough one mentions that though the terms are often used interchangeably there were differences. The camels and camelbacks both used long fire grates but on the camels it appears that the cab was on top of the boiler and on the camelback the cab straddled the boiler. I am guessing on this from the images but it may be that the term camelback came when the Wootten firebox was adapted shifting the cab to the sides of the boiler. I don't have my reading RR history book anymore so I don't know when that road first used the term camelback and if they used camel before the adoption of the Wootten box. If this is so the original camels probably used bituminous coal as their fuel until the Wootten box came along about 1870. By the way as a very small child I had the opportunity to ride in a regularly scheduled passenger train pulled by Reading camelbacks. Their Newtown (Pa.) local from Reading Terminal to Bucks county used them until just after WW II and when they were replaced about 1948 it was with a Pacific type steamer. They did not dieselize that line until 1952. Thanks, Andy, for your post or I would never have picked up the difference. I just found a good magazine article of the two different types. Apparently they both were designed to use anthracite coal. The article can be found at railwaymatters.wordpress.com/one-hump-or-two-camels-and-camelbacks
 
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If I recall correctly the reason for the design of the camelback locomotive was to carry a very large Wootten (post Civil War) firebox on whose wide grate the locomotive could burn culm anthracite coal rather than the more common and smoky bituminous. The Northeastern railroads with access to anthracite (the fields were in the Northeast) were the ones to use them. The Reading, Jersey Central, DL&W, L&NE, and the B&O were the biggest users of them. The railroads might be hauling bituminous in their cars for the iron foundries but were burning anthracite in their camelback locomotives when they could get it (the USN wanted it, too to reduce their smoke signature).
Yes, that is true of the so-called 'camelback' or- as DL&W designated them, W for wide firebox.
These "camels" are a different animal.
There is a CNJ 4-4-2 on display in the B&O Museum, the last remaining CNJ camelback.
 
Great Post @AndyHall Thanks for sharing. My Dad a 45 year RR guy loved it.
 
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