Anyone like steam locos?

[ElAurens]

I shot these this morning outside of Toledo Ohio. The former Nickel Plate Road #765, (Built 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works) now run by a museum group, pulling an excursion train for employees of the Norfolk Southern Railway.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/8953/lima7651.jpg

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/737/lima7655.jpg

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/6937/lima7657.jpg

There is a lot going on in this pic. The railroad man in the hard hat is worried about his track, as the curve they are backing down to turn the train around is an 18 degree turn, and the loco is only rated for 20 degree turns. She did spread the rails a bit when pulling ahead on the left side.

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/3436/lima7658.jpg

The instrument with the red pointer is the speedometer. If you blow up the pic you will find it is calibrated to 120mph. This is not optimism on the part of the builder. Although this class (2-8-4 Berkshire) was designed for fast freight they went over 100 mph on tests when new. It was not uncommon for them to pass passenger trains on the double track mainlines that were common in the day.

:cool:

[Trumper]

:) What a monster,looks impressive.
We still have quite alot of preserved steam loco s over here and preserved railway lines,infact the diesels are becoming rarer than steam.
Lovely stuff,what speed does it run the special trains at?

[s8n]

my dad,grandad,and uncle were all engineers of these beauties. i got to ride on them alot in the engine and cabooses when i was a kid.:grin:

[Ploughman]

Fabulous looking machine there. I love steam locomotives, they seem so alive compared to diesel or electric. My local heritage steam line, maybe a mile up the road, is very much the opposite end of the spectrum, a Welsh highland railway originally designed to move slate from slate mines. The engines are only the size of a small car with a top speed in the single digits.

[AndyJWest]

Nice photos. How could anyone not like them? Definitely elegant for a freight loco, too. :cool:

For more on the Berkshire's (including a Video - turn the sound right up, and frighten the neighbours ;) ) see here: http://www.american-rails.com/berkshire-locomotives.html

[arthursmedley]

Cor! Nice pics EL.:grin: I thought the 'states had gone all Diesel by the mid-forties. Infact why is it double-heading with a Diesel engine?

A couple of winters ago I was on my way to a conference at a country hotel, passing what I thought was a disused railway line when this steamed past;
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh112/arthursmedley/meee024.jpg
I nearly crashed the car!! I got ahead of it as it was chuffing along fairly slowly and took these from an overbridge for Blairgowrie. It's a Gresley A4 pacific, don't know which one, but the kind of engine that took him from Edinburgh to London when he was a kid.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh112/arthursmedley/meee025.jpg

Found out later it was running on the West Somerset Railway, a preserved branch line.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh112/arthursmedley/meee026-2.jpg

[ElAurens]

OK, It is common practice over here to dead head with a diesel in tow, because the freight railroads will not tolerate blocked tracks if there is a breakdown on a 60+ year old locomotive, but on this occasion there is also another special reason. The diesel in tow is a brand new GE built unit that is the first in it's class, hence it's number 8100. It is painted in the vintage livery of the Nickle Plate Road, which is now a part of the Northfolk Southern system of roads. For a modern diesel it is very cool.


Today the 765 was running in a totally urban setting so she was kept to a mere 15 mph. When out in open country they will let her have her head and 60+ mph is not an issue for her.

I do believe she is the last of her type that still can operate.

Steam was not fully replaced in the US till the late 50s. Most roads stopped in 1956, but the Norfolk & Western, predecessor of the Norfolk Southern, carried on into the early 60's and maintained a limited steam shop for two locomotives till the 90's. The Union Pacific Railroad still maintains a steam operation for two of it's steam locomotives out west. A 4-8-4 Northern type and a 4-6-6-4 Challenger type.

[ElAurens]

A few more pics...

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/2880/lima7652.jpg

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5362/lima7653.jpg


http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/9234/lima7654.jpg

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/9928/lima7656.jpg

[Moggy]

OK, It is common practice over here to dead head with a diesel in tow, because the freight railroads will not tolerate blocked tracks if there is a breakdown on a 60+ year old locomotive, but on this occasion there is also another special reason. The diesel in tow is a brand new GE built unit that is the first in it's class, hence it's number 8100. It is painted in the vintage livery of the Nickle Plate Road, which is now a part of the Northfolk Southern system of roads. For a modern diesel it is very cool.


Today the 765 was running in a totally urban setting so she was kept to a mere 15 mph. When out in open country they will let her have her head and 60+ mph is not an issue for her.

I do believe she is the last of her type that still can operate.

It's common practice over here too to have a diesel helper when running a steam loco on the mainline, it's common sense I guess.
I took a trip from London Waterloo to Swanage last year on a Black 5 with a class 37 diesel on tow, took about 5 and a half hours to get there and was a great experience. On the way back, it was the Britannia class Oliver Cromwell taking us home and I even got to go on the footplate at Waterloo. I'll post a picture or 2 tomorrow.

[Al Schlageter]

I do believe she is the last of her type that still can operate.



One of 20 still in existence.

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/berkshire/

[ElAurens]

Only two are operable currently apparently.

I'm somewhat surprised that so many still exist. Most US steam locos were cut up for scrap very early on after they were retired from service.

[5./JG27.Farber]

:-P


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DjOL2we8ko

[raaaid]

wonder how comes i knew the end of that clip

[WTE_Galway]

The exciting thing when I was a kid was to see the heavy freight Beyer-Garretts run by the NSW railways. They were a 4-8-4+4-8-4 configuration capable of pulling over 1100 tons on some lines.

http://www.abloodyparaplegic.com/model_trains/garratt/AD60-class-Garratt.jpg

http://grapevine.com.au/~datashet/DS_IMAGES/thumbs/AD-60-Thumbnail.gif

[Rangi]

Nice pics ElAurens looks like a beast. Shame they have to dead head with the diesels, kind of defeats the whole purpose, they could at least stick the diesels on the back of the train. WTE Galway, i think someone in canberra is restoring one of those 60 class garretts,http://blog.project6029.com/.

[WTE_Galway]

Nice pics ElAurens looks like a beast. Shame they have to dead head with the diesels, kind of defeats the whole purpose, they could at least stick the diesels on the back of the train. WTE Galway, i think someone in canberra is restoring one of those 60 class garretts,http://blog.project6029.com/.

Awesome

I donated some money.

[ElAurens]

The Beyer-Garrets and the South African condensing locomotives (sorry forget the name) are some of the most interesting types made anywhere.

[Al Schlageter]

This film follows the progress of Jubilee class steam locomotive 5605 'Cyprus' , owned by the London Midland & Scottish Railway, as is passes through the railway workshops during an overhaul in the 1938.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXUdQwQUF48
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IriyBa1X5ww

Check out some of the others as well, like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YblqWGmIYTg&feature=relmfu

[Kodoss]

In germany we have a broadcast called "Eisenbahn-Romantik" (http://www.swr.de/eisenbahn-romantik/).

Over 750 shows of 30 min. length. It shows from old locomotives to modern trains around the world and even covers the modeltrains. A good docu-series.

They have also a youtube-site (http://www.youtube.com/user/Eisenbahnromantik?blend=7&ob=5).

[Marmusman]

I LOVE Trains...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQhdxwWtiew


LOL, no but seriously, I just purchased Railworks 3: Train Simulator 2012 during Steam's sale last week for $3.20 US. I enjoyed Railworks 2 for about a month of evaluation play, but couldn't see shelling out for full price. I couldn't resist $3.20.

Thanks for the photos!! Love the big, old, dirty trains....love the mechanics of them.

[WTE_Galway]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0stVlJXAsbQ

[Al Schlageter]

Those Spitfires should have crashed due their bad longitudinal stability. :)

[ATAG_Dutch]

Those Spitfires should have crashed due their bad longitudinal stability. :)

PPPPPPPFFFFFFFFTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:grin:

[major_setback]

From the Severn Valley Railway a few years ago. The sandbags are part of a WWII celebration. I have no information on the train/loco.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y129/major-setback/train2Large.jpg

[Kongo-Otto]

Enjoy to watch in HD and LOUD! :grin:

In the video are the 41 1144 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRB_Class_41) and 44 2546 and 95 027 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_T_20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ0grFDSFKg

Steamer 44 2546 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRG_Class_44) had air pump damage and was replaced by diesel 112 708 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_Class_V_100) for the whole weekend. Other participants were 52 8154 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRB_Class_52) and 65 1049 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB_Class_65), the latter also suffered damage by the end of the event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqJZLz_w4RM

[Trumper]

:) Not my videoing but my favourite place North Yorkshire Moors ,lovely sights and sounds on here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88mk7h0IdM4 credit to the author.
We shall be back up here next week for 2 weeks so will try to upload some videos later.

[ElAurens]

Thank you Trumper, that is a beautiful video.

[Trumper]

:) We have alot of preserved steam railways and they even run on the mainline as well.There is something magical about these living beasts.
http://www.nymr.co.uk/
Mind you i do have a soft spot for the diesels as i was initially trained on those 30 years ago and ironically they are rarer now than steam locos.

[Trumper]

:) small video i took a couple of weeks ago on the http://www.nymr.co.uk/

We had a ride on the train between Grosmont and Pickering as well later on in the week.
Hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Vy6FR5wXg&feature=youtu.be

[ElAurens]

That 4-6-4T at the end is an interesting beast. We did not operate many tank locos over here so to see one on a passenger train always catches me off balance.

In American practice tank engines were mostly used for switching (shunting), because of their small overall length and the short ranges they typically covered.

Those Gresely Pacifics are some of the most beautiful locomtives made anywhere.

[Trumper]

I guess the trains aren't really that heavy over here but the track speed i suspect is slow as well.
The gradients really make those trains work hard going up them, [ makes life interesting when the rails are slippery ] but they get a chance to rattle on the way back.:)

[major_setback]

For all train lovers.

I found this extremely watchable.

The full version of the Michael Palin Episode of 'Great Railway Journeys of the World' from a good few years ago (BBC TV).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_sBMI2rVFo