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.







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.



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.