Anyone like steam locos?

[arthursmedley]

Cor! Nice pics EL. 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;

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.


Found out later it was running on the West Somerset Railway, a preserved branch line.

[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...

[Moggy]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

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]

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.

[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/.