Awesome Old Machine

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3406pk

3406pk

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Yesterday I got to see something as good as an OEM Hemicuda. 1941 Steam Locomotive came thru Devils Lake, ND and stopped for photo op and lube. Southern Pacific 4449 was returning to home roundhouse at Portland from tour to Chicago. It's a beautifully restored old locomotive a 4-8-4 arrangement that was puling several old passenger cars. Nothing like the sound of a true steam whistle. Great rolling history.
 

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Steam engines had nicknames for all the different wheel arrangements.

For example, this one you pictured (nice pix, BTW) is a "Northern."

Some examples...
[SIZE=+0]2-4-2 Columbia
[SIZE=+0]2-6-0 Mogul
[SIZE=+0]2-6-2 Prairie
[SIZE=+0]2-8-0 Consolidation
[SIZE=+0]2-8-2 Mikado
[SIZE=+0]2-8-4 Berkshire (pronounced Burke-sher; from the Boston and Albany, part of the New York Central system, which crossed the Berkshire mountains in Massachusetts)
[SIZE=+0]2-10-0 Decapod (obvious)
[SIZE=+0]2-10-2 Santa Fe
[SIZE=+0]2-10-4 Texas (from Texas and Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]2-10-4 Selkirk (from the Selkirk Mountains on the Canadian Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]4-4-0 American (this became the ubiquitous type for railroads pushing west in the mid 19th century)
[SIZE=+0]4-4-2 Atlantic (from the Atlantic Coast Line)
[SIZE=+0]4-4-4 Jubilee
[SIZE=+0]4-6-0 Ten-wheeler
[SIZE=+0]4-6-2 Pacific (from the Missouri Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]4-6-4 Hudson (the New York Central main line follows the Hudson River)
[SIZE=+0]4-8-0 Twelve-wheeler
[SIZE=+0]4-8-2 Mountain (from the Allegheny Mountains of the Chesapeake and Ohio)
[SIZE=+0]4-8-4 Northern (from the Northern Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]4-10-0 Mastodon
[SIZE=+0]4-10-2 Southern Pacific
[SIZE=+0]4-10-2 Overland (from the Union Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]4-12-2 Union Pacific
[SIZE=+0]A few articulated and other multi-cylinder locomotive types were given names other then Mallet, viz:
[SIZE=+0]2-6-6-6 Allegheny (from the Chesapeake and Ohio)
[SIZE=+0]2-8-8-4 Yellowstone (from the Northern Pacific - the name came from the River and the Division over which the locomotives ran)
[SIZE=+0]4-6-6-4 Challenger (from the Union Pacific)
[SIZE=+0]4-8-8-4 Big Boy (from the Union Pacific) [SIZE=+0]"Mallets" were normally 2-8-8-0 arrangement but could vary.[/SIZE]

Info for anyone interested in steam locomotives...
[/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
 
Thanks for more info Bill Dedman. I love the pictures of the huge UP Big boy engines. Talk about make the earth tremble. I have seen some great video on youtube of steam engines but not a running Big Boy. I don't know if there is an operating one remaining.
 
3406pk said:
Thanks for more info Bill Dedman. I love the pictures of the huge UP Big boy engines. Talk about make the earth tremble. I have seen some great video on youtube of steam engines but not a running Big Boy. I don't know if there is an operating one remaining.
Click to expand...

I have seen one on display, but not running. They must have sounded like TWO locomotives running at one time, with all those cylinders!!!

That would surely be something, to see and hear!!!:cheers:
 
3406pk; thanks for posting the photos. I'm an ex-boilermaker and have worked on some of those helping with repairs and restoring them. Nice to see them rolling down the track.
 
3406pk said:
Thanks for more info Bill Dedman. I love the pictures of the huge UP Big boy engines. Talk about make the earth tremble. I have seen some great video on youtube of steam engines but not a running Big Boy. I don't know if there is an operating one remaining.
Click to expand...

No, there are no operating Big Boys. They would be much too expensive to run and operationally it would be very difficult because of their size and Million pound plus weight. The next best thing that the UP has that is operational is 3985, one of the 4-6-6-4 Challengers, and along with their 4-8-4 Northern. This engine is the only Class 1 owned steam engine that was never retired by any railroad. It has been in service since it was bult in 1944. If you are interested in a video of operating Big Boys go to www.pentrex.com They have a video of all 25 Big Boys in operation.
 
I like walking by a steam engine that is "running" (parked). The smells and sounds are unlike anything else. The combination of the steam, grease and oil, etc. is ALMOST as nice as walking by an SS/AA Hemi idling!
FWIW: A steam engine is considered an EXternal combustion engine.
Nice thread.
 
The 4449 is a Southern Pacific Daylight locomotive. Its previous use includes the American Freedom Train. Current fuel is fuel oil. The 4449 is in her original colors, and is a relatively young steam engine, as the end of steam came in the late 40's. 4449 was one of two steam locomotives that pulled the Freedom Train. Because she is so big, the tighter curves of eastern railroads demanded a different locomotive on the eastern runs.

http://www.sp4449.com/01friends/index.html

Interesting story about the UP Big Boy locos...

The Geneva convention requires prisoners of war to be housed in similar climate to where they were captured. As such, the mid west saw a number of German prisoners of war. At one location, a prisoner could see a rail line with Big Boys pulling a long trains by themselves. Having counted the cars, he concluded that the war was going to be won by the United States. He reasoned that any country capable of such a locomotive could not be out done, and thus determined to stay in the US.
 
Hey guys, thanks for all the comments and especially to Dave for the video of the Big Boys. Those were the days when loco engines, cars, and buildings had distinctive and interesting designs. Now trains and cars are just cookie cutter copies.
 
Watching the videos of these articulated wonders, two things came to mind:

1. There were "cab-forward" versions of some of these articulated engines that were basically, engines that had been turned around, 180 degrees, with the cab enclosed in what was now, the "front" of the locomotive, to put the engineer and fireman ahead of the smokestack (much like Garlits put the driver ahead of the engine, in his successful "rear-engine-dragster," in 1971.) The reasoning was, to keep the heat and smoke from "punishing" the engineer and fireman, as these mammoth engines pulled trains through the many tunnels in the Western mountains. I think the Moffat Tunnel in Colorado was possibly the longest (6.21 miles, I believe.)

2. These locomotives would easily send ALL the modern-day EPA "smog sniffers" into cardiac arrest!!! Check out the density and volume of smoke coming out of these babys... I'll bet you could smell them for hours, after one passed by!!!
 
Bill Dedman said:
Watching the videos of these articulated wonders, two things came to mind:

1. There were "cab-forward" versions of some of these articulated engines that were basically, engines that had been turned around, 180 degrees, with the cab enclosed in what was now, the "front" of the locomotive, to put the engineer and fireman ahead of the smokestack (much like Garlits put the driver ahead of the engine, in his successful "rear-engine-dragster," in 1971.) The reasoning was, to keep the heat and smoke from "punishing" the engineer and fireman, as these mammoth engines pulled trains through the many tunnels in the Western mountains. I think the Moffat Tunnel in Colorado was possibly the longest (6.21 miles, I believe.)

2. These locomotives would easily send ALL the modern-day EPA "smog sniffers" into cardiac arrest!!! Check out the density and volume of smoke coming out of these babys... I'll bet you could smell them for hours, after one passed by!!!
Click to expand...

The cab forwards were on the Southern Pacific, and had stoker screws that brought the coal to the firebox.

You'd be surprised at how clean they ran when burning just right. The naysayers on "clean coal" never saw a properly fired steam loco.
 
Thanks for that info, Max340! You said, "The cab forwards were on the Southern Pacific, and had stoker screws that brought the coal to the firebox."

I can imagine that they did!!! Can you fathom trying to keep up with that firebox's appetite for combustiables, given the number of cylinders, and the size of that boiler???? Wowser.... lol!:cheers:
 
Just love those older trains....my dad retired from the old B & O railroad back in the 1970s. He got free passes on every RR in the counrty. Back in 1953 we took the train from Baltimore to Chicago and transferred to the Santa Fe and went on to Los Angels. A four day trip.
Back in their hay days Chicago abd St. Louis were the busiest statons in the country.:thebirdm:
 
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