The "Four Aces" Timken Roller Bearing NP 2626

[Larry777]

I wanted to share an experience that I had with NP 2626. My parents were very liberal about letting me go down to Seattle's King Street Station to "watch the trains"... And on this particular day, there sat, facing southbound, a large NP steam locomotive. I didn't know what I was looking at save for the fact that it was a huge locomotive and in all of my train watching (3 years), I hadn't seen anything like that in the area other than a few yard goats and, in South Seattle, locomotives in a deadline. Turns out that locomotive was NP 2626, the original "Four Aces", the first roller bearing steamer. I remember it leaving and smoking it up, with about 10 cars, bound for Cle Elum, Washington. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera on hand but the scene is forever etched in my memory. I was ten years old.

[r_i_straw]

That is cool. My memories of steam when I was a small boy are a lot less vivid. I only recall fleeting images when I am around some live steam tourist railroad. When I hear the side rods clank on a drifting locomotive or smell the coal smoke, lube oil and steam, it triggers brief flash backs but that is all.

[BoxcabE50]

Do you happen to recall the year of this memorable event? Was it a regular passenger train? Or perhaps one of the Casey Jones excursions?

Years ago, I was corresponding with Ron Nixon. And he sent me a neat photo of the Four Aces. As it passed the Montana station where his father was the Agent. This was before the NP actually acquired it. It certainly impressed him. As it was a favorite the rest of his life.

:D

Boxcab E50

[Kurt Moose]

She was really a beautiful steamer! It's a shame she wasn't saved.

[Larry777]

Evening Boxcab,

Yes, I remember that it was late summer, around August of 1957. As I sat trackside, it seems I recalled there were no baggage cars in the consist, which I felt was odd even at my age. Also the cars were all heavyweights (I didn't know they were called that back then). I did know the difference between those and the two-tone green streamlined cars. As a very small child I'd been somewhat intimidated by steam engines; they seemed "scary"... But when 2626 left the station, I was determined to stand trackside and watch it leave. I have since learned that it was a special out to Cle Elum, Washington and return. If anyone out there has a photo of that locomotive leaving King Street Station, and the camera angle is looking South, on the left side of the locomotive, they'll see a gangly ten year old boy staring up at it...

[Larry777]

She was really a beautiful steamer! It's a shame she wasn't saved.
Yes, I agree with you Kurt... In fact, NP did not save any of its Northerns. I do recall peeking through the windows of their South Seattle roundhouse near 1st and Massachusetts and seeing a couple steamers inside. That might have been around 1958 or '59. That was about as far as my bycicle would take me.

[Caddy58]

Larry,

I admit that I envy you for having experienced the Timken. I only know her from pictures and she was a beauty.

There is a color picture of the Timken on an excursion to Cle Elum in Warren Wing's "Northwest Rail Pictorial", page 43. The caption says it was taken August 4th, 1957 and shows the 2626 in Cle Elum with 7 heavyweight passenger cars, all pine-tree colors and no baggage car.

Could this be the train you experienced?

My first encounter with steam was when my grandfather took me to one of the 4 main stations in Hamburg, I must have been 5 years old. All I remember is a black beast with huge red wheels, hissing and breathing steam. I was quite scared....
Later I realized that the engine must have been a German Railway Class 01 Heavy Pacific. They had a driving wheel diameter of 2.00 meter (about 78.8 inches), so they were huge engines, specifically for a 5 year old...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/BR_01_519_plandampf_schifferstadt_100_2076.jpg/800px-BR_01_519_plandampf_schifferstadt_100_2076.jpg

Larry, thanks for sharing!!
Cheers
Dirk