New Weekend, new location. And now we're like, official or something. I've been travelling last week and so haven't been out with a camera, but I was travelling someplace that was built because of and is surrounded by trains. I don't have a current picture, but I do have this from when I was living down there circa 2008-2009 The New Disneyland Monorail Blue Cruises past the Lego Store.
A couple weekends ago, this was my classroom: I was busy learning about it and never got back, it seems, far enough to get an overview photo, but I have another detail: The subject is SPMW 7020 steam crane (formerly SPMW 7005) at Antique Powerland. We were getting it ready for inspection so that we can run it this summer. I will be spending part of my time at Powerland helping out here, so if you come to the Steamup it's one location you may find old SteamDonkey74.
A long, long time ago, in another age, there was a railroad called the Southern Pacific. There were always many interesting things far and wide, across its range.
A little travel as well and also many years ago. A bit more than thirty years ago, my grandfather and I went to visit his roots. He was a native of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. During high school he had worked summers on a section gang for the Northern Pacific Railway. After high school, he went to work in the woods eventually earning paychecks from the likes of Polson Brothers Logging, Aloha Lumber and Schafer Brothers Logging. As his father had done, he worked some in timber cruising and other aspects of timbering. But most of his time back then was railroad associated. He started by bucking and splitting wood for the donkeys and locomotives, eventually working up to firing. Such as this yarder: My grandfather as he quietly stood there, memories flooding back to be nearly fresh in mind. He did fire on Lokey 45 below, when it was still a Polson Bothers wood burner. Both on display at Last Spike Park, in Hoquiam. Note- Since then the 45 has been moved and last I heard was at Mineral, Washington on the Mount Rainier Scenic, for restoration:
Just for fun, this shot is 17 years old, taken at the New Hope and Ivyland in 1995, before Trainboard existed. The hostler on No. 40 was blowing down everything prior to the next trip out. The loco had just returned from what was my first cab ride, an unforgettable experience. Two young guys running, and the loco is hand-bombed, so I got to sit on the fireman's seat most of the trip, as the fireman was quite busy shoveling coal.
Erie Triplex (2-8-8-8-2) Matt Shay and its two brothers were failures because their boilers were too small to maintain steam. http://www.steamlocomotive.com/triplex/?page=err
I gots me one of them monsters!! In 3 Rail, with full sound too!! I've heard that it ran about 10-12 miles. Stopped to build up steam pressure. Repeat. The Virginian 2-8-8-8-4 wasn't any better. As stated, too small a boiler for too many cylinders!
The main problem with this locomotive...was the boiler size. It could not produce enough steam to keep all six sets of cylinders "steamed up". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplex_(locomotive)
Virginian had a Triplex a 2-8-8-4 instead, and it ran out of steam too, so it was rebuilt into two seperate locos.
From September 2010, this southbound BNSF unit oil train (fresh from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota) waits for a northbound while holding the main at Narcissa, OK, 5 miles south of Miami on the ex-Frisco Afton Subdivision.
A rare engine on the CSX Ohio River Sub.Don't know why he was going on this line. It's been at Thurmond,WV. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gD4Zdcm74ZI/T8qs0L-wOMI/AAAAAAAAIpU/3HZIPzOOJco/s800/IMG_0256.JPG Curtis
Interesting that one write up said..."the boiler ran out of steam in less than three revolutions of the drivers when running in simplex mode". The means when the boiler was supplying all six steam chests simultaneously, it was out of steam before the engine had moved 50 feet...:startled:
