- Thread starter Dean
- Start date
Steve@Advance
Well-known Member
Janicholson
Well-known Member
Teared me up. Several big engines on the north shore here in MN. Jim
Russ from MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Bemidji MN
Lot's of air pollution!
kcm.MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- NW Minnesota
Couldn't have been any more soot in the air back then compared to the annual mega-wild fires that we have today. And with smoke, the soot settles over the land, then is absorbed as nutrients for the soil. The main problem with it is there isn't enough biomass to run life in this country as we know it today without fear of running out. That's why we needed something other than wood as a fuel source.
old popper
Well-known Member
Thank you for the video, I had forgotten how soothing the sound of steam locomotives was.
pat sublett
Well-known Member
Going to be a sad day when all them Swedish windmills start falling apart.
pat sublett
Well-known Member
Long before 1999. My first grade teacher took my class down to the station to see the first diesel (they called it a streamliner) I am 82
My mother, born in 1915, grew up in Tama County Iowa.
She tells me of piling into the Studebaker after chores were done in the evening and driving to the CB&Q twin tracks south of TAMA to watch the Pioneer Zephyr blast past somewhere north of 80 and vanish into the dust and haze westbound to Denver.
She told me that the spectacle in the mid 1930s, was much the same as watching the Saturn 5 blast off to the moon in the early 1970s.
Dean
She tells me of piling into the Studebaker after chores were done in the evening and driving to the CB&Q twin tracks south of TAMA to watch the Pioneer Zephyr blast past somewhere north of 80 and vanish into the dust and haze westbound to Denver.
She told me that the spectacle in the mid 1930s, was much the same as watching the Saturn 5 blast off to the moon in the early 1970s.
Dean
These did.
This footage is from late 1959 or 1960.
The N&W hauled lots of coal and maintained coal fired steam locomotives longer than did other railroads.
The compound Y6bs would out pull a UP Big Boy and do it with less coal. Each of these low speed freight hoggers would produce somewhere between 6,000 and 6,500 HP at around 30-35 MPH.
Of course, they were stoker fired. The fireman was responsible for, among other things, using the steam jets to blow the stoker coal into the areas of the firebox where it was most efficiently used.
Dean
N & W Y6bs
This footage is from late 1959 or 1960.
The N&W hauled lots of coal and maintained coal fired steam locomotives longer than did other railroads.
The compound Y6bs would out pull a UP Big Boy and do it with less coal. Each of these low speed freight hoggers would produce somewhere between 6,000 and 6,500 HP at around 30-35 MPH.
Of course, they were stoker fired. The fireman was responsible for, among other things, using the steam jets to blow the stoker coal into the areas of the firebox where it was most efficiently used.
Dean
N & W Y6bs
fixerupper
Well-known Member
The UP's Big Boy did use coal but it was stoked by some sort of a conveyor system.
Yes.
The Big Boys were coal fired by stokers.
FWIW, The UP is currently restoring one of the 4000s to operating condition.
IIRC, expected completion date is 2018/9. 4014 will be converted to oil fired.
When completed, 4014 will (once again(?)) be the "largest" operating steam locomotive in the world.
These are the things for which retirement is made.
Dean
The Big Boys were coal fired by stokers.
FWIW, The UP is currently restoring one of the 4000s to operating condition.
IIRC, expected completion date is 2018/9. 4014 will be converted to oil fired.
When completed, 4014 will (once again(?)) be the "largest" operating steam locomotive in the world.
These are the things for which retirement is made.
Dean
fixerupper
Well-known Member
It must have been ten years ago I was hauling a combine westbound on HWY 30 east of Grand Island NE when I met a eastbound steam locomotive on the UP tracks that parallel the highway. I was busy watching traffic and not particularly watching the tracks beside me till it was right there and then it was gone. I wished I would have been driving a car going the same direction as the train to get a better look. It was one of those events I wasn't prepared for ahead of time.
Most likely you saw UP 844, a late model 4-8-4.
4-8-4s were late design steam locomotives designed to pull both brass (express) passenger and high speed freight consists.
UP 844 is heading the 10,000 HP video posted below.
She probably develops somewhere around 5,000 HP when properly fired and is capable of well over 100 MPH while pulling brass passenger trains on the prairies if the roadbed permits.
Dean
4-8-4s were late design steam locomotives designed to pull both brass (express) passenger and high speed freight consists.
UP 844 is heading the 10,000 HP video posted below.
She probably develops somewhere around 5,000 HP when properly fired and is capable of well over 100 MPH while pulling brass passenger trains on the prairies if the roadbed permits.
Dean
Here's a video of 844 at 75+ MPH.
FWIW, the DE unit behind the tenders is just along for the ride in case something goes wrong on this excursion.
Dean
844 At Speed
FWIW, the DE unit behind the tenders is just along for the ride in case something goes wrong on this excursion.
Dean
844 At Speed
Ultradog MN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Twin Cities
Nice video Dean.
Thanks.
But if you want big steam you gotta go to ships. The Iowa class battleships deceloped 212K HP on steam and the latest nuclear powered carriers we have develop somewhere around 260K hp - on steam.
Thanks.
But if you want big steam you gotta go to ships. The Iowa class battleships deceloped 212K HP on steam and the latest nuclear powered carriers we have develop somewhere around 260K hp - on steam.
Billy Shafer
Well-known Member
We lived beside the tracks when I was a kid. I would run out to the fence watch the steamers go by. The Diesel units just didn't interest me.
No, they were not. 3985 for sure, and I think 844 were both coal fired in the beginning. I did some more searching and found info that stated 3985 was converted to #5 oil fire in (I think) 1983. If you follow some of UP Steam's updates they will talk about the planned conversion of Big Boy 4014 to oil, based on the 3985 Challenger conversion. Again, I'm fairly certain that 844 was also coal fired originally. These things were from the mid-late 40's during war time when coal would have been the obvious fuel of choice, not oil. 844 is also notable in that it is the only remaining steam engine running on a mainline railroad in the United States that has never been retired from active service! All of these engines had massive tenders and fed coal to the fire box by an archimedes screw. They were never manually fired. I think I read where it required something like a ton per minute to feed the Big Boy... and they developed over 6000 hp... designed to pull a fully loaded train over the divide (Sherman Hill), unassisted. That is an achievement today that requires I think 3-5 diesel electric engines.
Rod
Rod
Agreed, WGM.
The experimental 4-4-6-4 was unsuccessful as it slipped badly.
Below is a great steam locomotive site.
Steamlocomotive.com
The experimental 4-4-6-4 was unsuccessful as it slipped badly.
Below is a great steam locomotive site.
Steamlocomotive.com
pete black
Well-known Member
Energy Secretary Rick Perry predicting big return to coal fired steam plants. I agree, wind/solar, natural gas may have a place but for large megawatt output for bulk transmission, coal will be it.
Agree they were somewhat slippery but also it was their coal and water consumption that did them in. As Al Stauffer stated in Pennsy Power III the Q2's could pass everything but a water plug. At full throttle they could drain their 19,000 gallon tender in 1 1/2 hours. They were just developed to late with diesel power taking over. Twenty six were built in 1945 and most of them were out of service by 1949 but couldn't be scrapped until 1955 when their equipment trusts expired.
My family is from Haverhill in Marshall county about 20 miles west uphill from Tama on the old Milwaukee Road. When I was young, I believe the Hiawatha Streamliner went thru at 8:00 PM every night. At that time it was diesel-electric. They took out the tracks after 99 years. They had a tractorpull on the track site for the centennial celebration in 82. The railroad platted the town.
Somewhere in the attic above is a badly worn Lionel 6-8-6 PRR turbine with whistle tender.
Like several of the PRR innovations designed and built in the 30s/40s, the 6-8-6 turbine was too late to stave off the DE onslaught but that 6 wheel trailing truck and the enormous firebox that it could support demonstrated what might have been....
Dean
Like several of the PRR innovations designed and built in the 30s/40s, the 6-8-6 turbine was too late to stave off the DE onslaught but that 6 wheel trailing truck and the enormous firebox that it could support demonstrated what might have been....
Dean
Thanks for the replies to my question on coal and oil. I do have two books of photographs by O. Winston Link. He was a photographer who was allowed to set up on N & W right-of-way and make pictures. He used an 8x10 view camera and made photos both day and night. Some spectacular photography.
Garry
Garry
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