Chesapeake and Ohio 614 -- A Link

Chickenmon did a great Friday Night Steam post on the C & O 614 locomotive. I did a bit of looking around and found this video and wanted to share.

C&O 614 - 80+mph From The Air!

The information on the FNS post gave the top speed as 125 mph. 

Chickenmom

Happy New Year 2018

How about a New Year's Day brunch train ride. And if you do, make it on a narrow gauge steam railroad.


Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum

New Year’s Day Brunch Train

Monday, January 1, 2018

SAVE THE DATE!

For a trip reminiscent of turn-of-the-century travel, start the New Year onboard the D&SNG steam-powered train. Standard class and Premium class seating is available.
Our Premium-class passengers can enjoy a delicious hot brunch buffet and live music while traveling through the pristine winter wonderland along the Animas River to Cascade Canyon wye.

Gingerbread Steam Train

Had some fun a couple of days ago building this from a kit.

 The Kit from Create a Treat

 Under Construction

 Decorating

 Finisshed!!!

Close up of locomotive 

Video of how to do it:

I should run to the store, get a gingerbread house and build it as a train station. 

Keep an eye out for after Christmas sales. I found this at CVS last year half price.

Happy Halloween 2017

Chickenmom did a great Friday Night Steam post featuring Heisler Locomotives and a video from the Silver Creek and Stephensom Railroad. It just so happens that the SC & S R. R. has a Halloween Train of Terror.

Promotional video that actually has a train in it. Most of the videos of the event didn't
show much of the train and locomotive. .

"Four Trains at York" From Four Different Generations

"Four Trains at York" Flying Scotsman, 125, 225, and Azuma 800, 23/4/ 17

Happened this morning, April 23, 2017 in Yorkshire England.

Another view.

 Four Trains Four Generations

H/T To Donna

Tornado Seam Locomotive Hits 100 MPH

For the first time in half a century, a steam train has hit 100mph on one of Britain’s main rail lines.
That’s pretty cool.
During testing last night, Tornado, Britain’s newest steam train, reached the speed on the East Coast Main Line (ECML), which runs between London and Edinburgh, the BBC reported.

 More info here.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is from this website:

In 1990 a group of people came together to share an extraordinary ambition – to construct a brand new Peppercorn A1 Pacific.  They formed The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust and after nineteen years of incredible effort that locomotive, No. 60163 Tornado, moved under its own power for the first time in 2008.

This website tells the story of Tornado’s construction, an amazing tale of cooperation, skill and sheer hard graft which defied the critics who said it could never be done.  The A1 Trust has over 2500 regular supporters (covenantors) who have all played some part, small or large, in guaranteeing that we have steam on the main line in the 21st Century.

Steam-Electric Locomotive

The Steam-Electric Arrives!

General Electric promotional film from 1938 chronicling the Union Pacific Railroad taking delivery of two unique pieces of motive power, steam turbine-electric locomotives #1 and #2.

Although they were the most advanced locomotives ever built up to then, they were not successful. Only in operation for six months, among the shortest operational careers in recorded railroading.

More information here . 

Happy New Year 2017

Some steam to welcome the New Year. 

And some steam whistles.

 

His pick for #1 is also my favorite.  I have been in the cab of #12 but didn't get to blow the whistle.

Check last years New Year post for how to make a whistle from wood.

Christmas Trains

Merry Christmas

Spokane, Portland & Seattle #700 Holiday Express Train. Trains are operated on the Oregon Pacific Railroad and depart from Oaks Park Station adjacent to Oaks Park in southeast Portland. Ride in vintage rail cars behind Portland's historic steam locomotives.

Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 is the only surviving example of the E-1 class 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotive. Nearly identical to the A-3 class Northerns built for Northern Pacific Railway, it burns oil instead of coal.

"Christmas Trains" running in the western United States. Many are decked out with colorful lights and wreathes. Quite a variety, even a couple of steam locomotives.

Veteran's Day Post - A Link

Chickenmom at her Chickenfeathers blog does a Friday Night Steam post every week. She outdid herself with her Veteran's Day Post today.

Thank you to all our veterans.

Toot Toot and Switchbacks

Or Blowing Steam up the Devil's Nose. I was going to put this in another post about South American Railroads but it was just too good to not have a post all to itself.
Tren Equador - from Guayaquil to Quito Ecuador.
 Lots of whistles and a surprise at about the 6 minute mark. 

"Filmed in 2007 this is probably one of the last runs of Baldwin 2-8-0 No 17 up the Devil's Nose to Alausi in Ecuador before the railway was closed and subsequently rebuilt. Rebuilding was completed in 2012 restoring the full link between Guayaquil on the coast and Quito the capital which had been severed in several places in recent years due to landslips, bridge washouts etc. But as recent YouTube clips testify the new 'Tren Ecuador' is now a very different railway.

The clip conveys much of the atmosphere of the old railway - from the bark of the Baldwin echoing across the valleys, spiked track in varying degrees of repair (the box van carried a supply of timbers for running repairs) and not forgetting roof riding which is no longer permitted.

There is also an amusing encounter with a straying donkey.

The clip is from video taken on the RTC tour in October 2007 when as much of the usable railway was fully travelled by train."

Great Smoky Mountain Railroad Steam

 Visited the Bryson City, NC area in September and the first part of October. The GSMR operated their steam locomotive the last weekend we were there.

Great Smoky Mountain Railroad Locomotive 1702, a 2-8-0 Consolidation steam locomotive #1702, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1942 for the U.S. Army during World War II, was purchased by the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (GSMR) of Bryson City, NC, in the mid-1990s for use on its scenic railway excursions. After a decade of service, no. 1702 was retired in 2004. In October 2012, a partnership formed between GSMR and Swain County to provide funding to restore the locomotive. In 2013, a complete restoration was launched and the locomotive returned to service during summer 2016.

Steam on a Country Road

DeHart Cemetery Road and US 19

Note the first car behind the tender. It looks like a converted caboose and is the generator car to supply power to the passenger and dining cars.

OOPS 

1702 is oil (diesel) fired and there was a bit of a leak one evening. We just happened to be there and saw the leak breaking out in flame. Pretty exciting for a couple of minutes. The first 2 or 3 fire extinguishers they grabbed didn't work. Double oops. 

Happy Halloween

Boo!

New Hope Valley Railroad 

North Carolina

Check out last year's Halloween Post for some videos of the ghost train at Tweetsie

Vintage Video

I think Chickenmom may have posted this some time ago, but I had to post it anyway.

Footage shot between 1897 and 1906 by the Edison & Biograph Production Company

From "America's Railroads: A Steam Train Legacy" by Timeless Media Group

h/t dmt

TWEETSIE 2008

First visit to Tweetsie RR in Blowing Rock, NC. October 3, 2008

The Flying Scotsman Returns

Flying Scotsman at Speed - 75mph+ - The Inaugural Run

 

LNER A3 Class 60103 "Flying Scotsman" on its inaugural run after the 4 million pound 10 year long restoration, flying through Biggleswade in Bedfordshire. Shortly after this point it came to a sudden halt at St Neots due to the large crowds trespassing on the track.

 Another video
   

The Flying Scotsman loco steams again - BBC News

 

 

Brief MSN article.

Happy Valentine's Day

H/T Chickenmom

Paradise

Paradise

by John Prine

 

"Paradise" is a song written by John Prine for his father, and recorded for his 1971 debut album, John Prine. Prine also re-recorded the song for his 1986 album, German Afternoons. The song is about the devastating impact of strip mining for coal, whereby the top of the mountain is blasted off with dynamite to reach the coal seam below. The song is also about what happened to the area around the Green River in Kentucky because of the strip mining. The song references the Peabody Coal Company, and a now-defunct town called Paradise in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.

Of course the song and video include coal powered steam trains. It is a sad song in many ways. Many artists have recorded it including the brothers Jim and Jessie. Even though they left out the last verse, it is probably my favorite version - I just love their harmony.

Wabash Cannonball

by Roy Acuff with Lyrics

Name that locomotive.

Lots of folks have wondered about the following verse and who was "Daddy Claxton"

"Here’s to Daddy Claxton, may his name forever stand,
And may it be remembered ’round the courts of Alabam’
His earthly race is over and the curtains round him fall,
We’ll carry him home to victory on the Wabash Cannon Ball."


I finally found this explanation:

"The enigmatic verse about Daddy Claxton was in the version Roy originally heard.  The fact that Roy’s  middle name is Claxton is just a coincidence.  He was named after Dr. P. T. Claxton, a prominent teacher and lecturer at Austin Peay College in Clarksville." (Source)

For the hardcore, here is the Carter Family version with a couple of changes to the lyrics. 

The General

 January 19, 1807 - October 12, 1870 (aged 63)

In honor of General Robert E. Lee's birthday here is a bit of information on the 4-4-0 locomotive "The General".





Western & Atlantic Railroad #3 "General" is a 4-4-0 "American" type steam locomotive built in 1855 by the Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor in Paterson, New Jersey for the Western & Atlantic Railroad. The locomotive is widely known for being part of the Great Locomotive Chase during the American Civil War when Union spies stole the locomotive in an attempt to cripple the Confederate rail network. Today, the locomotive is preserved at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The locomotive wasn't named after Gen. Lee but I wanted to put a train in the post to honor a great man on the anniversary of his birth.

Deo Vindice