Grassroots Railroad Sports?

Anyone else see this?  (Trestle fire in Eugene, OR)  linky

Pic: 

Scariest part of the article: "train traffic has resumed at a slower speed as a precaution".  Ummm, what?

In reply to kazoospec :

I'm kind of confused. What is actually burning? Because there is no way there is an active Union Pacific bridge with that much wood in the structure. But if there is, yeah, no way would I be running over that bridge. I've seen where they run trains at reduced speed because debris in flood waters or a barge strikes it and they aren't sure if it is damaged. But an actual fire of that apparent size?

many of those older wood RR structures were heavily coated with creosote.  It burns bright, but if put out quick enough the structure may not be weakened much.

Union Pacific had a similar incident in 2002 on the Sharon Springs Branch in Kansas when a hotbox on a coal train set a bridge afire.

In reply to Purple Frog (Forum Supporter) :

Didn't even think about the fact that even if it's steel, it would still have a pretty good layer of creosote over it as well

Boston & Maine RS-3s snoozing in the roundhouse at the Boston Engine Terminal.

A very worn RS-3 towing a string of Budd RDCs to Ayers to swap them out for a disabled train. Boston & Maine owned the largest fleet of Buddliners, or RDCs, with 108 total. The paint wear on the RS-3 gives an interesting insight into how they were painted. I thought that they were painted entirely red with the yellow striping applied over the top, but it looks like they were actually painted yellow with the red applied in a negative-masked pattern.

A Boston & Maine SW-1 at Nashua, NH. The scene looks like something from a model railroad.

A B&M RDC that was damaged in a grade crossing tussle awaits the transplant of a front from a scrapped New Haven RDC

Steamtown National Historic Site has completed their cosmetic restoration of Union Pacific #4012 and has placed it back on display. They have even made the number boards, headlamp and classification lights operational and connected them to covertly mounted solar panels, so they will be lit up during visitor hours. They have Union Pacific #4012, Illinois Central #790 and Reading #2124 both cleaned up pretty nice, they performed asbestos abatement on NKP #759 a few years back and I believe GTW #6039 (my favorite in their collection) was restored less than 10 years ago. I'm curious to see what their cosmetic restoration team tackles next. I'd personally like to see either Canadian Pacific 4-4-4 Royal Jubilee #2929 or Canadian National 4-6-4T #47 get some love, as they are pretty unique engines not represented anywhere else in the US. Nickel Plate #304 or DL&W #565 would also make a lot of sense, since both were lines in Pennsylvania and #565 is even on home territory. They also need to get Boston & Maine #3713 up and running, but I haven't seen any updates on that in a long time.

Back when Nelson Blount was building his collection in Bellows Falls, he contacted the Union Pacific for steam locomotives and according to those in the know, Union Pacific actually offered him both a 3900-series Challenger and a Big Boy. Blount turned down the 3900-series, since he didn't think he would have room for both engines and the #4012 was more impressive. It makes sense, but its too bad because that would have made Steamtown the only place, other than UP's Cheyenne roundhouse, where you could see a 3900 and a 4000 side-by-side to get a sense of scale.

In other Big Boy-related news, after a year off for obvious reasons, Union Pacific #4014 will be going out on tour again this year. The rumor mill says that a trip to the Pacific Northwest is planned (probably Portland, because that was as far north as #3985 was ever run and to get to Seattle would be over joint UP/BNSF trackage), as well as Ed Dickens going on a scouting trip to St. Louis. St. Louis would be pretty noteworthy because it would be the only practical location to get a photo of two UP Big Boys side-by-side for the first time since they were retired. The UP main points directly to the track right next to #4006, which would put just a paved walkway between them. There are also rumors of a trip over Moffatt Pass, which would be awesome.

Union Pacific originally planned to call their 4-8-8-4s "Wasatches", but some wag at the Alco plant chalked Big Boy on the smokebox of #4000 before she left. The Union Pacific was so amused by the nickname, that it stuck.

Wow! 4012 is pretty! Does that turntable work?

Lou Manglass

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

Yes. That's the original DL&W 100-foot turntable and roundhouse (the DL&W engine shops are out back too). They store their operational engine in the roundhouse and use the turntable to get it in and out, as well as jockey stuff around. There is a run-through track to a display track out front as well. Since #4012 is 100 feet without the tender, it probably some clever strategizing to move it and its tender out onto that display track.

NickD said:

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

Yes. That's the original DL&W 100-foot turntable and roundhouse (the DL&W engine shops are out back too). They store their operational engine in the roundhouse and use the turntable to get it in and out, as well as jockey stuff around. There is a run-through track to a display track out front as well. Since #4012 is 100 feet without the tender, it probably some clever strategizing to move it and its tender out onto that display track.

This probably shows how little I know about steam, but will 4012 even move without the tender?  I thought that was the water source.  Is there some sort of reserve/internal source without the tender?

kazoospec said:

NickD said:

In reply to TheMagicRatchet :

Yes. That's the original DL&W 100-foot turntable and roundhouse (the DL&W engine shops are out back too). They store their operational engine in the roundhouse and use the turntable to get it in and out, as well as jockey stuff around. There is a run-through track to a display track out front as well. Since #4012 is 100 feet without the tender, it probably some clever strategizing to move it and its tender out onto that display track.

This probably shows how little I know about steam, but will 4012 even move without the tender?  I thought that was the water source.  Is there some sort of reserve/internal source without the tender?

#4012 isn't operational. But, you could operate a locomotive without a tender briefly. You wouldn't have any fuel and you couldn't add water to the boiler though, so you'd have to hope the fire went out before the water got lower than the crown sheet of the firebox

Some fascinating numbers on a UP Big Boy. Its 16.5 feet from the rail to the top of her twin stacks, the tender alone weighs 28 tons and cares 25,0000 gallons of water. The cab floor is 8.5 feet off the ground, and the cab is 10 feet, 10 inches wide. It has 4 seats and there is enough room behind the backhead and between the seatboxes to set up a card table. The firebox is big enough to host a dinner party inside at 150 square feet. When being run hard, a Big Boy would burn 11 tons of coal per hour and about 70% of the coal being chucked in by the Simplex stoker never touches the grate, it just burns in midair. The boiler extends 65 feet ahead of the cab, and all the flues, tubes and superheated elements would total over a mile if placed end-to-end.

Compared to its smaller kin, the 3900 series Challengers, the Challengers were faster and rode better, but a Big Boy hauled more, steamed better and paid better. 

A fireman said "They can say all they want to about the diesels, but when it comes down to it, these SOBs are hard to beat on The Hill. Put a little warm water in 'em and they'll go."

An engine foreman, "Best mountain engine we ever had." 

A brakeman, "After all's said and done, they're quite an engine."

Read this about the KC Southern deal yesterday:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.kansascity.com/news/business/article251401328.html

In reply to NickD :

We were driving through El Paso on I10 & I saw a 4-4-0 steam locomotive, tender, coach & caboose parked along the intestate. I did some googling & found this link that describes it as a 36" gauge live steam loco built by Crown Metal Products in 1963 for an amusement park. Apparently it's all available, plus some trackage for $300k. I'm still looking for pics. 
 

Edit: there's a pic here, although it shows the manufacturer date as 1965.