East Broad Top posted a very well-made teaser video of #16, with a fire in her boiler and pressure on the steam gauge for the first time in 66 years.
East Broad Top posted a very well-made teaser video of #16, with a fire in her boiler and pressure on the steam gauge for the first time in 66 years.
In reply to NickD :
Awesome!
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
The video is a good example of "less is more". No wall of text to read, no irritating voiceover, no hokey music or sound effects. Just straight to the point. You see the cars passing in front of the camera, with the angle set perfectly to show the East Broad Top lettering on the car and let you know where it is, and then #16 becomes visible and blows the whistle. There's still some assembly to go.
Other big news from East Broad Top.
1. The ROW south of Rockhill is being cleared and Jordan Summit is now open to daylight. The foundation apparently hopes to make the railroad accessible to speeders as far as the siding at Pogue by year's end.
2. A solicitation for bids for the needed on the 268-foot Pogue Bridge should be awarded soon. The siding is to the south of the bridge, so it's a necessary step to reopening the line to Saltillo. The trusses and abutments are in good shape, so the two piers are the focus of work.
3. A short approx. 900 foot section in Three Springs, by the community pool, was exhumed from the dirt and gauged for speeders. The EBT was present at the community carnival over Memorial Day weekend and gave free speeder and handcar rides on this section that hasn't seen traffic since, at the most recent, the M-1 Doodlebug in the very early 60s.
4. The two tunnels have been given an inspection via drones, both are currently considered unsafe for human entry, which returned video and LIDAR data for determining the best course of action to reopen them.
5. The yard at Robertsdale has been cleared of brush and trees. About a mile of the main through the yard has been gauged for the FEBT's handcar to use (just about to Mine No. 5). The lumber gained from this clearing will be used by the railroad for other projects.
EBT has been very public about ongoing work at the railroad, but has been curiously quiet on the progress on the steam locomotives. The first real news on #16 was the other week when they did the hydro test. As some have theorized, they're not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the C&O #1309 or B&M #3713 or 1988-2010 PRR #1361 restorations. Better just to work quietly and get it done, instead of hyping people up for return to sevice and then continually missing deadlines and delaying it. R&N did the same thing with #2102; there was pretty much no word on #2102's status up until they started doing test runs.
Well, I'm going to Ohio at the end of August to see and ride behind NKP #765 on the Indiana Northeastern Railroad. I bought a ticket for the Tri-State Excursion that leaves Edon, Ohio and runs through Indiana up to Hillsdale, Michigan and back, with a three hour layover at Hillsdale. I hoped to ride Saturday and chase Sunday and get an idea of the route, but Saturday was sold out (the website was really confusing and made it look like tickets weren't on sale yet, but they were, and now I can't even find where I bought the tickets again). So I guess I'm chasing Saturday, riding Sunday. Tickets for Sunday were almost sold out as well, with the only remaining ones for the $250 premier seating and $100 baggage car "standing". I will gladly ride hanging out the baggage car doors
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society also just purchased two stainless-steel ex-Pennsy coaches from the DC NRHS chapter for use on their trains as well.
They were originally Pullman sleepers but were converted to standard coaches by PRR in '63, and then they were later assigned to commuter train service in Michigan, New York, and Maryland before they were donated to DCNRHS in 2008. Thanks in part to a 2012 Trains Magazine grant to “introduce new generations of rail enthusiasts to the history and excitement of mainline rail travel,” the cars were restored to their 1960s appearance and certified for use on Amtrak. Now they've joined the folks at Fort Wayne for use with their new Indiana Rail Experience program.
Page 209, engine #209. One of the Denver & Salt Lake's unique little 2-6-6-0 Mallets.
I find these little Mallets really neat. They were originally born as 0-6-6-0 helper engines, but the Denver & Salt Lake added a lead truck to improve their tracking and make them into road engines.
D&SL #212 at Plainview Colorado in '44
One of the D&SL's Coffin-equipped 2-8-2s, #409, with a 2-8-8-0 in the canyon below Pinecliff, CO
D&SL #208 on a very healthy ski train special. I can imagine that these trains didn't move particularly fast with those D&SL 2-6-6-0s only having 55" drivers.
In addition to the Coffin feedwater heater, the Mike also sports one of the D&SL's other trademark appliance, the smoke deflector that flips forward over the stack and angles the exhaust back 90 degrees to protect the roofs of unlined tunnels. It's also flying white flags, which means it's hauling a special train.
After the D&RGW purchased the D&SL, the 2-6-6-0s ended up on the D&RGW roster, as shown by one paired up with a D&RGW Mountain in this photo.
Class leader #200 at Sulphur Springs with a ski train special
#206 at Pinecliff with the CB&Q's dynamometer car behind an auxiliary water tank.
One of the D&RGW's big 2-8-8-2 simple articulateds near Eagle, Colorado with a westbound freight. D&RGW had some difficult grades on their standard gauge system, and so they owned a lot of very big power to get over the hills
D&RGW 2-8-8-2 #3615 exiting a tunnel on the legendary Tennessee Pass, the highest-elevation mainline in the US.
Articulated engines with an Elesco horizontal/bundle-style feedwater heater were rather rare. The 3600-series articulateds were also noted to be incredibly dirty-stacked, no matter how skilled the fireman. One engineer joked that he would get cinders in his eye just looking at a photograph of a 3600. When doubleheading as a helper, D&RGW experimented with cutting the road power off and hooking the 3600 up to the train and then hooking the road power up ahead of the 2-8-8-2 to spare the other engine crew from getting gassed out, but found that took too much time. They also tried issuing surplus WWI-era gas masks to engine crews assigned to 3600s for use in the tunnels, but that had little success. It was standard procedure to carry a bucket of water and cotton waste in the cab, and when approaching a tunnel, the head end crew would dunk the cotton waste in the water and hold it over the face through the tunnel. They also carried small mirrors to help get cinders out of their eyes.
#3614 threading it's way through the famed Royal Gorge.
A D&RGW 2-8-8-2 lends an assist to a 4-8-2 with the first section of a Civilian Conservation Corp special train at Minturn, Colorado
One of the D&RGW's 70" drivered Challengers paired up with a 4-8-4 on a freight. On the D&RGW, a 4-8-4 was not a Northern, they preferred to call the wheel arrangement a Western.
One of the 3700 Challengers with what looks like refrigerated boxcars. With their relatively tall drivers, D&RGW, like UP, found that the Challenger worked pretty well not only in fast freight service, but in passenger service as well.
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