Wow! That looks like about 345,000 pounds of CO2 and unburnt hydrocarbons, too.
Wow! That looks like about 345,000 pounds of CO2 and unburnt hydrocarbons, too.
In reply to Duke :
They are probably either getting ready for a hill and the firemen are pouring on the coal to build pressure, or they just crested a hill and are easing off the throttle.
Perhaps no steam engine was as synonomous with the B&O as their EM-1 Yellowstones, other than perhaps their Presidential Pacifics. The biggest engines the B&O owned, they were the result of years of experimentation with articulated engines. The B&O, after all, was the inventor of the articulated steam engine and had owned many 0-6-6-0s, 0-8-8-0s, 2-8-8-0s, and 2-8-8-2s. Thirty of these Yellowstones were delivered in 1944, all built by Baldwin, and numbered in the 7600 range. Despite being lighter and smaller than all other Yellowstones built (twenty tons lighter than the next bigger Yellowstone, the Southern Pacific AC-9) , these were still a large powerful engine, and thoroughly modern as well. Built as a simple articulated, they used 4 24"x32" cylinders, a 235psi boiler, a 765sq. ft firebox and 64" drivers. They also had roller bearings on every axle, lateral cushioning devices on the lead driving axles of both engines and the trailing truck, Worthington feedwater heaters and H-T mechanical coal stokers. They had a very high factor of adhesion, making them sure-footed, and made 115,000lbs of tractive effort, as well as reasonably fast (EM-1s were occaionally known to lead passenger trains in mountainous regions), efficienct and reliable.
The irony of the EM-1 was that the B&O did not even want these engines originally. When the B&O needed more powerful motive power during WWII, they wished to purchase diesels. B&O had been an early adopter of diesels, first purchasing an early Alco/Ingersoll-Rand box cab as well as EMD's original E-series passenger locomotive, the EA. But because the War Production Board was carefully allocating diesels to southwestern routes that had water supply troubles (the ATSF's route through Arizona was a notable recipient), they instead told the B&O that they had to order steam locomotives.
Despite the initial attitude towards the EM-1 on arrival, they very quickly became favorites of the railroad. Assigned to the Cumberland Division for coal drags, it was not uncommon to see doubleheaded EM-1s go over Sand Patch Grade with a coal train and one or two additional EM-1s shoving on the rear.
Like many other late arrivals of the steam era, they lived fairly short lives. Retirement began in the early 1950s, although some were reactivated later on for a traffic spike. All were retired and disposed of by 1960.
While no EM-1s were saved, the Baltimore & Ohio actually had set the first EM-1, #7600, aside for donation to the B&O Railroad Museum. The B&O had already preserved a number of early locomotives, as well as the first of their P-7 Pacifics #5300 and the first USRA Light Mikado #4500. According to some versions of the story, there was also a "Big Six" Santa Fe and a T-3 Mountain set aside as well, but the #7600 was a definite. The locomotive was stored at a yard in Butler, PA and a yardmaster who had either been on vacation or recently transferred to that yard did not know the reason why the #7600 was there. When he heard that management would be paying the yard a visit, he got nervous that they were going to yell at him for having a bunch of old junk laying around the yard and had the crew fire up the torches and cut #7600 and the other engines up. The rumor is that management was less than pleased and he was let go.
#7600 at the Butler yard, post retirement and pre-scrapping. This photo is from 1961, a year after all other EM-1s were gone
Photos from the Butler yard in '61 also show a pair of T-3 Mountains, #726 and #704. Was one of these also destined for the B&O Museum? Hard to say. Also, no sign of the rumored Big Six that some say was set aside and was errently scrapped. (Some variants of the story add a B&O 4-6-0, or swap it out for one of the the engines)
There used to be a photo on the internet of one of the very early pamphlets from the B&O Railroad Museum that at the bottom said "Coming exhibits: EM-1 2-8-8-4 #7600". I cannot find it anymore. So that one was definitely confirmed to be going to the museum, to the point that the museum was even advertising it.
Did you guys see this derailment from a few days ago?
In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
I did. Lucky it didn't fall off the trestle!
Bet the crew needed to change their pants...
I like the railfan in the foreground who realizes he just saw something much more exciting than the photo he was intending to shoot and starts running towards the derailment.
I feel like we are overdue for another string-lining derailment from Norfolk Southern. Its been a few months since the last one.
Another preservation snafu by the B&O: The very first B&O steam locomotive, and the first American produced steam locomotive, was a vertical-boiler, walking-beam 0-4-0 named Atlantic, built in 1832. As the first US railroad, B&O tended to be very preservation minded early on, but the Atlantic is believed to have been scrapped in 1836 (the actual disposition and date of disposition is not known). In 1893, B&O regretted the loss of the Atlantic but had preserved 3 other early "grasshopper" walking-beam 0-4-0s, which were mechanically and cosmetically very similar, the John Hancock, the John Quincy Adams and the Andrew Jackson, all from between 1835-1836. The B&O decided to take the Andrew Jackson and cosmetically remodel it as the Atlantic. The locomotive was then eventually moved to the Mount Clare shops, along with the rest of B&O's heritage collection, in 1953 when B&O formed the B&O Railroad Museum, but sometime between the 1893 makeover and the 1953 museum inauguration it had become the gospel truth that it was the actual 1832-built Atlantic.
Jump forward a few more years and Colonel Edward Deeds of Dayton, Ohio approached the B&O Railroad Museum about purchasing one of the 3 grasshoppers to display at the historical museum he was working on, the Carillon Historical Park. Since the museum had 3 of the locomotives and decided they really didn't need 3 duplicates, they decided to sell Deeds the 1935-built John Quincy Adams. After all, the only one that they really needed was the Atlantic, since that was their first engine and the oldest surviving US-built steam locomotive.
Several years after the sale of the John Quincy Adams, the museum was doing some restorative work to Atlantic and rediscovered her actual heritage, the 1936-built Andrew Jackson. At which point someone must have done the math and realized they had kept the 1936-built Andrew Jackson and the 1936-built John Hancock and sold the 1935-built John Quincy Adams. Yes, the B&O Railroad Museum had owned the genuine oldest surviving US-built steam engine and, thinking it was not historically significant, sold it off. Whoops
Some good news for the folks at the Durango & Silverton, who have been having a rough couple years. The federal government has given them a $1.9M grant to replace their bridge over the Animas River, which is overstressed and in need of replacement. For the latter part of this year, they have been unable to run full service to Silverton and back, instead having to turn around an hour out of Durango.
I was actually supposed to go ride both the Durango & Silverton and the Cumbres & Toltec, but had to cancel my trip to Colorado thanks to 'Rona.
Durango & Silverton has also purchased all four of the White Pass & Yukon's narrow gauge Alco/MLW DL535E 1200hp, C-trucked narrow gauge diesels. The locomotives are headed south by flatbed truck.
They've also purchased some brand new narrow-gauge diesels from MPE. They are really homely though.
Durango & Silverton is saying that the diesels will only be for maintenance of way work (so that they aren't chewing up flue time doing track work) and for operation during the most severe wildfire risk. They are adamant this is not the end of steam or the relegation of steam operations to special events, and are progressing on converting another steam engine to oil firing.
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