I just caught RFD-TV, Western Maryland Steam runs.
What a great shot of 3 steam engines working hard up front pulling a coal drag. Then 3 in the center and 2 at the end.
Any more great shots, except they were cut short.
If I had a fluxcapacitor and a Delorien I would be in 9 heaven. Then miles of film, video tape, terabites of disk space.
Steam Rules. It's alive, It's Alive.
I did ride the W.M. Steam. I attended a G.R. Convention and that was one of the Side trips.
I asked and got a ride in the Cab and video taped the trip from there.
I did not make it down to Cass. So much to do and not enough time.
A fan trip now is not the same as when the Steam power was working as it was in the Video.
Those days will never be seen again.
Thank God of historians and movie camera and video cameras now.
My first Cab ride on a Steam Engine was on a Shay at a Logging Camp near Tacoma Wa.
I attended a G.R Convention in Eugene Or. I spent a week afterwards driving to Railroads North.
Major problem I broke my video camera and could not record the Shay and Cab ride at Mt Rainier.
Spike;
Got to agree with you -- nothing better than a bunch of H-9's working hard to haul a coal drag up the Black Fork Grade from Elkins to Maryland Junction.
If you like big steam on the Wild Mary, you will want these two videos -- Allegheny Rails Volume II - The Western Maryland and Memories of the Western Maryland. The first one is really strong on steam -- Challengers, Decapods, Potomacs, Consolidations, and Pacifics -- with most of the action between Cumberland and Connellsville and Cumberland and Elkins. The WM main west of Cumberland had some the the steepest grades in the east surpassing even Sandpatch.
Poppyl
Thank You for the TIP Poppyl.
I just got through putting it on DVD.
The action got my heart racing again.
They did a great job of dubbing in the sound.
That gave it a great effect.
My one complaint. The editor probably does not have any finger anymore, he kept cutting things short.
Several times I jumped up YELLING, "What the heck happened."
Even though the H-9's were real beasts, each one by itself could only haul about eight loaded hoppers up the Black Fork grade, thus the multiple consists on the headend, mid train, and pushing. The tight curves on the Elkins sub prevented even bigger WM steam from operating there. By the mid 50's strings of four RS-3's had replaced the H-9's with no mid train helpers or end pushers needed. Bigger steam operated between Connellsville, Cumberland, Hagerstown, and Lurgan/Shippensburg. All steam disappeared from the WM by the end of 1955.
Unless I miss my guess, there was some truly talented railroad enigineers in the the steam era.
Imagine coordinating seven different locomotives with seven different enginners. They had to be in sync or elses somebody became dead weight.
spikejones52002 wrote: My one complaint. The editor probably does not have any finger anymore, he kept cutting things short. Several times I jumped up YELLING, "What the heck happened."
You have to remember that people did not have video cameras in those days. You went out with a 16 mm or an 8 mm movie camera. They were not battery powered either. You wound up a spring and then had about 20 seconds of movie before the spring ran out of power and stopped the camera. You then rewound the camera and could shoot another 20 seconds.
Yes it was a pain, but the alternative was still photos.
Yes Jonathans you are absolutely right.
I did not think back.
My first movie camera was the Kodak 8mm with sound. The cartrage was 50 feet of film that lasted 7 minutes. My first shot was of the Freedom train. It was lost because the projector would not keep insysc and tore up the film.
Several of the WM shots were very long. The short shots could have been from quick reaction time for next shot.
It was just that the action were so good that I got too involved.
This weeks video had some great shots of GG1s and PA-1s.
I don't know exactly which footage you saw but it's possible that what you are seeing are different trains on different days but shot from the same locations. That loco configuration was used several times a week during the late 40's.
wyomingrailfan all I ask is, WHAT?
I'm not sure how we went from old videos of WM operations to the accuracy of the WMSRR Consolidation but let me see if I can help clarify some things. Yes, the Consolidation that runs on the WMSRR is not an original WM Consolidation. The WMSRR Consolidation is, however, an H-8 and the roadnumber is accurate for a WM H-8. The locos shown in the Black Fork video are H-9's (800 series roadnumbers).
While the loco may not be original to the WM, it has been restored to WM specs for their H-8's. The tender, however, would not have appeared behind WM's H-8's.
Hope that this helps a little.
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