Anyone seen it yet?
A masterful, moody, shot of two Nickle Plate Berkshires at night, waiting in half-light half-shadow, smoke and steam swirling around, and waiting for all their power to be unleashed.
Fires the imagination like no diesels ever could. Sorry diesel fans, I love 'ya, but they just don't compare. Never will.
Oh yeah! That's my kinda railroad!
Same me, different spelling!
In the interest of full disclosure, one of the two is really more a relation by marriage. 802 was born Wheeling & Lake Erie 6402, and while a true AMC sister, on the Nickel Plate she was adopted.
There are some who disparage sealed-beam conversions on steam locomotives; to me they add to the appearance...
In the interest of full disclosure, one of the two is really more a relation by marriage. 802 was born wheeling & Lake Erie 6402, and while a true AMC sister, she was adopted on the Nickel Plate. Note her Cinderella pilot, now that she's at the ball about to dance up a storm...
Hey, sealed-beam or conventional headlights, who cares as long as it's hung on the nose of a living steamer? I'm anything but dontrinare on things like that.
Thank goodness this post got a reaction. I was starting to wonder if everyone out there besides David and myself was dead!
And those Birksheres were and are great locomotives. Great that a few are around and active.
daveklepper And those Birksheres were and are great locomotives. Great that a few are around and active.
Yes, the Nickle Plate was very proud of those Berkshires, kept them running until 1958, and were very generous in donating some for preservation.
Would that we could say the same for the New York Central, but there's no point in going there again.
Once the PRR T-1 project succeeds and the K-4 is in one piece and operational,
Would you rather see a new Hudson or a Niagra?
No, I don't have the cash right this minute, but can dream.
Honestly, a Hudson! The Niagaras were great locomotives as well but as Shakespeare might have said they " Strutted and fret their hour upon the stage and were seen no more." The Hudson's got a lot more history behind it!
Flintlock76Honestly, a Hudson!
No point in replicating a J3 unless you want it streamlined, which is fun but I think the novelty would wear off quickly, and unlike 5550 would look disappointing without at least a few matching cars, which limits what you can do with it. And duplicating all the expensive modern stuff on the newer version would be better spent on something actually high-speed and flexible-firing like a Niagara. (A J3 is also too small, even with a working booster, to run good modern excursions to earn its keep; you'd be much better off restoring 3001 in Elkhart and having a practical locomotive for all seasons along with the couple mil left over in the bank).
I will grant you that a Niagara is much more renowned for what it did than how it looked from the front. I note that at least a couple of J3s that got Selkirk front ends had the Frankenstein-monster smokebox front replaced with a 'real' one later on; it would be nice to see a Niagara with proportional smokebox and centered headlight ... but it would be a foobie. The perhaps interesting advantage of one of those things is that it really isn't a monster locomotive like the 'other' 4-8-4s running around; it is a well-honed smaller design that boxes well outside its weight class. An important point to ponder is that it can be fired very effectively to match a wide range of services, which was likely not the case for earlier classes of large NYC power, and it was explicitly designed for greatest ease and lowest ongoing cost of maintenance, which cannot be overrated in a replica design intended to see regular service at the hands of 'new generation' crews...
Today's installment, "An Omaha Switcher!"
Man, that's some big gutsy switcher!
It wouldn't surprise me if it inspired this...
http://www.lionel.com/products/new-york-central-conventional-usra-0-8-0-steam-switcher-7805-6-11110/
daveklepper Would you rather see a new Hudson or a Niagra?
As long as NYC is being considered, I'd prefer a tri-power.
A Hudson, most definitely. But I don't believe any New York Central steam survived.
Fr.AlBut I don't believe any New York Central steam survived.
Sure, it would have been marginally nicer to have kept 3000. But believe me, I'll settle for the one we have. Every bit as photogenic as a Hudson from the front, in my opinion...
I think there's also a NYC 0-6-0 preserved in Utica NY, but I'm not sure on that.
I just did some checking, there's more than I thought out there!
http://nycshs.org/2011/06/16/surviving-nyc-steam-locomotives/
The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis just got done with cosmetic restoration of the 'other' Mohawk, 2933, the miracle hide-in-plain-sight-at-Selkirk story. I am not that much of a fan of the older lower-wheel engines operationally -- this was not at all the thing that refused to abdicate -- but it is still awe-inspiring and beautiful to see.
Too bad the MOT couldn't go all the way with it, but that's dependent on two things of course, buckets of money and a place to run it, especially the second part, otherwise what's the point?
The cosmetic restoration's good enough though, actual running isn't part of their mission statement anyway.
Flintlock76Too bad the MOT couldn't go all the way with it, but that's dependent on two things of course, buckets of money and a place to run it, especially the second part, otherwise what's the point?
MOT has a far better excursion engine 'waiting in the wings' already, in Frisco 1522.
And today, it's the legendary, world-famous, and oh-so-cool North Shore Electroliner!
I wonder how many riders were enjoying an "Electro-Burger" when that photo was taken?
I'm not even a Chicagoland native and I find that machine fascinating.
"Frisco Forsaken."
Oh brother, isn't that a great "Happy Friday!" shot! Oh well, can't pretend it didn't happen.
In a way, I'm reminded of what the late Ron Zeil said about the scrapyards where so many steam locomotives met their doom. He called them terrible, but at the same time morbidly fascinating places. He also said the torch men he met cutting up the engines weren't too crazy about the work, but "A job's a job, after all."
Not all locomotives in a scrapyard met their end there. In going through rosters in the pages of TRAINS over the years, I noticed that some locomotives sold to Iron & Steel Products in Hegewisch (other than the IC steeplecabs) were resold to other roads.
Would be fun to have though. Especially around halloween. Crashing out of the side of your house?
Becky, you're a genius! Why didn't I think of that?
"When life hands you lemons, make lemonade!"
Hanging out on the IHB with GM&O DL-109s appear to be a trio of Milwaukee FM Erie-builts, traded January 1963 to EMD for GP30s.
"Sic transit gloria mundi" indeed.
I always liked the look of the DL-109's, especially the New Havens. Maybe they weren't too successful on other 'roads but the NH seemed to like them well enough.
Like that GM&O PA1 between the DL109 and the Erie-builts. I've got pictures from a few years later (1969, to be exact) with a long line of PRR Baldwins and FM switchers on the same track.
A beautiful photo today, "A Steamy Snow Scene," two CPR Mikes rolling through a lovely snow-covered Quebec countryside.
Yes sir, nothing prettier than Quebec in July!
pennytrains Would be fun to have though. Especially around halloween. Crashing out of the side of your house?
This could almost be considered like a severed head, or perhaps a torso.
I wonder if any museum or tourist line has ever put a decapitated dummy in the cab, as a sort of "headless iron horseman"?
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
There was a "Creepy Trolley Guy" in a Boston LRV at Seashore for a long time...
And today...
Look how the P&WV and the corporate herald are wiped clean on that Pittsburg & West Virginia Mikado! Looks like a bit of company pride on display!
If you can't clean the whole tender, clean the part that says who you are!
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