A Steam Train Passes

[Flintlock76]

And don't forget Mod-man, with a bit of cotton waste the bacon drippin's on the backhead can be rubbed in to give it a nice shine!

And since the "General" was a wood-burner whether they had a shovel in the cab would have been problematic at best.

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

There's a comical scene in Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase" where the engineer and the fireman of the "General" are frying bacon by hanging it on the hot backhead in the cab! 

Keep in mind that the backhead is entirely water-insulated, and will be at no more than the saturation temperature is at the current boiler pressure -- the General I believe is 140psig which means right around 360 degrees F.  Now that is not far from the temperature I use for frying bacon in a skillet... and of course the rendered water runs down from the slices while the liberated fat gives better (and somewhat cleaner!) contact with the backhead for heat transfer... but it's not going to be the same as using a relatively thin metal shovel over the radiant fire.

[Flintlock76]

Hi Mr. Jones!  Glad you're back and hope everything's well with you!

I'd guess cab-cookery was pretty universal in the steam days no matter what country.  Depending on the length of the run it could have been a full meal or just a snack.

There's a comical scene in Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase" where the engineer and the fireman of the "General" are frying bacon by hanging it on the hot backhead in the cab!  I sense the hand of Walt Disney there, only a hard-core railfan like Walt would have known about something like that!

[Jones1945]

Flintlock76

By the way, I see cooking bacon and eggs on a coal shovel isn't just an American thing!  

Watch this movie everyone, you won't be sorry you did! 

I wonder if any book mentioned how the culture of cooking bacon and eggs in the cab was spread across different countries.

Very nice video by the way. I love how they show the activities of passengers on the train stations, and many details on the railway operation in the past.

 

[MMLDelete]

That's really a terrific video! Thanks for posting that link, Peter.

[Flintlock76]

A wonderful, wonderful film Peter!  Thanks so much for posting it, it's one of the best rail films I've ever seen!  And I took your advice and went full-screen, it was WELL worth it!

By the way, I see cooking bacon and eggs on a coal shovel isn't just an American thing!  

Watch this movie everyone, you won't be sorry you did!

[M636C]

I included this video in a post on the Trains forum about cab facilities (scene at 10:30). I've found a better quality video so I thought I should post it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uFJs-xoTMM

This film was produced in the suburb I grew up in in Sydney, and the copies are now held by the National Film and Sound Archives not far from my home now.

The locomotive is back working after years out of service. I watched the arrival of the last regular steam service into Sydney in October 1969, which had this locomotive and a very similar train. The cars were rebuilt from much older cars in the late 1930s. Most cars were much more similar to USA passenger cars. This train (set 109) was a permanently coupled six car set and you can see how close the cars are coupled.The accomodation was in compartments with a side corridor.

Only a couple of years ago, the film was used to explain the operation of the "electric staff" system of single line safe working (scene at 16:00).

I think there are web sites explaining the individual locations.

If you can watch this on a big screen, it is worth it....

Peter