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[Razorclaw]

does anybody know of a website that gives a trains lifespan? for example the 'big boy', what year was it created and when was it retired? could it be used in a modern railroad? 

 

 

  thanks,stephen

[Anonymous]

You need Kalmbach's Guide to North American Steam Locomotives which would provide you (with a few exceptions, GN and MKT being two examples) with built and retired dates for most (20th Century) steam locomotives.  Now, if you want to know when ABC Railroad 2-4-6-8-10 #8693765488 was retired you are going to have to go to the historical/technical society for that specific railroad.

Let me tell you what I did - and you can go and do likewise!

I did a google for Onion Specific Big Boy, clicked on the first entry, and found the exact information you are looking for; I did the same thing for Sufferin Pacific Cab-Forwards, and C&O H-8s.  Lot of good information, either in the form of tables or in narrative.  I ran into trouble with Rock Island's Class R-67b because it listed the built date but not the retired date; that's why I have the Guide referred to way back in paragraph #1.

You can also do the following:   www steamlocomotive.com/and whatever you want to search for, Mikados as an example.  You'll find out more about Mikados than you ever wanted to know.   You'll have to page down to the railroad you are looking for and I'm not going to say that everything you are looking for is going to be there but I did a few select curiosity searches and in almost all instances could find, at least,  built dates; sometimes the narrative would give a date for the end of steam operations.

Rots of Ruck!!!!