UTMC

Brilliant read.
Amazing to think that such complicated and fiddly technology was once the backbone of the world's transportation infrastructure.
I gues a coal fired locomotive would require not quite as much care for heating the fuel, but pose obvious other issues.

http://www.sdrm.org/faqs/hostling.html

Too much water, and it takes too long to heat up. Too little, and you risk not raising enough steam to inject more water into the boiler before the water level drops so low that you uncover the crownsheet and blow yourself to kingdom come.

Now, there's something you don't want to contemplate before the third cup of coffee!

Feet first, I squeeze into the firebox, feeling for the floor,

Awesome read.

-Rench

that was cool!

In Tacoma here, we have Point Defiance park, about 250 acres? of trees, zoo, beach, Fort Nisqually trading post, and Camp 6 logging exhibit with about a 2 or 3 mile round track through the forest for a train ride.
As I was growing up and we would go to the park, there was at the front entrance ,a Shay steam locomotive sitting there on display, never moving. Specially designed for steep grades and sharp curves getting the logs out of the woods to the mills. It had 6 cylinders, three on each side verticaly oriented like a v-6.
In 1980 or therabouts, the engine dissapeared for a year or so, and when it returned, It was used to pull the train ride for about ten years or so.
Now it sits in a shed, waiting for $50,000 or so to rebuild it again.

Now the train ride is pulled with this dinky little diesel swithcher thing, it's just not the same.

Same thing here in New Hampshire.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway had:



but now run:



Sad.

Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, NH, has a Shay.



Status: "It is stored unserviceable."

the Cass Scenic Railwayruns several Shays

OK so I have not read it yet but I just want to say, I used to hostle steam locomotives when I was young, would go from 9-10 pm to 7-8 am, Loved it, Till I got trained to fire, I been tens of thousands of miles in the cab of a steam locomotive, most at over 50 m.p.h. on real main line railroads, there is nothing like it, it is totally awesome to say the least.

Stay tuned for commentary.


Double R.