Steam Trains, railfanning, and other stuff!

[C W Morse]

Yama,

Yup! I am now happily retired from the railroad life, and if we dont' agree on radioin', we might agree on railroads. Now I *am* glad to be out of that, for the life of a railroader is not what TRAINS Magazine makes it out to be--the "romance" of the rails and such It can be tough on families, tough on SLEEP, and just, well, a tough way to make a living.


But, yeah, when Southern,then NS, ran the steam trains I had to deal with them and even deadheaded on some of the engines. You might remember some of the "famous" ones: #630
(ended up on display in Asheville, NC near the old depot, later
sold for renovation, #4501 which I rode on, deadheaded on going to and from assignments, handed up orders to and talked to on the radio as a station agent, Texas Pacific 2716, rode on that one coming back from Spartanburg, SC--bouncy-est thing I ever rode and LOUD! , Canadian Pacific 2839, rode on that engine as well--slippery-est thing I ever saw and prone to slip-downs and just outright stalling out, needing a shove at the drop of a hat! And finally, the famous NW 611. That one was quite a sight! I watched that one by one night at 79 MPH while they were trying to stay ahead of Amtrak. They did it, too, with no problem at all! I rode it as well. Handed up orders on the ballast. They even used the steamers at times to switch the yard just cuz they could!

But mostly, I was glad to get OUT of railroading. I grew to HATE it! Railroads create their own enemies--namely their own employees. I walked out of the shop in 2000 and never looked back! I was actually a clerk, started as a laborer in the '70's, then to the Roadway Equipment Shop as a Storehouse clerk. THAT gave me the best assignment of all! 7 AM to 3:30 PM, Monday-Friday! Stayed at that for 18 years. I never was a railfan: I simply went to work because they had an opening that paid a lot more than I was getting at the time. Got hired the first try! These days, I never go near a railroad if I can help it!

73

CWM

 

[SARGE]

CWM, Never been employed by the RR but always liked trains. Got some old steamers down in Rusk Texas that they still run dont know the type or model, fun to ride. I worked for a steel mill for a short time and they would bring in locomotives to be cut up for scrap, I knew the guy in charge and he would let me have the horns off of them so I started collecting train horns. They dont bring them in any more so I dont get to collect them like I used to. I always liked the sound of train horns here is a short list of some I have collected.

Nathan/Airchime K-5H, K5LA

Leslie S-BJ, S-3L, S-5T

It is getting harder to find these horns. I still get out and look for them but pickins is pretty slim, and buying radios takes it toll on the horn collecting. The list above are the working horns, I have about 20 more that I have not restored yet. Hope I didnt bore you.

 

[2M Guy]

My Grandpa worked for the IC. One of the few people who witnessed a real coupling accident, no BS. He has his pic in an old Encyclopedia Britanica running a switching yard in IL. Broke his back (literally) on the job. I'll post the pic if I get it.

 

[yama junk owna]

CW
Railroading like most other jobs are just that jobs, and sometimes it hard to find glory in them. From the outside looking in it may look great but seldom that is the way it is. Anyway I have been a steam nut for years, I know they take a lot of work and ain't the cleanest things around but it is something about them that draws people to them. I have lots of pics I have collected, and have rode behind a few of them, never was lucky enough to get a cab ride. I really hated when NS stoped their steam program 611 was a great engine ahead of its time and was built in Roanoke shops in Va., N&W was the last railroad to convert to diesel, in their history built many great engines. I really wonder if they had stayed with steam what kind of engines they would have today, but all the railroads jumped on the new diesels because they could get by with less people, didn't have to have as many train crews, as well as other factors such as pollution. Just think 611 had somewhere in the area of 5000 drawbar horsepower, they are just now getting the diesels close to that, if built a new steamer with todays modern controls would be totally awsome. 611 was built in the early 50's and there were a lot bigger engines, the A's, Y6's, challanger's and the biggy Big boy. I just really have to wonder if some of these were built today with todays tech savy how much horsepower one would have

 

[SARGE]

Pat Novak, Thats a good link thanks for posting it.

 

[C W Morse]

Yama,

The steam engines are quite interesting. NS quit after a derailment in Va with. They did create a lot of PR with the public and also a lot of trouble for the employees. We actually DREADED to have one in the yards because of the problems it caused; you couldn't do your work for the people. I'll leave it there; the "foamers" were an entirely different story!


I'll tell you a story about 611 ( alluded to it early). One night, I was marked off on my rest days. I had seen that 611 was around on an excursion from Charlotte, NC to Toccoa, GA. It was Saturday night and 611 was VERY late: shoulda been back past here before dark. But I was working in my basement around midnight (finishing and paneling) when I heard 611 about
10 miles south, whistle screaming.

"Hmm, that thing is really bookin'! What gives?" (Timetable usually restricted steam trains to 45 MPH). I think I will run out to the tracks and watch 'er by." It was a hot summer night and I had been working hard, and it was time for a little break anyway.

So I rode out trackside, turning on my company radio (assigned to me) to see if I could figure what was going on.

"Uh, Extra 611 North, NS Dispatcher,
Greeneville (SC), can you make it to Charlotte ahead of Amtrak
820, over?"

(Pause)

"I believe we can, over!"

"Extra 611 North, NS Dispatcher---what's yer speed, over?"

(squawk)


"Seventy nine, over!!!!!!!!"


"GREAT, good deal! And you're approaching Lowell, right?"


"Yep! Just past Cramerton, right now, over!"


(Whistle screaming over radio)

"OK! Dispatcher, Greeneville, out."


I got out of the car in time to hear the staccato beat of steam exhaust and a bright light in the distance. With a roar of exhaust, and a screaming whistle, 611 blew by the crossing at just under 80 MPH! Fifteen silversides and N W burgandy cars galloped by in almost an instant with faces peering out the windows obviously VERY pleased at the experience of steam at high speed!

They made it to Charlotte with time to SPARE!! Probably a glimpse into what steam passenger railroading was 50 years before and would never be again.

73


CWM

 

[yama junk owna]

I would have like to seen that, 611 was built for speed 80 was loafing, she had a top over 100 if they wanted to crowd her.


The railroad gave many excuse as to why they dropped steam, I think the biggest one was greed, they thought by running a steam they might upset a freight somewhere and cost them a nickel. I also know that there are nuts that would run out in front of a train trying to get a pic as well, and as you say trying to get in the yards where they don't belong. They can't say that the steam trains didn't make money, cause they allways sold out long before the day they ran, my parents rode from Bristol to Roanoke and the seats were 75 bucks apiece, that was the cheap seats. That was about 92 or 3 can't remember. The biggest thing I think as what happened was all the old timers in management retired and they were replaced by a bunch of college boys that don't have any sense of history ,loyalty or anything else but greed. Its kinda like you said before management (not only of the railroads, but in all big companys) have a way of making enemys, most of the time their own employees

 

[SARGE]

CWM,here is a list of steamers that they run down at Rusk Texas

no. date builder weight type
201 1901 A.L.Cooke 79 tons 4-6-0
300 1917 Baldwin 83 tons 2-8-0
400 1917 Baldwin 87 tons 2-8-2
500 1911 Baldwin 137 tons 4-6-2
610 1927 Lima 224 tons 2-10-4

They have some diesel locomotives but thought you would be more interested in the steamers.If you could,please tell me what they mean by type does it have something to do with the number of wheels? thanks.

 

[Sonwatcher]

I think the #'s referr to the wheel sections.

 

[yama junk owna]

The type numbers are the design of the engine by wheel arrangement, Lead wheels- Driving wheels- Trailing wheels,
So a 4-8-4 would have 4 wheels on the lead truck and 8 driving wheels, ( Thats the ones that the siderods are on) and 4 wheels on the trailing truck under the firebox. There were many different types of engines and this was a way of keeping track of them

 

[CDX8412]

Yes, the wheel arrangement was a ""type".
Hudson class locos were 4-6-4, Atalntic was 4-4-2, Mohawks were 4-8-2. Each design served a particular service, such as slow yard switching duties or main line "hi rail" passenger service.

My grandfather was an engineman for the Pennsylvania Railroad (each railroad had there own vocabulary...an engineer on the Pennsy was an engineman, a switcher loco on the Reading Railroad was a shifter, etc.).

Here is a photo of him (fireman on left) when he first started with the Pennsy in 1927 in South Philadelphia on the PT (Philadelphia Terminal) Division.

 

[C W Morse]

I would have like to seen that, 611 was built for speed 80 was loafing, she had a top over 100 if they wanted to crowd her.


The railroad gave many excuse as to why they dropped steam, I think the biggest one was greed, they thought by running a steam they might upset a freight somewhere and cost them a nickel. I also know that there are nuts that would run out in front of a train trying to get a pic as well, and as you say trying to get in the yards where they don't belong. They can't say that the steam trains didn't make money, cause they allways sold out long before the day they ran, my parents rode from Bristol to Roanoke and the seats were 75 bucks apiece, that was the cheap seats. That was about 92 or 3 can't remember. The biggest thing I think as what happened was all the old timers in management retired and they were replaced by a bunch of college boys that don't have any sense of history ,loyalty or anything else but greed. Its kinda like you said before management (not only of the railroads, but in all big companys) have a way of making enemys, most of the time their own employees

Honestly, and this was what was told the employees. In a word, it was insurance that actually did them in on NS. There was a derailment up around Portsmouth, VA being run by the CEO of the company at the time. That, and a fatal accident where a teenager was killed when he tried to beat the train. And the company officials began to think, "What if..............".
And then, too, every year they had to justify the excursions to the stockholders who were NOT "fans"; they had only ONE thing on their minds, and THAT was $$. They didn't give a damn about no steam engine, all they wanted to know was why, in the modern age, was the company running excursion trains with coal-fired engines? IOW, was this a railroad or a MUSEUM? To them, freight was where the money was, and like it or not, THEY control the destiny of any company, so, given the increasing risks, the increasing pressure of justifying steam trains, THAT is what did it. Again, the company and the stockholders couldn't give a rat's a$$ what railfans think! While train buffs think ONE way, the bean counters and operating people are on a different wavelength. To fans, the railroad is this giant HO trainset--a game and a toy. To the REAL railroaders, it is a serious business thought of in terms of the bottom line, and how to get the freight over the road the quickest way. And believe it or not, ALL railroad people are NOT railfans! To a railfan-and it is easy to see why they see it *their* way---it is all from one view, and the reality is actually much different. From the "inside", actually LIVING the life is quite hard, and the "romance of the rails" actually doesn't even exist from the railroader's point of view. Many railroaders leave the service quite bitter at their employers because there is a militaristic and adversarial (sic) relationship between the employers and their employees; it's why the union is so firmly entrenched in railroading: it is almost impossible to survive without the union! Many roads create their own enemies by alienating the help. And it also causes the employees to make much fun of railfans (we called them "foamers") because of the
"Tsk tsk, if they only knew" aspect while we would watch them taking photos of old freight drags while dressed in this regalia of striped overalls, red bandana, and fake railroad pocket watch. BTW, did you know that *some* railroads would NOT hire a person if they knew he was a "railfan"? I mean, that is hard to determine, but if you wanted to get hired, just don't start gushing about how wonderful you think trains are! Hard to believe, but it is TRUE! And the reason was, the railroad environment IS different than most jobs, and the company wants a new hire to learn the job THEIR way and not out of "Trains" magazine. A person full of ideas about the way trains were run in 1930 just has to get that out of their heads, and I saw several fellows get dismissed during their probation because they just flat out told the supervisor that "that ain't the way it supposed to be done" (you just don't DO that!), or because they were so "et" up with trains, they would abandon the job at hand to go stare at a train with drool running out of their mouths! No LIE!!! Hee! Hee! There was this one kid fresh out of HS, and we got to missing him one day when he was sent out on an errand in the rabbit yard. We had people all over the SR yards out looking for him. He was found up in the yard tower! Severely scolded for that one! He was cubbing a agency job with me at an outlying point when I marked off on 2 weeks vacation. When I marked up again, this boy was run slam off the right of way (fired)!! He was told that if he couldn't follow orders and do the job, then he had no business on a railroad because he would end up DEAD!

Anyway, the steam engines are a fascinating machine and probably one of the things that attract people to the railroad. But they are high maintenance, labor-intensive, and environmentally dirty. So it's the diesels that get the freight over the road. Perhaps, in today's environment, coal will make a comeback---but in liquified form and used to fuel, not steam trains, but still diesel.


CWM

 

[yama junk owna]

CW
I hear ya about trying to work for railraod companys, I am not a railroad fan, I can only imagine what it's like trying to work for one of those outfits. (I worked for the power company as a steam plant mechanic and that is bad enough, they like the railroad have two faces, the one they like to show to the public and the real one that the employees see.) But I do like the machine, yes steam was hard work and dirty but man they sure were neat, especially when you get into what makes them tick !

Oh the diesels are just a big generator on wheels nothing really fascinating about them. lol.

 

[yama junk owna]

Hey 8412 thats a great pic! you don't mind if I add it to my collection do you?

 

[Lazybones1222]

I am a conductor for NS CW. Can you say sleep deprevation? LOL