Diesels eat your heart out We sure made some cool stuff back then.




Link to original video: https://youtu.be/XhgHrDbN4EU

Since Andy is in Oklahoma.... Dude! Check out Oklahoma Threshers

Have fun going to the annual show.

I got to ride on a steam engine a couple years ago at the Oklahoma Railway Museum . It was fun because the track goes right through the golf course, and it was a Saturday afternoon, I guess the golfers are used to it.

Sadie the steam engine

There is, or was, I can't find it now, of a tractor pull and of course the tractors bog down on the course. Someone brought in an ancient steam tractor and drug the trailer sled thing out and kept going, just belching smoke and sparks like crazy, it was awesome.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OKCGene,

PoweRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! With steam to spare, too.

tac of tac's trains on Youtube

I saw one of the Challengers in Council Bluffs years ago. One huge locomotive!!

RMD

I’m curious. Does anyone make a diesel/electric locomotive with the same power as the steam locomotive in the video?

The Duluth (Lake Superior) Railroad Museum has the awesome 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" articulated “Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range #227”. It hauled iron ore from the Missabe Iron Range to the Lake Superior docks.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...ture.aspx?id=4086393

Yes, Steam Locos are beautiful machines.

The current generation of diesel/electrics, or even pure electrics as run in Europe, have more tractive power. An electric engine has too many advantages over a steam engine. But a steam engine even in today's world is no slouch.

The Challenger with tender weighed in at 1 million pounds, about 2.5x of todays diesel/electrics.

It's safer to run multiple units - much greater tractive power, break power and you can maintain high speed. The Challenger with a 143 wagons (loaded I presume) is only doing 35 mph, probably top speed with such a load. Hook up 6 diesel/electrics to a 100 unit train and its speed will be at 60 mph or better. Time is money.

I've got a Big Boy in HO scale and it is a beast - dwarfing all my other locomotives. Very pretty too.

I've read a few years ago now that in Europe (Germany for certain) they're looking at American type super-trains, meaning 100+ unit trains to move freight. I suspect Unions of loco drives have kept a limit on the unit sizes moving.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
The Duluth (Lake Superior) Railroad Museum has the awesome 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" articulated “Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range #227”. It hauled iron ore from the Missabe Iron Range to the Lake Superior docks.

[url=http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?
id=4086393]http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...ture.aspx?id=4086393[/url]

The DM&IR's Yellowstones were beasts. While they weighed less than the Union Pacific's Big Boy locomotive, they had more tractive effort.

Procured during WW2, they hauled millions of tons of Iron Ore from Minnesotas Iron Range to the steel mills. When being built, they actually had a higher priority for steel than the Sherman Tank.



I've long admired them and just had to get a model of one.

Below is my Yellowstone (#227) at my model railroad club.

s

Wow!!!

V. impressive!

tac

I enjoyed seeing big steam pulling a string of modern containers.

That was cool!

I played it about six times.

They made some good steam powered cars back in the day too. This one was given the honorary title of 'the finest motor car ever made'. I think GM made the last steam powered car back in '69. Full circle given now that the Prius runs on coal.

I grew up a block away from a Lehigh Valley locomotive repair shop in south Wilkes-Barre, Pa. I was always fascinated by the steam locomotives sitting building up steam for a run.

Neighbor who worked there said maintenance was high on the steamers with cost of coal and routine firebox/boiler cleaning needed.

He said Diesel/Electric was cheaper to maintain. Diesel fuel at that time was about 5 cents a gallon and with Diesel/Electric, just fire up the oil burner, hook up and go.

But a Steam Locomotive pulling freight up a hill was a sight to remember.

I really like this video. What a machine!

The 3751

xl_target, color me impressed!
* Your Yellowstone model.
* The size of your train.
* The St. James layout.
* The quality of the video.

Is your Yellowstone model articulated? I couldn’t tell from the video (curves weren’t tight enough).

I would think the steam locomotives would have a traction advantage just because they were so heavy (traction is a function of pressure on the rails). Here's a photo of the "Big Boy" in a park in Cheyenne, WY:

Cheyenne Big Boy pano 1833-1835 by David Casteel, on Flickr

flashguy

Yep. Drive past that on way to Sportsman Warehouse when I am in Cheyenne.

PC

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I would think the steam locomotives would have a traction advantage just because they were so heavy (traction is a function of pressure on the rails). Here's a photo of the "Big Boy" in a park in Cheyenne, WY:

Cheyenne Big Boy pano 1833-1835 by David Casteel, on Flickr

flashguy

Jay Leno Doble Steam Car Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUg_ukBwsyo

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
xl_target, color me impressed!
* Your Yellowstone model.
* The size of your train.
* The St. James layout.
* The quality of the video.

Is your Yellowstone model articulated? I couldn’t tell from the video (curves weren’t tight enough).

Pipe Smoker,
It is articulated.
Just like the real locomotive, the boiler pivots on the rear engine and the floats on the front engine. Both engines are driven. Each axle set is sprung on each end to maximize adhesion.
The body is diecast to maximize tractive effort and it will pull quite a bit more than the 84 ore cars (all I have) that are in its train.

Yes our curves are very generous, so you don't see the boiler overhang like you would on a layout with smaller curves.


The real locomotives, delivered in 1941 and generating 6250 HP, would easily pull one hundred 70-Ton ore cars over the grades of the Minnesota Iron Range.

What is amazing is that the frames on those locomotives were cast in one piece. There is nowhere in the country today, that pieces of that weight and length can be cast.

I've been fascinated with steam locomotives since as far back as I can remember.

Thanks for the reminder of how awesome they are.

In 2008, 3985 (the locomotive in the OP) toured the Union Pacific Railroad system. I had the pleasure of spending some time trackside while she stopped in St James, MN.


Compare the size of the people standing trackside to the size of the locomotive.