Thursday Proto Photo thread - Sept. 28, 2006

[3rdrail]

Narrow gauge freight service lasted longer in México than in the USA or Canada. Daily "mixtos" were operated in the Yucatan on three lines by Ferrocarriles Unidos de Sureste into the early 1970's:

Here are some steel narrow gauge cars in the Merida yard. Note one has FUS reporting marks while another has NdeM:


FUS also Dieselized its narrow guage lines with EMD G6's. Note that a standard gauge Alco S6 is switching in the background.

[up1950s]

A few weeks ago I was on a Sunday railroad outing , it ended here at Greenport Long Island near the end of LI's northern fork . The old station is now a seafaring museum , and yes , thats a mini sub sitting outside ( which was home built years ago by a Bayshore LI man ). The big draw for me was the plow , " Jaws III ".

[biker_ray_pa]

In the most recent issue of Trains, there was a one-page piece about the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA (near Erie). I was headed for Buffalo last weekend, so I decided to make a stop. It's a great little museum and situated right beside a busy CSX line.


This is the Lake Wenatchee, in GN/Empire Builder paint. They use this car as an operating restaurant on-site. It's really quite nice...




Me in the cab of NYC 2500, a U25B. I couldn't resist posing for the standard cab shot, but I *was* worried that the Pennsy gods might see me in a Central locomotive and be angered, strike me with lightning and turn all my Pacifics into Hudsons...




Some kind of critter awaiting restoration...




#6, a fireless 0-6-0 built by Heisler...




two operating speeders...




a South Shore "Little Joe" peeking out...




Finally, a picture of a...uhhh...what the heck IS this, anyway...??




Ray

[3rdrail]

Finally, a picture of a...uhhh...what the heck IS this, anyway...??




Ray

That's a car pusher from the Cleveland coal pier. It ran on narrow gauge rails between the standard gauge tracks the coal hoppers were on. You can see the push boom on the side. It was used rather than tie up a train crew pushing cars into the unloader one at a time with a locomotive.

[tokenbrit]

Prompted by Richie's snow plow photo, I decided to post this pic of my 'significant other' looking insignificant in size in front of a UP rotary:

[up1950s]

Wow , you don't appreciate the size of the thing till you see it within chewing distance of somebody .

[John]

[John]

[John]

This could be a great weathering challenge car ..

[John]

[John]

[tokenbrit]

This could be a great weathering challenge car ..

More weathering challenges ..

Intermediate:




Advanced:

[cv_acr]

#6, a fireless 0-6-0 built by Heisler...

I'm curious how a "fireless" steam engine works. Is it basically a pressure tank full of steam that gets charged by an external boiler?

Anyone here familiar with this type of engine concept?

[3rdrail]

#6, a fireless 0-6-0 built by Heisler...

I'm curious how a "fireless" steam engine works. Is it basically a pressure tank full of steam that gets charged by an external boiler?

Anyone here familiar with this type of engine concept?

That's exactly what it is. The pressure tank is charged with hot water and steam under high pressure. As the steam is used the hot water flashes over to steam. If one is charged to 300 psi and can operate at a pressure as low as 30 psi, it can operate for quite a while on a charge of steam. These were favored at locations where there is a fire or explosion hazard. I saw one operate at the rayon mill in Elizabethton, TN. Rayon mills were a notorious fire hazard. Mines also used compressed air locomotives of a similar type. C&O actually took delivery of 3 of these fireless steamers from H.K. Porter in 1950!

[wes_sutton]

I'm curious how a "fireless" steam engine works. Is it basically a pressure tank full of steam that gets charged by an external boiler? Anyone here familiar with this type of engine concept?

Paper mills are another location wher firless locos were found. Growing up in the South of England our apartment overlooked a mill that had one or two of these in use. There are still several locations in Europe that use fireless locos and even a sugar mill in Indonesia still has one active I believe

Wes