Thought modelers might enjoy seeing some engines of various classes from the Steam Era so tonight I'm posting a photograph I purchased awhile back that was taken in 1939 in Oneonta, NY. {Photographer Unknown} D&H #47 B-4a 0-6-0 Double Cab
Sorry Darren, but I really don't like those, to British eyes they look kinda wierd (Look forward to more pics, though)
yes Alan, but look at how wide that firebox is. This was needed to burn the Anthracite (hard) coal which was mined locally/on-line, and didn't burn (heat) as well as soft coal. Innovation! Maybe some of our steam experts here can help me, but I believe it was called a Wooten firebox. These "Mother Hubbard" or "Camelback" locos (while rather dangerous for their crews) were used throughout the Anthracite Region and elsewhere. Homely?...yes, but you just have to love 'em conceptually! What's that old saying..."Necessity is the mother of..." Bill
Yeah Bill, I noticed the wide firebox, but I am sure I have seen some 'normal' locomotives with the same wide box, so at least some of 'em didn't need the cab perched on top
Just recently I asked what Double Cab ment and in that explination also contains your anwser. Below is the explination I received. I plan to post other images as time goes by of various classes of engines.
Darren, thank you for that comprehensive write-up on the Wooten firebox, but the first paragraph in the quote has me puzzled. The term "Camelback" has been applied to the center cab style locos used in the Anthracite Region for as long as I can remember. That term is used by all the great authors and historians that I have read. Additionally, there is some pride in the Scranton area with the history of that nickname. Quite a few years ago, while doing some research at the Anthracite Heritage Museum in Scranton, I was invited to join a group of local historians at a conference they were having. During this meeting, one of the speakers told the following story. (as best as I can remember). When the center cab locos began to appear, they were originally called "hogs". Then the DL&W crews began to notice a similarity to a PA landmark known as "Camelback Mountain", and began calling these lococs by that name "Camelback", and it stuck. I don't know if that's just local folklore, or an urban legend or whatever, but it did not seem to apply to a locomotive with a boiler length cab (Camel), just the center cabs. If you have any other documentation, or sources about this, I'd be very interested to know about them. Thanks, Bill
I don't believe I have any actual documentation on this topic but I believe my contact is correct that it actually only applies to a specific B&O engine but has been used to describe other engines of "simular" design. I know I have a photograph of the B&O engine in question but don't have access to it right now. It does however looks somewhat like a single hump camel. In the mean time I have found this image on Webshots that I can post. Note how it's basically a hung hump like a camel. RailImages.com [ 17. March 2004, 03:09: Message edited by: Stourbridge Lion ]
D&H locomotive #53 Photographer: Otto C. Perry (1894-1970) at Albany, N.Y., August 12, 1932. Otto C. Perry memorial collection of railroad photographs Western History Department, Denver Public Library.
