"Steam"

Is there any "steam jockeys" out there?

 

Hello there Ironhorseman; I was promoted in 1943 and ran a little of everything the UP had. Even before promotion, as a fireman on freight and passenger, I got a lot of experience handling all sorts of trains. When I finally moved to the right side of the cab,I had no problem, due to hoggers teaching me a lot of the fine points. This was before CTC. Leaving town with a bundle of train orders, you had better know how far you could go. Out of LA, you had 56 miles of single track facing you. I have a gob of good memories of those days.

 

I've worked on several steam locomotives over the years, including the 4449 and the 610 on the AFT, the Amtrak excursion to bring the 4449 home, and the trip to Railfair 1981. I worked with the 765 on the TP&W during the "Great Freight Week" operation in 1980, and a variety of steam tourist railroads in both California and Washington.

Tom

 

Hi Tom, I recognize your name from the Yahoo AFT groups. Maybe we could get something going here about the 1975-76 AFT. I only have a couple of photos, but I know you were part of the crew on the entire trip. Could you share some of the stories with us? Please?

 

Like O C I have worked steam in the modern era. The o-4-o Porter at Niles Canyou Railway was my pop fav.

Shannon

ATSF LIVES
WP LIVES

 

Good to hear from some real hogheads. I sure miss the old steamers, too. I recall baking many a potato inside the cylinder cover. I used to carry a milk bottle full of coffee which we warmed on the manifold. We also toasted sandwiches on the manifold. After the diesels showed up, we also warmed a lot of things on the water pump. A guy does have to eat, huh?

 

Since we seem to have a few external combustion freaks, how's about we tell some steam stories? After all, it IS what old heads do.........

"First Contact"

I was in my mid twenties in May 1975, and was in Colorado with 5 friends from the California Central Model RR Club in San Jose,Cal, The day before, we had ridden the Durango & Silverton, to date the biggest operating steam locomotives I had ever seen.. Up until a couples of year before, I hadn,t given steam locomotives a thought. Then another member took me out to an 18" gauge park railway called the Billy Jones Wildcat RR, and in one night, the CMO Bill Ullesiet got me hooked. By mid-summer I was an engineer running the 5 ton steam locomotive and making friends with several SP engineers involed with the operation. By the end of that summer I was spending every other weekend at the Roaring Camp and Big Trees in Felton, most times firing or running ex-Westside Lumber Co. Heisler no. 3, and every once in a while the Dixiana, a Shay.

Now standing trackside at Greeley Colorado, we were waiting for a chance to see the 4449 as she headed east to Chicago to join the AFT. I wanted to see her, but I wasn't all that excited. After all, I had no concept of what an operating mainline steam locomotive was about. Off in the distance I saw it, the wink, wink, wink of an approaching Mars light, so familiar to a guy who lived in the heart of SP's home turf. In a moment she was upon us, the ground shaking and the roar of her exhaust overwhelming me! From that point on I have a rather disjointed memory of things, the 60 odd mile chase to Denver feeling somewhat like a dream. In a short time we were standing next to her in Denver Union Station, and as I stood admiring her elegant beauty, my near obsession with 6 unit consists of gray and red SD-45T-2's having died a sudden and immediate death.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard the 4449 crew gousing about Doyles instructions to get her cleaned before going to beans. Without even thinking about it, I walked up to a crewman I soon learned was Andy Adams and volunteered mine and my friends assistence, which was eagerly accepted. The next 4 hours were spent helping shoot the rods, fill the lubricators, steam clean the running gear, and hand washing her with Ivory soap and industrial strength ammonia. My friends and I didn't talk much, each of us absorbed in our part of this unexpected dream experience. It was only a couple of days later, when my arms and shoulders began to really ache that I realized exactly how strenuous the work had been.

Finishing up, we all went to dinner where I formally met Al Phillips and Russ Shipman, the other two firemen, Doyle McCormack, his wife Laurie, Bob Slover and 3 others traveling with her as volunteers. Almost immediately it came out that Bob was a former Billy Jones volunteer. A great dinner was consumed as we sat listening to their stories from the restoration, and equally interesting, their hopes and fears for the upcoming job of powering the AFT on its nationwide tour. The next day, true to their word, the crew granted us free access to the 4449. We all spent a couple of hours sitting in the cab, and I was absolutely astounded when the left me to tend the fire. We polished brass, shined rods, and helped tend to a variety of chores to get her ready for the next leg of her journey east. After another great night of dinner, jokes and good fellowship, we arose the next moring, said goodbye to our new friends and then chased her to the oiutskirts of Denver, bidding her good fortune with a final wave as she disappeared into the rising sun.

Totally amazed at our good fortune, we continued on with our travels, each of us expressing the other's thoughts about the outstanding success of our trip, and laughing at how envious our friends back home would be when they heard our stories. Listening to the others chatting, I felt it would be a long wait indeed before I would see her and the guys again in December when they came to San Jose with the train. Little did I realize that I had just taken a first step in a journey that would be an incredible dream, a dream that was to see me standing next to the rest of the crew in Miami, Fl. on the closing day of the AFT's journey, just another milestone in what forever would be one of the most pivotal experiences of my life, an experience that was not yet over.

Tom

 

Having about 10 years of steam engine experience, I have several stories I could tell. One of them concerns the time that the pipe to the main fountain broke. We were heading up Cajon Pass with a challenger type 4-6-6-4 mallet.About 3 miles out of San Berdoo, we developed an awful noise, coming from the top of the boiler head. As the engineer crawled out the cab window, to see what the problem was,I moved to the right seat box. He was astraddle the pipe when it broke. The noise was terrific. The engineer made his way toward the stack, as the head brakeman and I dropped to the deck to avoid the noise and heat. I shut the throttle down, set the air and headed for the gangway.Coming toa stop, the engineer said that hearing the throttle shut down was the sweetest sound he ever heard. The engine right there and another was brought to us from San Berdoo.

 

I was running on short time while writing the story about the broken pipe to the fountain and failed to say that our engine died after the pipi broke. Sorry about that.

 

In 1950, when I was 15, the B&M was still running a local under steam out of Mechanicsville, NY to Williamstown, MA. There was a 2-1/2 mile siding between the two mains from Hoosick, NY (where I lived) to Petersburg Jct where the B&M crossed the Rutland Corkscrew Div.

At any rate, this one Saturday the local had dropped its last car at the grainery, then had to wait on the siding for some eastbounds before it went on to Williamstown for a pickup. I was on the ground chatting with the cab crew as I did often, when I was invited up into the cab. After a while, the brakeman came back with clearance for the engine to travel the siding down to P'Burg Jct, then occupy the main to W'Town. Since I was already sitting in his seat, the engineer asked if I wanted to take her down the siding...with him at my elbow, of course.

You can't believe the thrill of driving a B&M tea kettle, Mogul IIRC, for 2-1/2 miles....WOW!!!mg: :shade:

 

My only experience with steam in the cab was on the Reader RR in Arkansas. A friend of mine and I arrived early in the morning before the tourist run and sat in the cab with the engineer & fireman while they were building the fire in their little 2-6-2 woodburner and had the chance to ride from the shops to the depot for the first run of the day. That was a fun morning! I have chased T&P 610 in '76 on the AFT, 4449 with a full daylight train in '81 from Houston to Dallas (we did tour the cab in Houston), and 3985 from Russellville to Van Buren in Feb '04. Now that is one BIG engine! I do love to watch the side rod action on those old engines. :shade: :thumbs_up:

 

I was the curator at the Camp 6 Logging Exhibit located in Pt. Defiance Park in Tacoma's "North End" for 4 years. At the time we were running ex Klickitat Logging and Lumber 90 ton Pacific Coast Shay number 7. One year in the off season, we had done the usual inspections and maintenance, repacking valves, lappimg in the throttle, ect. In addition, Jack Anderson from the Mt Rainier Scenic RR had fabricated new mainrod bearings and we had installed them.

One morning the next spring, prior to the start of the operating season, I went out and fired up the Shay. With a friend from California firing, and Jack onboard, we took her out and ran here around the loop for about an hour, stopping periodically to check that the new bearings weren't running hot. Satisfied all was okay, and with Jack running her, we started to back towards the enginehouse. The track we were on ran through the enginehouse and beyond about 150 yards, treminating at the Vassault street entrance. Immediately behind the enginehouse were our rider car and ex GN caboose, and further down thr track were half a dozen log cars.

Jack had just opened the throttle and started us moving backwards, when, without warning, the throttle slammed wide open with a bang! The Shay leapt backwards as Jack applied the engine brakes full on and tried to close the throttle. With the throttle open wide the brakes had no effect, and as Jack and I struggled to close the throttle, the 7 was charging full tilt (about 13 mph) down the all too short track towards the open doors of the enginehouse. With thoughts of shoving all that equipment out into traffic on Vassault Street, we banged on the throttle frantically in our attempts to close it, but to no avail. With my feet planted against the cab's back wall, and my shoulder pushing against the Johnson Bar as Jack pulled on it for all he was worth, we finally managed to get her up to top dead center, the brakes took hold and we stopped with her all the way in the enginehouse, about 6 feet from the end of the rider car. Steam was roaring out of the stack at 195psi, when, just as suddenly as it had opened, the throttle responded and we got it closed. Jack and I looked at each other with the same shaken expressions and asked each other, "What the hell?" Looking at poor Mikes expression of near terror caused us to laugh, which quickly took on near hysterical porportions. The biggest locomotive he had been on to date was the 5 ton, 18" gauge locomotive he ran in a park in Los Gatos, Ca., so the 7's wild ride was a first for him. Tightening up the slack adjustors until the brakes would just barely release, we took the 7 out and started and stopped numerous times, and the throttle problem never re-occured.

Tom