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The railroads have traditionally been early adopters of electronic communication the earliest being the telegraph not too long after it's invention. In fact some of today's fiber optic cables follow some of the early railroads telegraph routes.

Also some of the tenders were pressurized with air in addition to heaters, most notably Southern Pacific's Cab Forwards

Yes, the potential for a front end collision was one concern that the men in the cab had concern with in the early years of SP's Cab Forward locomotives. However their unobstructed forward view gave them a decided advantage over conventional locomotives and none were ever involved in one of the imag...

Excess smoke creates soot in the flue tubes which must be removed by sanding the flues which in turn creates greater wear on the flue tubes. Also creates more pollution and wastes fuel. A no win situation all around. The wheel slippage issue is covered by previous posters.

So, we are going to strangle railroads in favor of more trucks that would drastically increase total emissions from the whole transportation industry although individually each unit would look good on paper. The thing that clean air bureaucracy lacks is looking at the total picture as opposed to one...

The one thing that most people forget, don't know or just don't care is that railroad tracks and right of way is private property and it is the public who encroaches on railroad property in the form of grade crossings and underpasses, not the other way around. And they ought to make the loser of a c...

I see a distinct link or pattern between a defunct locomotive builder a defunct auto maker, Alco & Studebaker which by the way were at one time corporately intertwined in ownership. Studebaker you can still get any part you want, even though they quit making cars around the same time Alco quit b...

Steam heating of passenger cars was used long after the demise of steam power. A lot of the diesel locomotives built for passenger service from the 30's thru the 60's, maybe into the early 70's were equipped with auxiliary steam boilers. A number of steam locomotive tenders were converted to auxilia...

During WWII DM&IR leased it's big Yellowstones to D&RG during the winter when iron ore operations were shut down for 3 to 5 months a year. 1944-45 UP was so desperate for motive power that were leasing and buying everything that wasn't nailed down that was of use to them. They even bought so...

One thing no one has mentioned in the C&O explosion that these were the last yeas of steam operation. C&O was converting to diesels and was downsizing steam maintenance & repair crews as fast as possible. The steam locomotives that were left were not being serviced or maintained very wel...

SP 4449 has a tender booster which is rare in itself and probably the only operational one in the world. First time I climbed in the cab was over 55 years ago when it was stuffed and mounted as a display engine and the last time was around 10 years ago on a private tour.

I will tell you a little story, people do get old and unable to drive or fly places and our population is aging very fast. How many of you younger than 50 would like to be driving on the same high speed road with a 70 year old person with health problems. Any time they could turn their automobile in...

I can add the town of Oakridge, Oregon. It was a big helper depot on the western side of the Southern Pacific's main line over the Cascade Mts from Eugene to Klamath Fallls. They had about 3/4's of the town covered with railroad tracks and shops from the old pictures I have seen. My great uncle was ...