• Video of Steam Train Departing Station

  • Discussion of steam locomotives from all manufacturers and railroads
Discussion of steam locomotives from all manufacturers and railroads

Moderators: Typewriters, slide rules

  by flypod
 
This is a video i shot of the Steam Train leaving the station

http://youtu.be/G5CknnD9xu4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Enjoy

ADMIN NOTE:
This link is dead at youtube.
Last edited by John_Perkowski on Fri Jan 06, 2017 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: The link is dead at youtube.
  by GSC
 
Maybe you could tell us where this "steam train" is? Some details?

The slipping is a sign of inexperience. We were taught not to slip the drivers. Wastes fuel, water, and is harmful to the running gear. The sudden forced draft to the fire can tear it to pieces. Very amateurish.
  by johnthefireman
 
Looks to me like South Africa. The green and white coaches pulling out at the beginning of the video are Rovos Rail. I can't recognise the location and can't read the loco number, but I'll ask around.

As a fireman I agree with you about wheel slip. It can tear huge holes in the fire.

Cheers!
John
  by johnthefireman
 
I got a quick reply from the Friends of the Rail Forum (http://www.friendsoftherail.com/phpBB2/), a South African heritage rail forum of which I am one of the administrators. The loco is Class 12AR no 1535 from the Reefsteamers stable. My informant guesses that the location is Magaliesburg, but hopefully someone else will be able to confirm.

Cheers!
John
  by johnthefireman
 
And an e-mail from a colleague has just confirmed that the location is Magaliesburg.
  by mmi16
 
GSC wrote:Maybe you could tell us where this "steam train" is? Some details?

The slipping is a sign of inexperience. We were taught not to slip the drivers. Wastes fuel, water, and is harmful to the running gear. The sudden forced draft to the fire can tear it to pieces. Very amateurish.
Showmanship! Engineer had a audience and put on a show.
  by Steffen
 
But this show can seriously damage the whole engine... simply stupid!
  by Gadfly
 
mmi16 wrote:
GSC wrote:Maybe you could tell us where this "steam train" is? Some details?

The slipping is a sign of inexperience. We were taught not to slip the drivers. Wastes fuel, water, and is harmful to the running gear. The sudden forced draft to the fire can tear it to pieces. Very amateurish.
Showmanship! Engineer had a audience and put on a show.
HA! As stated it causes damage to the engine such as premature tire wear, can cause problems with the valve gear and *can* "dig out" cups in the rail head. Watch what happens the next time you see an engine slip down like that. Pay attention to the fire itself and watch how it becomes "disturbed"! It ISN'T funny, it is a waste of effort, it is quite immature on the part of those who "enjoy" this so-called "show" and shows the inexperience of a student engineman. Not only the mechanical department will get angry, but the track supervisor who has to change out a rail might pay you a visit! :( And that's after the Trainmaster gets thru with you! :-D Watch some of the old videos of trains in revenue service. Usually, if an engine slips the engineer is right on top of it with a reduction in throttle, then sand. They usually know where their engine might slip down, and will act to stop it quickly.

Same thing goes for all the smoke put out for these photo run-bys. Even in the early days of steam, there were efforts to prevent so much smoke, and you'll notice that there would be a minimum of smoke most of the time--except for the heaviest of pulls. Railroads strove to keep smoke down since towns and cities protested highly at clouds of black smoke polluting their sky! It went for all that "whistling",too! Whistles are a warning signal, not a pretty toy! Pay attention to these excursion trains where there seems to be all this whistling where it's not necessary. Whistle signals out in the middle of nowhere, no crossing, no nothing. But the video and photog guys BEG for all this noise and smoke pollution for their cameras when it really wasn't like that at all. If an engineer had a tendency to "play" with the whistle, he was likely to get a "talking" to! It really wasn't LIKE that in the old days, and slip-downs were frowned upon!

GF
  by johnthefireman
 
Agreed. Wheel slip is still frowned upon in the South African heritage rail community, and it is highly unlikely that any driver would do it deliberately. As you say, the mechanical engineers will not be happy, and neither will the owners of the track (in our case the national railway company). One's fellow drivers will take the piss, and the fireman will complain about the huge holes it tears in the fire. I've been privileged to fire to some of the old experienced drivers, including one who did fifty years on the footplate, and it's a joy to watch some of them pick up a heavy train in slippery conditions without slipping. We're conscious that we are responsible for heritage equipment and that repairs and maintenance are far more difficult now that we have only a handful of volunteers, very little money and limited facilities compared to the old days.

Likewise black smoke. Firemen are taught not to make black smoke, to fire "light and bright", with a thin grey haze coming out of the chimney. The exception would be packing the firebox at the start of a long steep gradient. Photographers and video makers demand black smoke, and since often they are paying for the event we have to oblige, but apart from anything else it really buggers up your fire, as you end up putting in more coal than is needed and reducing the air flow, and that leaves you with a fire that is too thick and lumpy.
  by Gadfly
 
I'd guess you have to please the more virulent railfans with all that smoke and whistling. It really is a shame that people want to pollute the atmosphere simply for a "show". As to the slipping, I'd swear that some of these fellas would almost pee their britches over it! LOL! Me, I fail to see the humor in it! I've had to be out in rain and snow, with a bucket of sand, trying to get a stalled work machine to get traction so we could move and clear up. This is "funny"????????????????? :(
  by mikado-2-8-2
 
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.
  by Gadfly
 
johnthefireman wrote:There's a video of a different locomotive departing from Magaliesburg with less wheel-slip at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9HXayrnNGM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I was aboard (american) a Southern Railway excursion out of Charlotte, NC. We were loaded to the max, and pulling those old,heavy, green coaches.l it is up hill southbound out of Charlotte , and not a lot of room to get a train moving. In the old steam days, helpers were on permanent duty out of Charlotte Yard to shove the heavy freights out of the yard. The engineer was George, whom I was privileged to know and work with in my RR career. And George, having begun his career in 1944(ish) was one of the few remaining steam engineers in the mid-80's. ON this day, he received his signal for Extra 4501 South to proceed, and we eased slowly out of the station, chuffing softly, then harder and harder. We got up to about 25 MPH, and the exhaust was deafening! And we got slower and slower....................and slower. Until I heard the radio ask Mr Ambrose what his speed was.

In that familiar drawl, George said, "We're down to 8 MPH, but we're still moving, over". Clouds of steam and sand accompanied this show of defiance as old 4501 clawed its way towards Charlotte Junction outbound. At times, she started to slip, but George was right on top of it with sand and throttle, a sudden silence signaling George's quick action to stop the wheelspin, He just seemed to know...............But when it DID suddenly break lose, I can hear him now fussin' at the engine. I had heard him before, "AWRITE NOW! You cut that out!!!" :-D Or "AANK-AANK--Oh no you don't!! :P And we didn't stall that day, either.

It is times like this when I can look back and realize I came along at a unique time, and one that won't come again. In those days, early 1980's, Southern Railway was just before the end of the Timetable and Train Order regimen. It was then that I came along. While "real" steam ended 30 years prior, we still had the excursions in the summer. At any given time, there could be one or more steam engines in the yard! This, coupled with the train orders, block operators, and our passenger train, pulled by E8's, gave it all an atmosphere of 1940! It was a regular occurrence to be working at an outlying station, and have a steam train (or two) on our District. And, to rush outside to "hand up" Form 19's to a big 4-8-4. They were handled exactly the same as any train. Sometimes they were "Extra's" (white flags), or flagged (green) as part of a following section of of a scheduled train. Not being a true railfan, this was mostly part of my work, tho, admittedly, I regarded it as different, and beat slaving in a cotton mill somewhere! But as I continued this career, tho rough it be at times, it dawned on me that I was participating, or looking back on an era that I wouldn't ordinarily have experienced! It was railroading as the rail buffs read about or imagine. It was steam engines (yeah, slipping, and all), Being the Call Clerk, going to the dormitory to call the crew for Train 138, hauling supplies out to NW 611, doing the Cab Supply job (when we still had cabooses), deadheading in the cab of those beautiful, green E8's, or riding in the fireman's jump seat on a 4-8-4, melodious whistle screaming right in my ear! And standing out trackside on a cold, January night, with a hoop in hand, waiting for a heavy freight with High & Wide orders!

And one day, it was all over. The 30 years became 15, then 10, then 5, and I was on the top of the seniority list. Then it was over! The railroad that I cussed and "hated", suddenly was a missed friend instead of a screaming Trainmaster I wanted to slap the snot out of! And I get to sit and reflect on what was a tough
job, but an exciting time, too! And those steam locomotives kinda added to it all. I guess I was lucky after all! :wink:
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  by johnthefireman
 
Thanks for that little saga, Gadfly, which really evokes the atmosphere of days gone by!
  by Gadfly
 
johnthefireman wrote:Thanks for that little saga, Gadfly, which really evokes the atmosphere of days gone by!
Thanks! It was truly "different", and, all in all, I am grateful for having been allowed to be a part of it! :wink:

I still have a photo I snapped of NW 611 marching past my station (and many other memories/mementos), all awash in smoke and steam, the pops a-poppin' and the white steam shooting skyward indicating that big steamboat-style whistle announcing her onward rush!

"Yer lookin' good on the South side here at Gastonia, 611, OOOO-VAAAAAH!" :wink: :wink: