Steam Passenger Trains

[Friends just call me Ross]

I love train travel.❤️❤️❤️  

Especially love steam trains and the old un-welded tracks that create the hypnotic

'clackety-clack clackety-clack clackety-clack' sound.  

The only drawback to steam locomotives is that, if you are in an open car,

you need to wear eye protection to keep the ash and cinders out of your eyes. 

Well, you also have to stop for wood/coal and water. lol

 

The Delta County Chamber of Commerce used to sponsor train trips across the Upper Peninsula and into

North-eastern Wisconsin.  I went on every one.   Usually took one of my parents with. (They are divorced.)

 

Loopy and I even went on a two-day train ride up to the Copper Country, once.

 

I took my Dad on the last steam train ride.  We traveled first class and it was a real hoot!

It was a two day trip, so we got to stay at a fancy bed and breakfast, too.

 

 

I would ride trains everyday if I could.  Alas, Canadian railways have bought up

all the tracks so we can't ride on them anymore.

 

But, I watch train trip videos on youtube all the time.

Got my hubby wanting to take a train trip across Canada. 

He even had me price tickets and he subscribed to a Train Journey magazine. lolol

 

[Stormswift]

Just wanted to say I've joined this club on Tom's behalf (My husband) ... since I have my own little Thomas the Tank Engine ... he loves steamtrains too. He loves going on virtual train trips all around the world.

 

This is the Fell Engine we had in Featherston the town where I grew up. It was originally in a park - and my friend Maroeska and I used to sunbathe on the top of it. Now it is fully restored and in a Museum over the road. 

It used to travel over Cross Creeks up the Rimutaka Incline, it joined Wellington with the Wairarapa - it was nicknamed 'Siberia'  because of the harsh climate in the winter and the steep incline.

 

 

 

 

[Tortuga]

Many years ago we took the "Skunk Train" in northern California, it's an old steam train that winds through the California redwood trees.

https://www.skunktrain.com/

 

Several years ago I heard that the UP 844 would pass through town so a brother and I went to watch it go by.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_844

"Today, it is one of UP's oldest serving locomotives, as well as the only steam locomotive never retired by a North American Class I railroad."

[Qapla]

Nice!

 

I did notice that 844 has been converted from Coal to Fuel Oil

[Old]

When I was young the only way to get from Eureka California to San Francisco was on an overnight NWP, Coach only, oil fired steam train. To get a feel of what that was like the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento has an interactive display of one of the coaches complete with the clack clack of the rail joints and the rocking back and forth the class C track bed. It really brought back memories. I was a very sick child and the specialist were in SF. I remember several  of those sleepless nights in that coach. This was WWII and our gas ration could not get us 300 miles and back on a repeat basis.

 

https://www.californiarailroad.museum/

[Old]

My family rode to the 1946 Cleveland Convention on the  Union Pacific’s the 4-6-6-4 Challenger. Though it was later converted to an oil burner it was coal fired at the time. My little sister was getting green around the gills while waiting to get in the dining car. My Mother bent down to see why and there was level un-combusted coal smoke hovering slightly above my sister’s head. I remember the stink but did not get sick.

It seems so strange that those magnificent engineering feats accomplished by the railroads were so common place and now they are museum pieces.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Old

[Old]

This engine is in the California Railroad Museum. A Mallet, usually pronounced Mally. They were articulated like city buses. They were cab forward for two reasons. One being articulated a rear cab would not have a clear view of the tacks ahead when rounding sharp curves and they kept the cab free of smoke when transiting tunnels. Railroad companies weren’t too worried about the passengers; there are reports of passengers suffering from asphyxiation due to passage through long tunnels.

These engines were used to surmount the extreme grades across the Sierra Nevada mountains and Siskiyou mountains at Mount Shasta California. When attending Circuit Assembiess at Redding California these would tear by our motel at all hours of the night. (guess which side of the tracks our cheap motel was on.) I was much impressed with the forward cab and oscillating light.

[Friends just call me Ross]

What I remember most about the steam engines is how they gave you the impression they were alive.

With the way they hissed and belched, and rumbled it was like they were living, breathing 'beasts'.

Kind a' scary and yet really cool at the same time.

[Old]

1 minute ago, Friends just call me Ross said:

What I remember most about the steam engines is how they gave you the impression they were alive.

With the way they hissed and belched, and rumbled it was like they were living, breathing 'beasts'.

Kind a' scary and yet really cool at the same time.

As a tyke I was in fear of them. The worst was when they were resting at the platform and they would clear the cylinders with a big gush of noisy steam.. It was terrifying to me. Probably the engineer thought he was entertaining. Fireman "Wait until the kid gets close ... OK now!"

[Qapla]

I have never been on a steam train.

 

I would really enjoy learning how to drive one

[Old]

4 hours ago, Qapla said:

I have never been on a steam train.

 

I would really enjoy learning how to drive one

Easy, just push the throttle lever forward. 

Stopping is a whole different skill.

[Dave]

We took a ride on a steam train while visiting the Wellington Anniversary day festival in Wanganui a year or so ago. It came up from Wellington for the weekend. It's the first time I ever rode on a steam train.

 

This one was named "Joanne". I had fun photographing this beautiful piece of engineering history.