Milsurp After Hours

Going back a few years, I was very interested in railways and used to go train spotting as a young lad. I still have an interest in modern railways, but steam holds the most interest for me. The pictures I took when I was 13 years old on Lancaster Castle station of a train waiting to head off north to Carlisle over Shap fell. It was taken on 4th July 1964. It was taken with a Brownie 127 that has a single shutter speed and a sunny and cloudy aperture setting. The engine is a Britannia Class 4-6-2 pacific, 70038 Robin Hood built in the early 1950s.
Regards
Peter.

My uncle is a huge train buff and one thing that always struck him was how huge American trains were compared to British/European trains. I guess it is a function of space, size of the cars, loads and distance to cover. When I was in Britain years ago we saw the "Mallard" or "Green Mallard" that was the world record holder for the fastest steam engine. It looked so small an sleek compard to the massive American "Land Battleships" like the Union Pacific "Big Boy", more like a sports car by comparison.

Mallard is the fastest steam engine, 126 mph. We got stuck with a small loading gauge as we were early into building railways and they didn't plan for big engines so the bridges and tunnels were built to relatively small dimensions. It would have been too costly to enlarge them all at a later date. I have seen some You Tube video of the UP Big Boys and they are mighty engines. I would like to see one restored to working order, but it would be expensive. There is the UP Challenger in operation and that is a big engine. It makes ours look like toys.
Regards
Peter.

Peter,

That's the price that one pays for being a pioneer. I paid my first visit toEngland in 1960 and I was amazed at the poor quality of the television compared to what we then had in Australia , the same thing, the penalty of being the pioneer.
I didn't find the locomotives that much smaller than ours but we did benefit by having a larger loading gauge.

Steam was still there in 1960 and I remember being on Barking station one morning when the staff ran out and got all the waiting passengers well back from the platform edge as an Express had been switched to the suburban tracks.

It came through Barking at about 80+ mph and sucked every bit of paper and rubbish off the platform, locomotive was a 4-6-2 Tank.

My Grandfather (man in the window in both photos) was the engineer on a logging railroad for over 25 years.
It is a 1927 Baldwin Aritculated Compound Mallet 2-6-6-2 that weighed 275,000 lbs.
Articulated means the front set of drivers could pivot slightly on sharper curves.
Compound Mallet means it used the steam twice, hence the 2 different size pistons on front and rear drivers.
It was in use until the early 1960's.
It was one of the largest engines used on logging railroads, built to haul heavy loads at slower speeds, but not as big or fast as the mainline locomotives.

Vern.

Strange how the year c. 1960 comes up as the end of the age of steam for most of the developed parts of the English speaking world. The last steam engines running in the USA were here in Virginia-Norfolk Southern? in 1961. I guess the cheap price of oil for the diesels just made too much sense along with the lower maintenance costs of the diesel electrics put athe last nail in the coffin for steam. While most US trains were bigger, we too faced the problem in the Eastern US with lower bridges and geography as a UP Big Boy that was great on the plains would get stuck on the older more congested and windy routes in the East. The US was one of the first countries after Britain to embrace the rail road (railway) and in the East routing them through the more densely populated areas required somewhat smaller more compact engines too, but still they were behemoths compared to the UK engines and cars (trucks).

Steam went out of service in the UK in August 1968. It lasted longer in some parts of Europe.
Regards
Peter.

Virginian,

"The last standard gauge regular freight service steam by a class 1 railroad was on the isolated Leadville branch of the Colorado and Southern (Burlington Lines) October 11, 1962 with 2-8-0 #641."

And I have a photo dated June 1962, of the engine I posted photos of hauling logs, and it was obviously not it's last day.
So I guess if Norfolk Southern stopped in 1961, they weren't the last in the USA.

And as for the Union Pacific Big Boys, they were never used on the plains.

"The Big Boys were specifically designed to pull a 3,600 short ton (3,300 t) freight train over the long 1.14% grade of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah."
That's what they were built for and that's where they were used.

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Of the 25 big boys built, 8 are still in museums or preserved around the country.
#4014 is at the L.A. County Fairgrounds and we saw it every year when we lived near there.
Until you stand next to one, you can't imagine how big it really is, very impressive.

Vern.