It followed me home

[ThomasPowers]

I once ran across a place in West Virginia that had a number of old logging trains that would count...

[Frosty]

Hmmmm, All I'd have to do is win a lottery. A little work and I could drive it to the west coast, load (drive it on) a RR barge to Valdez (mispronounced Valdeez in Alaska) and drive it to the siding about 2 miles from the house. And have it trucked to the property.

I even know a good place for it on the property, relatively flat and level along the crest of the ridgeline the house is built on. 1,000' of rail and a short train would look nice and the caboose would make a wonderful man cave with power and a wifi connection. 

I'd LOVE to have a caboose, add a steam locomotive would be more than a dream come true. 

We could start an Iforge crowd fund.  

I'll will it to the member who wins the drawing when Deb killed me. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[JHCC]

Let me know if you get it; I’ve got a bucket of rr spikes I’m not using, and I’d be happy for you to put them to good use. 

A few goodies from a quick visit to my local flea market yesterday; ten bucks for everything:

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

drive it to the siding about 2 miles from the house. And have it trucked to the property.

Nah, nah, Frosty. Drive it to the siding, and then use the track to extend the siding to your place. If there isn’t enough track, lay down all you have, move the train to the front of that section, take up the rail behind the train, and move it to the front. Repeat all the way to the funeral home. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

4 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

once ran across a place in West Virginia that had a number of old logging trains that would count...

I dunno much bout trains but I think this one was to small to be a logging train, the passenger cars looked like they could seat maybe 4 kids or two adults per car, 

4 hours ago, Frosty said:

I'd LOVE to have a caboose

I think the caboose could only fit one adult or two kids, 

3 hours ago, JHCC said:

Let me know if you get it; I’ve got a bucket of rr spikes I’m not using, and I’d be happy for you to put them to good use.

Lol, thanks for the offer, but I think it done sold,

the rail tracks and cross ties were still assembled just broke down in 20’ lengths, I think you just had to bolt them together with plates? 

it came with all the curves and everything to build a track a little smaller then a half a mile, 

the little locomotive was real coal fired steam rig which I thought was pretty cool, 

back in the fall me Ash an Max rode a similar train down in tahlemena he had a blast, he’s been obsessed with choo choos ever since lol, 

the one we rode had been built in the 1940s for a theme park, but had since been converted to gasoline engine, they had two trains there they operate during clear weather,

 

[Frosty]

I'm not buying a lottery ticket then. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Jerry,

how big of a railroad and train did you think I was talking about for $15k? lol

had it been a full size railroad and train for that amount I’d probably went to the bank to float a loan!  I guess a body could always set it up an sell tickets to pay it off? 

[Frosty]

There have been a couple full size and one large caboose around here, that were offered for the price of hauling them off the property. By around here I mean within about 15 miles. 

If I still ran a chain saw I might be tempted to lay the track and use it to haul firewood blocks to the splitter but those cars wouldn't make the job easier.

I'd MUCH rather have Jennifer's little tractor. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

TW, the pictures of Max on the train greatly remind me of my son, Tom, when he was little.  He was fascinated by trains.  One time when he was about 4 he was playing with his Thomas the Tank Engine toys and looked up at me and said "Trains (are) my life."  We rode most of the steam trains in Colorado with him and would go out to see RR events such as big steam engines going by.  Martha and I had our own interests in railroads and it all fit together very well.

GNM

[Farmall]

Thomas it was probably Cass West Virginia - they have Shay locomotives that I have ridden on. 

Frosty, as to steam trains, my great-grandfather and grandfather helped the Norfolk and Western Railway build steam locomotives.  When I was little, Granddad would take me to the Transportation Museum and show me the locomotives there that he helped build.  Would talk about the challenges they faced with each one.  Such amazing machines.  I love to watch them and think of my ancestors when I see them go by on excursions. 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

There have been a couple full size and one large caboose around here

Wow that’s pretty cool! But I don’t think I’d wanna be the guy footin the fuel bill!  Lol

that an I don’t think I got enough room for a full size railroad and train

if I coulda swung it though it would’ve been cool to have a little half mile railroad an mini train, I could just build the loop around my field! 

the closest thing I have to a train though is an old longergan steam whistle plumbed to a 2 stage air compressor, that dude will blow your ear drums out if you ain’t wearing ear plugs! 

I’ve threatened to mount that dude on the roof of my shop and blast it off everyday at noon an again at 5 lol

we got the Kansas City southern that rolls through peavine but I’d bet it’s been quite a few decades since the community has heard a steam whistle blast! (Well unless you live within a quarter mile) lol

I’ve been told that they sound even better if ran off a boiler instead of an air compressor, but I don’t know, I’ve never got to hear one in person ran off steam

[George N. M.]

Here in Laramie we are on the main line of the Union Pacific RR and it is a good place for a rail fan.  A couple of summers ago we had the Big Boy, the largest steam locomitive in the world, which the UP recently renovated after it being in a CA musweum for half a century, stop here for several days.  I've also seen the UP's Challenger 8444, the Big Boy's little brother, operating at high speed south of Greeley, CO where the right of way is right beside the highway.  When you are pacing a steam loco at 70 mph the wheels and connecting rods are right on the endge of being a blur.  Very impressive and a memory I will treasure all my life.

Here is a video of the Big Boy and Challenger, double headed, coing into Laramie in 2019.

"By hammer and hand (and steam locomotives) all arts do stand."

[Scott NC]

1 hour ago, Farmall said:

they have Shay locomotives that I have ridden on. 

  Shays, Heislers and Climax... I know there are still operating engines of each kind.  I wish I could travel to these places and watch and study the motion, operation and care of each up close.  Gear driven locomotives facinate me.  Max will definately be a mechanically inclined young man.  

 Edit:  George, they used to pass through my home town of Fremont, Ne on their way to Omaha and Council Bluffs.  They made a short stop where fans could get up close.  They radiated heat like a volcano just standing next to them.

[Frosty]

I'd love to have a caboose and enough track to mount it on. It would be a combination man cave and guest house. 

Thanks for the Youtube link George, I would've loved to have been there. Could you get a tour of the engines?

This is the last operating steam engine operating in Alaska that I know of that isn't an exhibition locomotive. youtube.com/watch?v=QBSuNz3g0oA

One of these monsters is parked on a siding on the south end of Potter Marsh in Anchorage. It hasn't been run in decades but is capable of running with some overhaul if conditions on the RR over the passes require that heavy a hitter. When you walk up to the blade end the rotary is IIRC about 12' in Dia. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[seldom (dick renker)]

Nodebt, if you travel to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer,,NC you can see a large Shay. The l;ast I knew it was still operating. I helped overhaul it in 90's.

[ThomasPowers]

Cass; perhaps; all I remember is that it was in a small remote valley next to a "classic" general store.  Sold traps, food, clothing, had a lunch counter, etc.

After I stumbled across it; I took a train mad friend out to see them, (He'd previously made a trip to India to ride the steam trains still in service there!).  I remember standing in snow while it was raining while he was taking measurements on a Locomotive...

Frosty there is an abandoned? Caboose on a track out here.  I'll try to get a picture of it for you.

[Scott NC]

  Thanks Seldom.  I looked on maps and it is 1.5 hours away.  I will go see it.

[Frosty]

It's not too early to do some Christmas shipping Thomas. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Frosty, you probably know this but I'll throw this out for our friends who are not blessed with local steam railroads:  In a RR roatary snowplow the engine powers the plow.  Movement is provided by one or more pusher locomotives.  Here is a video of a rostary snowplow operating on the Cumbres and Toltec, a senic/tourist RR, that operates along the Colorado/New Mexico border along a portion of the old Denver and Rio Grande Western right of way between Cumbres, NM and Antonito, CO.

They use their rotary to clear the tracks every spring before they start operations for the season.

I have ridden the route and highly recommend it as well and the Silverton Train between Durango and Silverton, CO on a different portion of the D&RGW right of way.  Both are narrow guage (3' IIRC).

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[George N. M.]

PS I earlier mentioned watching and pacing UP 8444 along US 85 south of Greeley, CO.  Here is a video of that engine along the same track doing 75 mph.  I can imagine the engineer recieving his orders and when he reads them they say, "Warp 10, Mr. Scott."

When I looker this up I saw that I had commented on it a year ago.  Some of the other comments are interesting.

"Our fathers' magic carpet made of steel."  -Arlo Gutherie The City of New Oleans

[Frosty]

DARN, the link I attached doesn't work. I linked the White Pass and Yukon (WP&Y) rotary plow. I guess Youtube video link didn't work for me. See if I did it right this time.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBSuNz3g0oA

George is right, the rotary plow isn't a locomotive, they can move themselves just, couple, uncouple, etc. certainly not  plow snow. 

The first time I saw one in operation was on the local news. I'd been driving past the one parked at the Potter Marsh siding for years but thought it was a display or something. We'd gotten several major snow storms and they'd had to run the WP&Y rotary plow without breaking trail first. The news station chartered a helicopter to video the show. The Railroad said it'd be something to watch.

The commentator is maintaining her patter as they fly over snow fields in the high pass, the pilot says something, the camera man aims forward and there's a strange cloud of snow ahead a few miles. The pilot says they should be getting close to the plow, it should be visible but there's nothing but white and a cloud.

As they get closer the cloud of snow resolves into a geyser-like wall spewing off to one side. The pilot eases the other way to avoid it and the train comes into view in a snow trench and this giant black smoke bellowing beast is blasting a wall of snow up and to the side. It was cutting a path in snow deeper than the plow was tall, and billowing a column of black smoke you would NOT believe. It was audible the in copter as they flew by. 

I drove down to the rotary plow parked at Potter Marsh the next day and joined about 30 people looking it over. 

The 8444 video is something to watch! I'd HAVE to pace her if I was on the highway at the same time! Try anyway.

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

The day I paced 8444 it was very humid and she was wreathed in steam at speed.  Very impressive.

I was once northbound on Hwy 85 and saw smoke rising from some woods.  As I crossed the South Platte River bridge 8444 came out of the trees pulling a revenue mixed freight train.  I assume it was headed from Cheyenne, where the UP steam locos are based, to Denver for some excursion trip and they sent a string of freight cars with it.  Unusual to see it in actual revenue service.  Although 8444 is smaller than the Big Boy it is faster because it was designed to pull passenger trains while the Big Boys were designed for freight service, particularly over Sherman Hill between Cheyenne and Laramie.  Speed vs. torque.

BTW, the subdivision I live in is named "Sherman Hill Estates."

GNM

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

There is a tourist train in Eureka Springs that was the old Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad line. When we first moved here they were running an old wood burning "cabbage head" engine. We really loved that old wood burner and it's whistle.

People complained about the smoke so they went to an old oil burner. More complaints about the pollution from the oil smoke so now they use an old diesel electric engine. The only pictures I have is of the oil burner and diesel electric.

 

[M.J.Lampert]

22 hours ago, TWISTEDWILLOW said:

I dunno much bout trains but I think this one was to small to be a logging train, the passenger cars looked like they could seat maybe 4 kids or two adults per car, 

I think the caboose could only fit one adult or two kids, 

Lol, thanks for the offer, but I think it done sold,

the rail tracks and cross ties were still assembled just broke down in 20’ lengths, I think you just had to bolt them together with plates? 

it came with all the curves and everything to build a track a little smaller then a half a mile, 

the little locomotive was real coal fired steam rig which I thought was pretty cool, 

back in the fall me Ash an Max rode a similar train down in tahlemena he had a blast, he’s been obsessed with choo choos ever since lol, 

the one we rode had been built in the 1940s for a theme park, but had since been converted to gasoline engine, they had two trains there they operate during clear weather,

theres a rail road museum near here that was running when i was 6/7ish not sure if they still run it but they had a little train like that there i heard they had a blacksmith shop and a local group meets there once a month but there dates never align with when i head that way

M.J.Lampert

[Frosty]

Knotts Berry Farm had a steam locomotive train that made rounds of the park, just never when I was there. <sigh> The small train like Billy shows was  better miniature replica of a train and circled the kiddy park.  Wow, I just looked at the website! The train is still operating though I don't know if it's steam. The kid's train looks just like I remember though it was just sitting then. The ghost town and gun fight is still a regular show.

It doesn't look like they got id of anything except maybe parking space. It was a working berry farm the two times I was there with the folks. Now it's a full blown amusement park.

Looks like fun though I seriously doubt we'll visit S. Cal again.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Well I’ve tried twice now to catch the old man with the junk store so I could see this possible railroad anvil and big blower

but he doesn’t keep any regular hours, regular days or anything, an the phone number I found don’t work 

hes got a lot of cool old stuff setting around outside of the building, I saw a few things I’m interested in, like one of those old bicycle wet stone grinders, an lots of old farm stuff

I’ll get pictures when I catch him open, I didn’t feel comfortable walking around the property an taking pictures without permission, that’s a good way to get in trouble around here