Giant Locomotive On Freeway

Discussion in 'Photos & Video' started by Frank Sanoica, May 22, 2018.

  1. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    Amazing video! Santa Fe # 3751 was restored to service for excursion use in 1986. Perhaps the cars seen in the video can identify when it was made, approximately.





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    3751-3764, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, Eddystone, PA, 1927-29, 14 were built, all retired from service by 1959. Nos. 3751, seen in the video, 3759 preserved in Kingman, AZ. 3751 was restored to operating condition in 1986. It's total weight is 874,346 pounds, 3,600 horsepower drawbar pull, routinely pulled 105 freight cars carrying a total of 5,949 tons. One can easily see why with only two persons on the payroll, these monsters moved tonnage, or passengers, far more competitively than, say, a semi-truck with one driver moving only 20 tons.
    Frank
     
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  2. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Hey @Frank Sanoica all the cars are on the wrong side of the road .... 124B8013-B95A-41EB-87CD-88152673D1CC.gif

    Remember I live in Australia :D:D:D

    I loved the video it brings back memories from when I was a kid ...however the trains back then were real bad polluters of the air we breathe
     
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  3. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    When I was much younger, waiting at a crossing was an event unparalleled by anything I could imagine. I would watch and never take my eyes off the big engine as it drew closer for I knew that my timing had to be just right in order to garner the prize that was forthcoming.
    Just as the front of the huge, noisy mammoth came within a few yards of the crossing, I’d start waving. “Wave, wave harder or he won’t see me!” I’d tell myself. Then came the reward for the engineer would stick his head and arm out of the window, smiling and waving back as though we were the best of friends.

    Now satisfied and well rewarded but physically and emotionally exhausted, a well earned recouperative rest would be in play whilst awaiting the cars to pass by. The caboose, a wave from my buddy in the caboose would be the icing on the cake, the perfect finish for a perfect day!
    There it is! Waving one tired arm then the other then both as the caboose slowly came close and there he was, waving back! Through the corners of my eyes I could see other kids waving at him but I knew way down deep that it was me that the man in the last car was waving at, just me and it made me feel so very, very special!

    I do not know when it happened or even how. Perhaps whilst growing up, my attentions were drawn to other places and to other things. The trains passed by and I no longer waved but instead sat impatiently at the crossing awaiting the end so I could go about my business. When did I stop waving and why?

    I am at a loss, for memory does not serve me well in such matters any longer but I noticed one day at a crossing that the engineers window was closed and at the end there was no caboose.
    The smiling faces, the flailing arms and hands sticking out the window of the engine and caboose were gone.
    There were none to wave at and my friends had abandoned me the same as I had apparently abandoned them.
    And then it occurred to me that when I was younger, I made them feel special too and maybe I helped make their day as perfect as mine when we signaled those most exuberant hello’s.

    Now that I am much older and on the other side of the spectrum of life, when I can hear the train every night in the distance blaring it’s horns, in my mind, I’m waving again and in the same fantasy, my friends are waving back.
    I miss you my friends.........................
     
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  4. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Bobby Cole Most eloquently worded, Bobby! And parallel to my own growing-up experience with the Chicago Burlington & Quincy R.R., whose 3-track mainline cut across, east to west, the center of my hometown of Berwyn, Illinois. A family-owned and operated business, Frejlach's Ice Cream, was located just west of Berwyn's border with Riverside. Several empty lots came first, then their building, the back of which bordered on the north side of the mainline. Often, on a Sunday afternoon, my Dad, Mother, & I would park along those lots, enjoying one of the variety of wonderful home-made ice cream treats, watching the trains.

    When I was old enough, 6th. grade and on, my friend, Howard, and I walked those tracks at least once a week, and there I learned how to interpret the "block signals" off in the distance: a flashing yellow meant a green was imminent, and within ten minutes of a green, a train would be roaring down upon us.

    Are we "up" to the story of my lifetime? Say "no", I'll tell it anyway!
    Frank
     
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  5. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    Hey, I use to do that too! Waiting for the coachman to pull the chain of the whistle. It was awesome!. I loved it as it rumbled by slowly. It was exciting to watch and wonder where it came from and where it was going.
     
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  6. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    Santa Fe # 3751 is based in San Bernardino, not far from my High Desert location.

    The locomotive is classified as a 4-8-4 Northern, meaning there are 4 Pilot wheels, 8 Drivers, and 4 Trailing wheels.

    At a fully fueled weight of nearly a million pounds, it is one of the heaviest steam locomotives ever built.

    My dad was a PRR Fireman on steamers in the early 1940's, during the War Years, when we lived in the Steel and Coal Town of Wheeling, West Virginia.

    He was assigned to 2-8-2 Mikados and 2-8-0 Consolidations on Mainline runs, and when he was on Yard duty, he would fire an 0-6-0 Switcher.

    When he had Yard duty, and if I happened to be out of school, he would take me to work with him!

    I'll never forget climbing up into the cab of that hissing, clanking switch engine while my Dad and the Engineer would slam loaded freight cars together, making another train for transporting thousands of tons of coal and steel to War Plants throughout the eastern United States.

    Imagine me, a 6-to-8 year old kid, learning what all the Gauges, Valves, and Levers were for in that hard-working locomotive!

    Hal
     
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    Last edited: Jun 3, 2018
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  7. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Hal Pollner
    What a wonderful experience! I can't recall whether you were a member here when I mentioned my own 484 Northern! 1/8 scale, 1-1/2 inches to the foot. I think it's time to re-tell it. Maybe I'm thinking of another forum I told it on, so I'll do it anyway. Involves a life-long dream of mine come true about a real steam excursion pulled by two giant steam locomotives, on the Chicago Burlington & Quincy, CBQ. Here's what caused the dream to come true.....


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    I hope the description is legible, old B&W photo taken by one of the passengers on the excursion, a "double-header", the #5632 mentioned being behind the front engine. Following in third place, an old Railway Express Agency baggage car, big wide doors open, 2X6s nailed across to keep one young 17 year-old fool from falling out......I was IN THAT BAGGAGE CAR when the above photo was taken, 6 Sep 1959!

    The lead engine #6315, BROKE it's right-side Eccentric Rod, a steel I-beam the width of my forearm. Broken ends dangling, the steam valve on that side could not be moved into neutral position, and 5632 behind it had to struggle to push the big Texas as well as pull the rest of the train, until a siding was reached where 6315 was uncoupled and left behind. 5632 then took us the rest of the way to Galesburg (IL), and returned us to Chicago, several hours late, but happy to have been a part of one of the more memorable steam excursions!
    Frank
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    My oldest son was on a road trip into Canada this weekend (they live about 30 miles south of Canada) and he posted a picture of the Canadian Pacific Train that they saw.
    He has always loved trains, and takes pictures when he can; but when I looked at his picture, it reminded me of an old Hank Snow song from my much younger days.
    Some of you will remember this, and some may not; but there is some glorious scenery of Canada as you listen to the song.

     
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