woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Easily remember the place, Stephen. There were no engines or cars under a roof at that time though, everything just out in the open.
America's Railroads, made in China?
- Thread starter Peter
- Start date
- Replies 74
- Views 6K
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Yup... out in the great outdoors. I guess they put that up since I was there last. Heck I might even have kiddy pictures in storage form my early youth taken there. Used to go there a lot.
I took a ride on the steam engine that is in Felton, CA over by Santa Cruz. Although the whistle made the most incredible noise, it didn't have that chuff-chuff because it had a pinion and bevel gear reduction system for climbing steep hills. Had some sprockets built onto the inside of the wheels and in steep places there was a rack I guess you would call it of teeth bolted onto the inside of the track that the sprocket teeth engaged.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Interesting, Steve. Sounds like the little red Engine that could, bringing toys and animals over the mountain. 
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
It most likely was one of these .Shay gear drive locomotive made at Lima Locomotive works in Ohio .I worked there as a welder at one time .
The picture is taken in the little podunk town of 500 I grew up in .50 ton Shay .I helped lay the tracks that thing is setting in static display .The older B and W print is that locomotive at work for Tioga lumber company in West Virginia some many years ago .
The picture is taken in the little podunk town of 500 I grew up in .50 ton Shay .I helped lay the tracks that thing is setting in static display .The older B and W print is that locomotive at work for Tioga lumber company in West Virginia some many years ago .
Attachments
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Never rode on a steam locomotive train that I can recall. Doesn't the steam and smoke blow back through the passenger car windows a bit? Seems like it might if it were a long train.
I know there is a Tioga pass in California, that someone could name a lumber co. after.
How did the name Tioga make it to West Virginia?
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
That's a good question .Remember though there is Salem Oregon ,Salem Mass.,Salem Ohio and how many more is anybodies guess .They just pick a name I imagine .
Now keep in mind also on those old steamers especially the mountain Shays could have been bought and sold several times .That explains the difference in the engine numbers in case any one wondered .
If there is an interest you can Google the Shay web site and locate any locomotive which escaped the salvage torch .The one I have pictured is in Harrod Ohio .A smaller one which saw service in a local limestone pit is on public display no more than two miles from where it was orginally built .
Rambling on ,these were gear reduction machines .Some of the mountain locomotives were nothing more than huge multi cylinder direct drives .The boilers were made in such a way they could take the grade without exposing the crown sheet of the boiler which would cause an explosion .The got the tractive effort merely because of the huge cylinders .
Now keep in mind also on those old steamers especially the mountain Shays could have been bought and sold several times .That explains the difference in the engine numbers in case any one wondered .
If there is an interest you can Google the Shay web site and locate any locomotive which escaped the salvage torch .The one I have pictured is in Harrod Ohio .A smaller one which saw service in a local limestone pit is on public display no more than two miles from where it was orginally built .
Rambling on ,these were gear reduction machines .Some of the mountain locomotives were nothing more than huge multi cylinder direct drives .The boilers were made in such a way they could take the grade without exposing the crown sheet of the boiler which would cause an explosion .The got the tractive effort merely because of the huge cylinders .
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
I was born long enough to remember steam trains almost as if it were yesterday huffing puffing giants that rattled the windows ,steam escaping as they shot down the tracks billowing smoke and steam .
The very last ever steamer built by Baldwin _Lima _Hamilton ,a Berkshire passenger engine is on display less than a mile from where it was built .Nickel Plate RR number 779 ,1949 .Those things could run like 100 miles per hour .
Lima was famous for the Allegany frieght engines ,designed to haul coal over the allegany mountains .The largest steamers ever made and could produce a max of around 7500 HP at speed .Only two survive ,one in the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn Mich . It took two of them,one forward one aft to move some of those 100 car coal trains up the mountains but it took three or four diesels to do the same , Trivia 101
The very last ever steamer built by Baldwin _Lima _Hamilton ,a Berkshire passenger engine is on display less than a mile from where it was built .Nickel Plate RR number 779 ,1949 .Those things could run like 100 miles per hour .
Lima was famous for the Allegany frieght engines ,designed to haul coal over the allegany mountains .The largest steamers ever made and could produce a max of around 7500 HP at speed .Only two survive ,one in the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn Mich . It took two of them,one forward one aft to move some of those 100 car coal trains up the mountains but it took three or four diesels to do the same , Trivia 101
Thor's Hammer
Wolfish. Sometimes Bites.
Those 2-6-6-6 Alleghenny Loco's were something else Al. Most powerful loco ever built.
Lima also built the famous Shay logging loco's
Lima also built the famous Shay logging loco's
Al Smith
Mac Daddy
Well it was quite a place to work and certainly an eye opener for a young man such as myself .I was 18 years old ,a decent welder but not really good at that point in my life .Good enough though to fake my way into a good paying job considering the time period .
There were a few of the old timers still around that worked on the steamers and the stories they could tell would fill 500 pages of this forum .Lawdy those old coots had a double shot and two beers before they came to work .
The end of an era came in 1980 when they closed the doors of then Clark equipment .No more giant Lima cranes ,shovels etc .
The works fell to the wreckers ball in I think 1998 .It's now the site of a bio burner power plant they've used as a political football for at least 10 years .If it ever gets built is still highly debated .
There were a few of the old timers still around that worked on the steamers and the stories they could tell would fill 500 pages of this forum .Lawdy those old coots had a double shot and two beers before they came to work .
The end of an era came in 1980 when they closed the doors of then Clark equipment .No more giant Lima cranes ,shovels etc .
The works fell to the wreckers ball in I think 1998 .It's now the site of a bio burner power plant they've used as a political football for at least 10 years .If it ever gets built is still highly debated .
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Old Monkey
Treehouser
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,764
Cool. There's a place here in Boise that builds Diesel Train Engines, called Motive Power. I keep thinking about trying to go tour it.
Cobleskill
Treehouser
Trains seem to hold their fascination for young and old. My bud tried to get me in CSX a few years ago. Working on the cars. He was the head honcho in the yard. Hiring was done out of company hdqrts. in Jacksonville. Bunch of tards. Now they merged his yard with several others. He was offered the boss job and declined. He's got a mental midget for a boss now, as well as the crew he works with. He can tell some great stories. Derailments are in his job. I went with him to watch one when he was boss. Scary.
Dave Shepard
Square peg, round world.
A friend of mine used to work derailments. He ran a D-9 with a side boom. Had one derailment that he couldn't get the Cat into, so he parked across the tracks and they pushed him in with an engine sideways.
Cobleskill
Treehouser
I have heard my bud talk about those. He calls them a sidewinder. The RXR doesn't own any equipment to re-rail anymore. They uses to have a wreck truck with a crane on it. If they can't get it back on using a locomotive to pull they call in a company with cranes or sidewinders.
The wreck I went to watch was one car with the wheels jumped off. They hook "re-railers" on the track-275lb. ramp, and come alongs on the wheel trucks to make them swivel in the right direction. Then slowly try inching it up the ramp, back on the track. The guys from the train, and other guys from the yard pretty much bowed down to my bud like he was God.
The wreck I went to watch was one car with the wheels jumped off. They hook "re-railers" on the track-275lb. ramp, and come alongs on the wheel trucks to make them swivel in the right direction. Then slowly try inching it up the ramp, back on the track. The guys from the train, and other guys from the yard pretty much bowed down to my bud like he was God.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
Guilty of that with the freight that ran by my house, but never big rocks. Mostly pennies, though. Bad karma, so never got rich.
Bodean
Cali dreamer
When I was in grade school there was a bend in the line in my friends dads property, we'd jump trains east into the Idaho panhandle from Spokane. Pretty exhilarating for that age in between cars over trestles.
woodworkingboy
TreeHouser
How did you get back from Idaho?
Bodean
Cali dreamer
Hang out at a slow spot,(where we jumped off) waiting for something heading back west to Spokane.
Crazy DEva. There is a whole b unch of drama surrounding the site for the high speed railway. It intends to link up SF and LA and will come over the Pacheco pass down to Merced and then turn south and head to Los Angeles. The first leg to be built is from like Fresno to Buttonwillow. Most people think it will run out of money and never be finished and we will be stuck with just a bunch of super expensive tracks in the way between some small towns not large enough to support such a venture. I think it would be super cool. Right now Amtrak only goes to Bakersfield and then you have to take a bus on to like Santa Clarita or some place like that. Or go up to Sacramento and Martinez and then down the coast. Takes like a day and a half.