Here's a second-hand story with few details. Can anyone fill in the information for me?

My landlord was telling me of a steam powered trip on Conrail during the 1980's. I believe he said that it was one of the Reading T1s, and they were heading West from Allentown, PA towards Reading, PA. Well, they had a volunteer fireman outfit fill their water somewhere, and there was supposedly some sort of fire-fighting agent in the water, which raised the boiling point. No steam, no go.

The train was stranded for many hours until Conrail sent diesel power to rescue it. The funny part was that the steam locomotive crew, while being towed by the diesel, decided to use the pistons to pump the rest of the bad water out of the engine, placing a huge load on the diesels. I hear that the Conrail engineer complained about the heavy load.

Again, this is all second hand info from my landlord. Anyone have the details?

JimE

Jim's train pages
jrevans@accusort.com

Here's how I remember the trip. It was with Reading 2102 and ran from Temple to Jim Thorpe. Upon arrival in Allentown yard the locomotive was uncoupled and taken to a wye track in Bethlehem on the the PB&NE (Bethelem Steel railroad) This was done so the locomotive could face north the correct way while going to Jim Thorpe. This operation took longer than anticipated, somewhere like one or two hours I believe(maybe longer,I don't really remember)with the passengers sitting on the coaches in the yard the entire time. Water was needed for the locomotive and a unplanned stop was made outside Jim Thorpe in Packerton yard. I think the train finally made it to Jim Thorpe around 4 or 5 PM. The water which was added at the unplanned stop had some sort of additive and made steaming very hard. The train made it back to Allentown, running tender first and then the locomotive ran around the train and went through East Penn Jct around 9:30PM from what I remember. No pictures due to being so dark but it was quite a sight. It seemed to be running well and I recall thinking that they would be home in about an hour, but just beyond Emmaus the train stalled and the Conrail diesel were called upon. I understand the train finally made it to Temple somwhere around 2AM. What a long day!

Without looking at my slides I believe this was 1986 or 1987. Later trips had the locomotive running tender first from Temple to Allentown, avoiding the need to turn the locomotive and they ran much smoother.

Joel

> Here's a second-hand story with few
> details. Can anyone fill in the information
> for me?

> My landlord was telling me of a steam
> powered trip on Conrail during the 1980's. I
> believe he said that it was one of the
> Reading T1s, and they were heading West from
> Allentown, PA towards Reading, PA. Well,
> they had a volunteer fireman outfit fill
> their water somewhere, and there was
> supposedly some sort of fire-fighting agent
> in the water, which raised the boiling
> point. No steam, no go.

> The train was stranded for many hours until
> Conrail sent diesel power to rescue it. The
> funny part was that the steam locomotive
> crew, while being towed by the diesel,
> decided to use the pistons to pump the rest
> of the bad water out of the engine, placing
> a huge load on the diesels. I hear that the
> Conrail engineer complained about the heavy
> load.

> Again, this is all second hand info from my
> landlord. Anyone have the details?

> JimE


http://rockhilltrolley.org
jdstrolley@enter.net

One that could have been a fiasco, but wasn't, involved an unusal "circle" trip out of Alexandria, VA, in the late 1980's. The NS took the excursion train with the 1218 to Front Royal, VA, then switched to diesels and took us north on the N&W to Shenandoah Junction, where the train, locomotives and all, was turned over to CSX. The return trip was over the old B&O main line, around DC, and back to Potomac Yards, where the NS yard crew was to meet us and take the train back to Alexandria station.

The evening before the trip CSX called and informed me that the Potomac River was flooding and they could not guarantee that they would be able to take the train. I had to contact the chief dispatcher at 3 am to find out if the railroad was open. I was more than a little nervous making that call.

The trip did run and CSX was a class act, despite having only one track open and M/W gangs out in force. The conductor and brakeman showed up in full B&O passenger uniform. When we got back to Pot Yard, the Southern boys were nowhere to be found, so after some delay, the B&O guys got back on the train and took us the last mile or two into Alexandria station, despite not being qualified on the territory.

Incidentally, I've never seen a photo of this train running on the B&O. I think most of the chasers elected to follow the 1218 from Front Royal back to Alexandria pulling a freight train.

Alan Maples

AMaples@aol.com

In February 1968 High Iron Co. ran a trip from Newark to Wilkes-Barre over the CNJ. It was cold. A CNJ FM TM pulled the train from Newark (Penn Sta) to Cranford, then Steamtown 127 (CPR 1278)to Jim Thorpe where SRC 90 led 127 to Ashley. The trip got way late, photo stops were eliminated and I bummed a ride home from Ashley.

Turns out the train derailed on the Mountain on the way back. Different stories as to what derailed - most say 90's tender. Martz send their bus fleet to retrieve the riders.

Trip ran again the following week. 90 piloted 127 from Allentown this time and all went well.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

In 1967 there was a steam trip on the LIRR from Jamaica to Montauk. Engine was a big 2-8-0, about H9s-size; train was LIRR's P-54 "Ping-pongs."

Evidently the light cars and flat territory didn't tax the engine much; coal loaded directly from the ground (and including some ground) contributed. They decided the smokebox needed cleaned out so they opened up the front end and started - with a plastic bucket!

After the bucket turned into a tired little puddle someone brought the scoop up from the cab; it worked for a time.

On the way back the engine stopped steaming; couldn't even heat the train, and we were towed in by a C-420.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

> Turns out the train derailed on the Mountain
> on the way back. Different stories as to
> what derailed - most say 90's tender. Martz
> send their bus fleet to retrieve the riders.

Accounts from the time period (paging former High Iron chap H. Pincus!) stated that one of the tender trucks on 90 started dismantling itself coming down off of Penobscot Mountain. Let's remember that 90 had, for all practical purposes, just arrived east from Colorado to the Strasburg, and I believe 127 and 90 were both tapped more or less at the last minute to replace an ailing Nickel Plate 759, I think.

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

> In 1967 there was a steam trip on the LIRR
> from Jamaica to Montauk. Engine was a big
> 2-8-0, about H9s-size; train was LIRR's P-54
> "Ping-pongs."

> Evidently the light cars and flat territory
> didn't tax the engine much; coal loaded
> directly from the ground (and including some
> ground) contributed. They decided the
> smokebox needed cleaned out so they opened
> up the front end and started - with a
> plastic bucket!

> After the bucket turned into a tired little
> puddle someone brought the scoop up from the
> cab; it worked for a time.

> On the way back the engine stopped steaming;
> couldn't even heat the train, and we were
> towed in by a C-420.

Phil
Great Story. I believe the 2-8-0 you are referring to would be Black River & Western (ex-Great Western) 60. I sure wish they could do something like that again. It must have been a blast even with the diesel assist.

Kevin

wok3002@aol.com

> I believe 127 and 90 were both tapped
> more or less at the last minute to replace
> an ailing Nickel Plate 759

90 and 127 were filling in for ex-CPR 4-6-2's 1238 and 1286, which were then owned by George Hart and originally slated to pull these wintertime HICO trips. 1238 and 1286 missed these trips due to their being pressed into use as emergency stationary boilers providing a source of heating steam to downtown Reading, PA office buildings.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

That's right, Joel.

I was with a crew doing digital audio recording of that trip while other buddies rode.

I will never forget stading trackside at CP HAM at 10PM or so watching the train roll by with my very tired buddies' noses against the glass!

Rob

rdavis@rypn.org

(HP will have to correct me if I screwed up any details, as I was 6 or 7 years old!)

Take a trip with me to a time before litigious hawks made crossing the street a potential lawsuit… when steam trains were run with the levers “to the roof and to the floor” by guys who used to do it for a living… when (some) railroads and railroaders openly enjoyed having a steam train on the line…

On a rainy, cold morning in 1974 or ‘75, my dear mother was up at 4 AM to drive my cousin and I from our homes on the Jersey Shore to South Bethlehem, PA to where I would ride my second fan trip... a double-header on the Lehigh Valley mainline to South Plainfield, NJ. The power was George Hart's CPR 4-6-0 #972 and Sam Freeman's FEC 4-6-2 #148. The train was a mixture of heavyweights; most of which I believe were out of the CNJ commuter pool (what a great pool that was for weekend fan trips!).

My mother indulged my growing passion for steam, and to this day I thank her blessed heart for that. I am a better person for having had a parent encourage me to embrace a wholesome hobby. My dad split on us right at the get-go, so it was up to my mom to encourage “manly” activities. What’s manlier than burning the Kodachrome and pressing the flesh and flannel on one of those great 70’s fan trips?

The weather stunk. Dank. Dreary. The kind of day thatÂ’s romantic in London, but just sucks in eastern Pennsylvania. After some midnight-dark run-bys, we got to South P. and the engines were turned. It was good day since it was a steam day, I guess, but damned miserable, too. On the way back, somewhere east of Jutland, an object on the track was apparently struck and the train went into emergency.

I was standing across from my cousin in a dutch door soaking in the aura when the brakes went on. And here comes the saga...

Back in nursery school on a high bluff over looking the Atlantic during the spring of 1973, little wooden station wagon and I were zooming around the floor when a nasty carpet bulge stopped the wagon abruptly and sent little Robert John flying over the pine hood and smash-mouthing right into the pine bumper. The impact sent my front baby teeth jamming into my forming adult teeth.

Not a TKO, but a massive first round punch, for sure.

OK, OK, back to the train. On that fateful day on the Lehigh Valley, my abused front baby tooth was swinging like the gate of a whorehouse on Fat Tuesday. It was all set to come out and free the adult tooth behind it.

And then, there was that brake application.

The manly man next to me came crashing towards my faceÂ… a blur of back woods plaid, denim and the enormous black mass of a 70Â’s classic hard-shell camera bag. Before I could fend off the flying blob of railfan, the back of my head slammed into the bulkhead and bounced off just in time to be slammed back by the impact of said black hard-shell camera case.

Round two. Bulkhead. Round three. Mass of railfan. Knock out.

You guessed it. Not only did my hanging ivory come flying out, the hard-shell missile bashed my gums and delivered another blow to the dear, forlorn adult tooth waiting to come out.

Bloodied. Scared. Shocked. I left the manly man confines of the dutch door and did what any self-respecting kid would doÂ… ran to mommy.

Once the train was OKÂ’d to move on, I settled in next to mom and tried to get a little sleep.

Then we got to Musconectcong Tunnel. Sailing downgrade on the double iron, the steam train posed no ill-health concerns in the tunnel, so many windows stayed open. And then we realized that one of the ValleyÂ’s typical dogÂ’s breakfast lash-ups of ALCoÂ’s was pounding up Pattenburg Mountain on the next trackÂ… in the tunnel.

Awash in oily smoke, the pitch black experience of rocking down through the bore while the devils of Schenectady raised hell 18 inches from my window, scared the wits out of me. I swore Satan himself must be my car attendant, since he seemd to actually enjoy it (which, of course, I would now, as well).

Bloodied. Scared. Shocked. Now sliding down a steel trough into the gaping pits ofÂ… Bloomsbury, NJÂ… where all was well once we got out of the tunnel and we rolled towards PA and our warm, dry car.

I will never forget rolling past Bethlehem Steel that night, with the furnaces in full fire. Twenty years later, I would be inside these same furnaces, watching them be tapped for the last times. My front adult tooth, malformed from three rounds of direct hits, was long gone. Replaced by a bridge and caps. As I experienced my first in-the-furnace tap, a buddy said this was as close to hell as heÂ’d ever been.

I smiled, flashed my new teeth and thought about the ride across Jersey and down the smoky trough inside Jugtown Mountain.



rdavis@rypn.org

I heard about some steam excursion back East 30 years or more which was ruined by railfans or pranksters greasing the rails. Anyone know more details than that vague description?

I also recall hearing about a UP steam move out of L.A. in the 1990s---it may not have been a public excursion---during which railfans tampered with signals or radio communications to the steam crew in order to gain some photo advantage. It caused a big stink.

Mark I Video just released their new video documentary on the 30+ years of excursion wanderings of Ross Rowland, including his High Iron trips. I think he talks about the 90/127 fiasco. Might be worth a look.

> In February 1968 High Iron Co. ran a trip
> from Newark to Wilkes-Barre over the CNJ. It
> was cold. A CNJ FM TM pulled the train from
> Newark (Penn Sta) to Cranford, then
> Steamtown 127 (CPR 1278)to Jim Thorpe where
> SRC 90 led 127 to Ashley. The trip got way
> late, photo stops were eliminated and I
> bummed a ride home from Ashley.

> Turns out the train derailed on the Mountain
> on the way back. Different stories as to
> what derailed - most say 90's tender. Martz
> send their bus fleet to retrieve the riders.

> Trip ran again the following week. 90
> piloted 127 from Allentown this time and all
> went well.

> I heard about some steam excursion back East
> 30 years or more which was ruined by
> railfans or pranksters greasing the rails.
> Anyone know more details than that vague
> description?

Specifics, no--but there were lots of allegations that your description matched what happened to NKP 759 in an incident that graced the cover of the premeire issue of Railfan Magazine in 1974. The incident in that case happened just shy of the summit of the Mt. Pocono grade on a run from Hoboken to Scranton. Two EL GP9s had to help lift the train the last quarter-mile to the summit.

In a similar vein, the Blue Mountain & Reading's one-off trip to Gettysburg with 2102 in 1988 stalled just shy of the summit of the steep Gettysburg Branch summit, and after numerous attempts at restarting, two Gettysburg diesels (I'm vaguely remembering C420s) assisted the train south to Gettysburg. Lo and behold, the same train, running with the diesels ahead of 2102 running tender first (all the way to Hamburg!), stalled yet again on the same hill northbound!

Yes, there are allegations against several people about greasing rails--most notably, jokes about the producer of a video called "Steep Steel and Slipping, Stalling Steam", a video full of slipping steamers. Undoubtedly it's happened. However, the most spectacular stall I've ever witnessed was Gettysburg 4-6-2 1278 struggking miserably on leaf-covered rails northbound to Biglerville many years ago. When she finally regained her footing after an hour or so of stalling, she took off for Biglerville at close to 40-50 mph in an effort to make up time!

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

One of the longest nights of my life.

An example of the "too many chiefs" syndrome.

We all felt much better about this event a few years later, when an excursion with AMTRAK equipment was delayed a whole lot longer than ours.

SG
RCT&HS
(President at that time)

Discussing slipping steam locomotives. I don't remember if it was '99 or '00 Mount Rainier Scenic took steamer #5 to Tacoma to run some Santa Trains on Thanksgiving weekend. #5 pulled three or four ex-canadian passenger cars up the four percent Tacoma Hill. #5 is a 70-ton Porter and it is all she can do to pull the train up the hill. I beleive it was Sunday, the final day of excursions, someone put shaving cream on the rain at about the steepest part of the hill. As you can imagine when #5 hit the shaving cream at full throttle with the reverser in the corner it was a spectacular slip. In fact the pressure was so great that the nozzle in the smoke box was blown from the nozzle stand and sent out the stack never to be found. It wasn't discovered until the following day when the ferry move tried to get up the hill and couldn't make steam. It was also discovered that the blower nozzle was dislodged and pointed at the rear flue sheet. When the blower was started the steam came into the firebox. What a surprise. The train was tied down on the hill and the front end opened up and the missing nozzle was discovered. It was a long day taking the #5 and train back to Mineral as we had to stop frequently to make steam.

shay2305@harborside.com