Some of you may have seen this before. It's certainly one of the wierdest creations that ever (briefly) rode on rails. A 6-12-0, sort of.Mikehttp://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSE ... holman.htm

Looks like firing it would be a bit of a stretch, no?

I've seen links to this before, and all joking aside - can anyone imagine or surmise the essential question..... WHY????Maybe this historical and mechanical group can offer something meaningful up?A quick Google search confirms that the stock certificates are still out there, and in contrast to the 'its not worth the paper its printed on' conclusion, the paper is now worth $89.95 retail on a stock certificate collectors website. So at $90 a share, maybe not such a bad investment after all!!!

Indeed, I have a stock certificate for the Holman Loco Speeding Truck Co. Railroad stocks & bonds regularly sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars in the collectors market.

The reason I've seen (but can't remember where) is that "big wheels drive little wheels faster." This was likely the claim that Holman was making to potential investors. Well, it's true; the RPM of each successively smaller diameter wheel will indeed be faster, but the total forward speed of the locomotive will not be any faster, a point that may have been lost on many investors.By the way, the web site claims that Soo Line No. 6 was built by the Holman Locomotive Co. in 1887, which is likely the claim the company made, but I show it as being built by Baldwin in 1886, C/N 8071. Likely all that really happened is the Holman Co. built the TRUCK apparatus in 1887 and mounted a leased locomotive on them.