Gentlemen:
With all due respect to your carefully defined analyses, standard American steam is still running day-in and day-out on the narrow gauge lines formerly owned by the Denver & Rio Grande Western. Double-headed coal burning Baldwin 95-ton Mikes charging up a four percent main line grade with a tonnage train certainly fulfil the definition of American steam in every sense of the words. A railroad that dispatches four revenue trains a day up a mountain canyon must be considered in the definition as well.

Sure, the ownership and the sources of revenue have changed. What hasn't in fifty years? But the whistles echoing in the canyon, the plumes of smoke against the wind, and the rapid fire exhaust of hard-working steam locomotives are just the same. What more could you want?

Relax and enjoy the show!

Vern

vglover@starpower.net

I'm probably a bit prejudiced, but I have to agree with Vernon. The C&TS and D&S are REAL steam railroads. They may talk about the word museum, but the engines (and men) are pushed to limit on a daily basis. No mollycoddling of antiques here, the equipment gets beaten to death just like the railroads did when they were hauling freight. These operations are just as real as anything that went before them. That is what makes them so incredibly unusual in 2001. And the nice thing about the C&TS is you can walk into the shop and rub elbows with the folks that are doing the same kind of work that disappeared elsewhere in the U.S. 30 years ago. But don't wear clean clothes....you'll get dirty. It's pretty incredible.


jbwest@att.net

The last american steam loco, built by a commical company would have to be C&O 614 built by Lima June 1948,,,,, now as for the last built by a Railroad, This I would have to say would have to go to the N&W because they did not end steam until the early 1960's. But yet I am sure they were shortline's that still had steam, BUT STILL THIS IS NOT THE MAIN QUESTION, so again I would have to say for the last american steam the N&W.

cherif@mediaone.net

> The last american steam loco, built by a
> commical company would have to be C&O
> 614 built by Lima June 1948,,,,, now as for
> the last built by a Railroad, This I would
> have to say would have to go to the N&W
> because they did not end steam until the
> early 1960's. But yet I am sure they were
> shortline's that still had steam, BUT STILL
> THIS IS NOT THE MAIN QUESTION, so again I
> would have to say for the last american
> steam the N&W.
C&O 614 may have been the last passenger locomotive built by a commercial builder in the U.S., but I believe that the 1300 series 2-6-6-2s built for the B&O in 1949 by Baldwin were the last domestic commercially built steam locomotives in the U.S. The last ALCOs were the 9400 series 2-8-4s for the P&LE and the final Limas were the last NKP 2-8-4s. Too bad one of those beefy P&LE 2-8-4 didn't survive. What a hunk of "heavy metal"!

old_fxrs@msn.com