1702 recently

bobyar2001 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:16 pm

Present status of this multi-ownered USATC S160, in North Carolina:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 79&nseq=33

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:40 pm

This loco was rebuilt for the Reader Railroad and operated there for awhile. If I recall correctly, she is the steam loco depicted as pulling the "Twentieth Century Limited" in the film "The Sting". Anyone know if this is a work in progress or a half-way and then forgotten project?

Doesn't Cass Scenic have a sister engine with rotary valves? Any word on her status or future?

David Farlow · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:20 am

They've got too much money tied up in the running gear for this project to a "forgotten" type... I think the only thing missing is some money to throw into the firebox... I mean to throw into firebox repairs. Ryan anything new on this front?

David Farlow, CMO
Whitewater Valley Railroad

Jim Robinson · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 12:15 pm

Richard Glueck wrote:

Doesn't Cass Scenic have a sister engine with rotary valves? Any word on her status or future?

The S160 at Cass (the 612) has piston valves. The S160 that was fitted with the Franklin Rotary Valve System was the 611. That engine is at the TVRM. The status of Cass' 612 remains as before, stored at the end of the shop area "dead line" track.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

whodom · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:00 pm

IIRC, 611 was stored at Cass for many years before TVRM got it.

BTW, the cams rotate, not the valves: Franklin Rotary Cam Poppet Valves.

I sure would like to live long enough to hear the exhaust crack on that thing one of these days....

Jim Robinson · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 3:45 pm

whodom wrote:

IIRC, 611 was stored at Cass for many years before TVRM got it.

S160 611 was at the Texas State Railroad before going to the TVRM.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

thirdrail · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 4:01 pm

Here's the 611 in better days, still at Fort Eustis:

Photo taken by James A Coon, 2nd Lt., while undergoing training there in 1962, and mailed to me at the time. We were best friends in high school.

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6487

thirdrail wrote:

Here's the 611 in better days, still at Fort Eustis:

Photo taken by James A Coon, 2nd Lt., while undergoing training there in 1962, and mailed to me at the time. We were best friends in high school.

Did anyone get any films and/or recordings of it, while it was at Fort Eustis? Also, can anyone explain the "bump" on the top of the sand/steam dome on the 611? Strictly for additional sand capacity? Or.....? Does the locomotive still have this "addition"? Did the other U.S. Army 2-8-0's have this modification too?

Finally, is the 611 the engine that ran in regular service on the Maryland & Pennsylvania during testing?

Les

John Bohon · **Joined:** Sun Aug 29, 2004 1:04 pm **Posts:** 625

I do not know about the sand dome but this is the engine that ran on the M&P.

John Bohon

Joshua K. Blay · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 8:45 pm

Doesn't BR Duke of Gloucester have these valves?

JKB

whodom · **Posted:** Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:21 pm

The Duke's valve system was made by the Italian company Caprotti, but it's basically very similar to Franklin's rotary cam poppet setup.

AFAIK, 611 is the only remaining engine with Franklin's rotary cam poppets (there weren't that many to start with). C&O 490, a streamlined 4-6-4 located at the Baltimore RR museum, has Franklin oscillating cam poppet valves (like the Pennsy T-1's and a few other engines), which preceeded the rotary cam system by a few years.