Now wasn't that just dandy! Nothing nicer than to hear steam being run at short cutoff. Thanks so much

Dear Tom,

I always enjoyed your visits to GCR. The locomotives at GCR did put on a daily show while doing 40 mph in the flats or slugging it out NB on the 3% grade at between Anita and Apex/Imbleau. To me the best performance any steam locomotive has done is the fascination they create for many people who see a steam locomotive for the first time. They may not have understood how or even if it worked but it is there in front of them to see.

Robby Peartree

Best steam performance memory for me would have to be the #4449 on the Illinois Central double track main line heading south toward New Orleans, LA from Jackson, MS on the Amtrak sponsored excursion returning the #4449 home in 1977, after its time on the Americian Freedom Train. My father (an IC locomotive engineer) and me (the entire family actually) were in one of the many dome cars behind the #4449 running at about 80 MPH southbound when my father noted that the signal up ahead was wrong just as the train entered a 40 MPH crossover at track speed, as a teen at the time I was truly impressed with the performance of the #4449 (no diesel help was in the consist), and the fact that we did not derail any part of the train during this event. Unfortunately we did pull a couple of flues loose in the front of the boiler and required assistance getting into New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal (in the form of two orange and white IC GP18's).

That only barely beats out (also in the late 1970's) the sight of the T&P #610 rattling the entire world as it seemed, while coming through the deep cut at the top of the bluff in Vicksburg, MS enroute to Birmingham, AL and the Southern's Norris shops with my father at the throttle. The T&P #610 has to be one of the most impressive locomotives to witness in operation, it is a true beast.

Which leads me to my biased choice - on the apron of PRR 7002/1223, getting a run eastbound for the Elizabethtown (PA) grade through Middletown, cresting the summit and then widening out to a long stride ... passing cars on Route 283 west of Lancaster, PA. We were "young, broad across the back and narrow between the eyes."

I was lucky enough to ride the GCRR the last season of daily steam, behind # 29. I must admit it was an amazing experience and the only time in my life where it really felt like what daily steam operations must have felt like back in the day. Even my wife who isn't nearly that big a train fan (she doesn't hate trains, just doesn't see the logic in wanting to ride the same run more than once) loved it and has since said she wouldn't mind doing that again someday.

Former GCR 18 running on the San Luis and Rio Grande out of Alamosa probably puts on the same show today. That is one stout machine and between the run across the valley floor and the assault of La Veta pass it should be quite a show.


Robby

September 4, 1982: N&W 611 pulling its debut public excursion to Norfolk with 6,000,000 railfans chasing her. Cresting Blue Ridge at 35 mph with 15 coaches (I was in the first one) followed by a 60 mph photo run by. Those were the days.

May 4, 1987: N&W 1218 pulling a 100 car hopper train from Norfolk to Crewe.

August 1, 1990: UP 3985 on the APL Double Stack Train. 143 cars and 7,657 tons cresting Archer Hill at 34 mph. I got my copy of the DVD of this event today. Wow.

Impressive.

I know this may sound like I don't get out much, but one of my favorite experiences is watching Dollywood 192 depart up that 5% grade, barking all the way.

I was firing #40 at the NH&I on a mid-October Saturday in the 80's. Crowds were huge and we tied on about every car that was serviceable, including diners and the caboose. We had some really good coal, so every scoop I laid on was just bursting into white fire.
Leaving the depot, my hogger did his running test as we passed over the curved bridge and we went into the "big hole". A hose had parted between the caboose coupled to our tender and the first coach. I was lucky in that I could re-button that without having to go over the bridge to look for the trouble. The air came back up, and off we went following another running test. Everything that could hold us back was coupled on, and the curve and grade were not helping us. Every shovel of coal had meaning, but it was so good that even with the injector on for most of the trip, I could keep the soft pop simmering. The air was crisp, the engine smelled great and the world was my oyster.

That was my best.

Firing up the Shay to rescue the diesels on the one day the diesels were regular scheduled power, and both lay down on the hill.

dave

Now that I really think on it... there are two others which really stand out.
1. In the tool car behind 1218, heading South to Jacksonville, FL from Valdosta, in November 1987. It was way dark already, the 1218 was humming along like a finely-tuned gyroscope, and I felt like I was inside an O Winston Link photo. I saw lights come on in houses along the NS right of way and silhouettes of people running into their yards at hearing an N&W A approach. I can't imagine what it must have looked like to them. No idea how fast we were going, but it must have been track speed, I know we were hauling along.
2. In the obs car on the 4449 ferry move from Portland to Tacoma for the 2011 NRHS convention. The Stampede Pass trip (which I also rode) was amazing, but the ferry runs, to me, really showed how 4449 can get up and move.

Mine was O5b 5632 of the CB&Q on the return trip from LaCrosse, Wis. After some delays along the Mississippi caused by a minor freight derailment (wow so that's what torpedos sound like!!!) we hit the Aurora to Chicago line with a vengence. I suspect crew was aiming to beat the 16 hour limit. It was a loud, fast nightime run racing side-by-side with a diesel-powered suburban train-we won.

One more.

On the Labour Day weekend, 1988, the Canadian Railroad Historical Association held its National Convention at the Salem & Hillsborough Railway in Hillsborough, New Brunswick.

The visiting members were treated to a trip on the dinner train, pulled by Canadian Pacific #29, a beautiful 4-4-0, Canadian National 4-6-0 #1009, with S&H RS-1 #8208 (208) on the rear to push if required.

This was a heavy train, with every available passenger car from both the day train and dinner train consists, and the dead weight of #8208 (we didn't want to push unless absolutely needed).

For those who didn't know the S&H, it was a twisting road with steep grades, that was challenging even with a light train.

I was Diesel Second Man (the S&H's name for diesel fireman) on the old RS-1 that night. It's an experience I'll never forget, sitting at the back of the train with a grandstand seat watching one of the finest displays of steam power I've ever witnessed.

Those two little locomotives were working to capacity that night. With a bright moon, we had a great view of the towering plumes of smoke and could occasionally, when trees weren't in the way, see the drivers and rods turning.

I wouldn't have wanted to be fireman on the steamers because the coal was burning as fast as it was shoveled in... fire was blasting out of the stacks along the heavier parts of the grade... I was watching the lead engine's headlight probing the darkness, the glow of the fire every time the fire doors were opened, and of course the lights of the passenger cars.

Best of all was the sound. As little as they are, those two engines were loud. Back on the diesel, we could enjoy the barking of the exhaust, the whistles echoing among the hills, and the bell. I barely noticed our Alco quietly rumbling away.

We never did need to push, until the return, when the train stopped to throw the switch into the yard. The train was stretched out on a steep, but short, grade and they just couldn't get started. We ended up giving them a wee nudge until they gained their footing, then let them pull us again.

I'm sure all the convention participants had a great trip, but back on #8208, we had the best trip of all. Sadly, these memories are bittersweet.

A major fire set by arsonists in 1994 caused irreparable damage to much of the equipment and the shop complex, and the railroad gradually died. There is a nice museum now, but the railroad was abandoned. #8208 and many cars were scrapped and #29 ended up going to static display at Canadian Pacific's headquarters in Calgary.

Steve Hunter

For me it was BR&W #60 on an autumn night in the early 90's, pulling a long party train up the hill from Lambertville on rails slick with rain and fallen leaves, with the late great Tommy Who at the throttle. Over and over she lost her footing and then regained it again, thanks to the skill of the engineman. The thunder of the exhaust, the crisp night air, the tension of whether we'd stall out or not .. you get the idea.

First some really old, really fuzzy memories from 1945/46: PRR J1 and Q2 locos on freight on the Conemaugh Div. at Aspinwall. Dad took me (age 5 or 6) to "watch trains" during afternoons when he worked midnight shift at USS. I knew the Js and Qs from anything lesser because of their "mile long" tenders with countless wheels.

More recent and much more vivid: Chessie 2101 climbing Sand Patch west from Cumberland with a huge train. We were stationed at Mance and heard her coming 20 minutes before she came into sight. If our astronauts ever find coal cinders in orbit, I know how they got there.

Intermediate: NKP 759 departing Connellsville EB on the WM on the Golden Spike Special 1969. More cinders in orbit.

Another: C&O 614 stalling on Streets Run Grade on a Pittsburgh to Wheeling trip. Majestic exhaust hundereds of feet high as she slowly ground to a stop. Soon a couple brand new GP40-2's came to the rescue.

Great stuff!