1522 was a genuine symphony on wheels wasn't she?
On the orignal rebuild, nothing was changed from the way the railroad left her as far as valve settings. We did have a zealot on the crew who polished out the exhaust ports, but also radiused the edges of them, which I didn't agree with.
On her last rebuild, the drivers were sent to a local shop and new tires put on her and bearing surfaces remachined and then re-quartered in a sort of jerry-rigged manner and from then on I was never able to get her squared up again. I would be willing to bet that she is out of quarter. Our problem was no way to set valves and then run to check her out on the road. We had to wait until a trip to find out what results we had. We had trailed the valves and had them within .010 or less both sides, but she really needed a full valve resetting. We just never had the chance to do it right.
It's the only engine I've ever heard in today's world that could indeed override the whistle and bell. She drove the videographers crazy too as nothing could capture her full "voice".
The loudest "start" was at the end of a trip to Hannibal, in order to back into St. Louis, I had to go down the lead into Lesperance St. yard until the rear of the train cleared the south switch at the Gratiot wye and then back the train up that hill. We were under bridges and in a city scene and the barks were incredible. Scared the pigeons to death. Frisco was noted for sharp exhausting steam engines. My Dad always told me the Missouri Pacific engines always sounded like they were working water. One day while firing up at Union Station, a 90 year old retired MP engineer came up in the cab and he said "I always loved the way your engines sounded, ours always sounded like they were working water". I'm sure Dad was up there somewhere chuckling.
Thank you for the compliments, we were always proud of our engine.

Great story Frisco. Is there anything unusual about the exhaust stand in the Frisco's engines? Just a plain round nozzle or something else?

@ Frisco1522

Now that you mention it, I went back and watched a few videos of her to listen to her exhaust more in depth and you're absolutely right she's very slightly out of quarter, but that exhaust is wonderful! Certainly something to stride for if one was/is rebuilding valves. Thank you, sir.


Best,
DC

Since we are going to swap 1522 tales, I was a guest aboard 1522 on a Houston- Silsbee round trip.She was a great riding machine, but on most of that run she ran like it was child's play,except on the steep rise coming out of Liberty, Texas for less than half a mile. I was just warming up to her bark when the grade was topped and we settled down to level track again. If they had stuck with the original plan and run Silsbee- Temple instead of back to Houston, she would have had to conquer Yarboro hill, a gut busting, twisting 2 percent grade that was a helper district in steam days and killed many a diesel powered freight even today.

I remember you riding with me. I can't remember the guy's name who was with you, but he seemed to enjoy the ride too. On the way back to Houston, I had a different pilot engineer who looked to me like he was about 16 and called me sir. I let him sit down for 10-15 miles and he was beside himself. His parents were back on the train and when we got to Houston he went back and got them and brought them up. That was a fun trip and we got back on schedule. The passengers (BN employees and families) came up to the engine and applauded us. I love it when a plan comes together.

Oh, Hi there folks!

I'm the person who wrote the original article "How to boot a steam locomotive", so I figured it's beholden on me to correct / explain anything I can.

When I wrote the original article, it was from the distance of a considerable number of years, and I had no reference materials, so the 5000 gallon boiler capacity was either a misremembrance or a transposition of some other numbers. Mea Culpa.

We ran every Sunday, and there was no house steam or anything fancy like that- we essentially had a kerosene blower and electricity to get things going. (Although there were times when we burned pallets and whatever junk wood we could get our hands on- on those days we started firing at midnight the night before.)

For draft we had an electric fan that we rested on the rim of the stack. Pretty low rent stuff :)

I've updated the article for the more modern web and to provide a more stable permanent location: https://medium.com/@philjern/how-to-boot-a-steam-locomotive-a8093223faee

https://medium.com/@philjern/how-to-boo ... 093223faee

Well, I have to admit that's the first time I've seen "Brobdingnagian" in a railroad article, or much of anywhere for that matter. That's even more obscure than the "Quintessential" that Trains Magazine seems so fond of.

Are you a fan of the Brobdingnagian Bards Ren Faire band by chance?

Had to laugh when you talk about the jet turbine sound of the dynamo. I had a pilot in the cab one day and he was asking questions, mostly about "Where's your instrumentation?" (I patted the cab seat.)

We started up the dynamo and his head spins a bit as he says "Huh? Is that an APU?" :)

a black speckled white suit was the rage back then...wasn't it....?...(whistles)

Brobdingnagian (which I know was coined by Jonathan Swift back over 200 years ago) sounds like something from Lucius Beebe's Big Book of Sonorous Synonyms.

MY notes from some PLA locos: Quincy #2 from light off to closing the whistle valve (spitting steam) one hour. Safety lifted about 2 hours after light off, started with 3/4 glass. Steptoe Valley #3 one hour from light off (wood) to ready to move. Clover Valley #4 light off with 100 psi to safety lift one hour. Another time three hours from cold to 180 (safety lifts) Heisler #5 about 3 hours. Present procedures and times are unknown.

What's that popping and snapping noise?

I've stood and watched once as a J class (victorian railways one) was brought from cold to full working pressure in under 2 hours. You could happily touch the bottom of the mud ring and it was stone cold...... This was after we'd backed on to the train ready to depart.

Needless to say, this loco went on to fail it's main internal/dry pipe later in that day. It was less than 5 years old! Forcing the boiler and poor water treatment were the 'norm' for this engine at the time.