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Author Topic: Trip to Texas Part II William T. Parr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 823 From: Cedar Park, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-02-2003 08:11 PM                     Paul, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the steam locomotive has bee out of commission for close to 4 years now. It is in various parts accross Texas right now being rebuilt and is not expected to be back in revenue service until the later part of this year, early next year. You can go to thier web site at http://www.austinsteamtrain.org to check the updates on the locomotives rehabilitation progress prior to you r trip hear. If you want to get a picture of Josh in the cab of one. The Old SP depot in San Antonio has the sister locomotive to the one Austin has outside the old Depot on Commerce Street. Look forward to seeing Yourself and Josh again this year. I was pondering the idea of trying to get Brad to have another gathering sometime in June/August. If your in Austin I will give you a tour of my facility before they get to involved in remodleling the place.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-03-2003 01:58 AM                     William, that is a bummer about the steam locomotive. Probably needs boiler re-flu and a rod job. I would have liked to get a picture of Josh with "One hand on the Throttle and One hand on the Brake". Kinda reminds me of J. L. "Casey" Jones who rode the old 382 to fame on that night of April 29, 1900. Ironically, I have a very good friend by the name of J.L. Jones in Wichita, Kansas. Jimmy is on our list to visit again. He and his wife are very cool people. Oh well, what the hell...here is a picture of Casey Jones and his 4-6-0 High Driver engine after it was rebuilt, I presume. There are other steamers that are running around there in Texas, it is just a matter of timing and distance we would have to travel to get to it. I hope we can do it. Look at the size of the wheels on that beast. They must be 72 or 80-inch drivers. The bigger the wheels, the faster they go. That thing must have been capable of going like a bat out of hell without even breathing hard. Unfortunately, the wreck was blamed fully on Casey. After reading the report, I think he was a victim of an accident waiting for a place to happen. A victim of being too over confident, maybe? I stepped into that a couple of times myself. We all run into that from time to time. In Casey's case, it was fatal.  |  IP: Logged John Stewart Film Handler Posts: 67 From: Austin, TX, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 05-04-2003 10:00 PM                     Paul, It was something a little more than just a rod/flue job. Part of the main frame was developing cracks. Something about a saddle? Part of the understructor I think. The orig. plans don't exist any more. But they can get it rebuilt but big $$$. They have a really nice route to run on but they are using a desel with the old cars instead. Judson's magic Castle in S.A. might really be a good place to see. I have never been there myself but I hear that it is really cool. John  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-04-2003 10:41 PM                     Yeah - the saddle is the curved part that supports the smokebox. Attached to it is the cylinders. If it is cracked, big bucks are indeed in order to repair it. They almost have to be hand fitted. The precision technology that was common in 1888 (115 years ago) is now a lost art of today. Here is a picture. The saddle is circled in red. It supports the smokebox. BTW...Did you know that the 4-8-4 Lima locomotive used in the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" was appraised at over 1.2 million dollars? Anyone know of anything in St. Louis, Missouri that might be worth seeing?  |  IP: Logged William T. Parr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 823 From: Cedar Park, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-05-2003 12:29 AM                     If you and Josh have plenty of time the Transportation Museum is a very nice place to go  |  IP: Logged John Stewart Film Handler Posts: 67 From: Austin, TX, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 05-05-2003 06:19 PM                     If you are half the train nut I think you are, a trip to the St Louis Transportaion Muesum would be like going to Mecca. I was there back in the late 80's and they had a lot of rolling stock then including a BIG boy. They also had a huge building full of vintage cars. Did not tour that but the train yard sure was fun. John  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-05-2003 06:43 PM                     Ah, yes....The "Big Boy" -- those were the world's largest conventional steam locomotives. Twenty five of them were built between 1941 and 1944. Very few were scrapped. They were 7,000-HP units that could go 80 mph, and ran a steam pressure of 300lbs. They were 132 feet 9-7/8 inches long, and 16 feet 2.25 inches high. The weight of that beast (including the tender) was 1,120,000 lbs. That's only 560 tons. They were coal burners, and the attempt to convert them to oil burners didn't work out. The fire boxes were just too damn big to get even heating. They had an Archimedes Screw that fed coal to the firebox. The thing was so big that it would pass a coal shovel without jamming the mechanism. Josh, you have to see one of those to believe how huge they are. That one in Bonanza in West Fargo looks like a toy as compared to the Big Boy.  |  IP: Logged Scott Manley Film Handler Posts: 59 From: Austin, TX USA Registered: May 2001 posted 05-05-2003 06:53 PM                     Hey Phil.........been a long time.......Enjoyed working with you at Iwerks.......Be sure to say hello if you make it here to Austin.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 05-05-2003 11:47 PM                    Drool over the Big Boy in St. Louis but don't overlook some very important non-steam rail artifacts there including the only surviving unit of #103, the original EMC FT 4-unit demonstrator of 1939 ("The Diesel That Did It"), a UP Centennial (world's largest diesel), a Milwaukee Road "bi-polar" electric, B&O 50 (pretty much the first non-articulated passenger diesel), a CB&Q shovel nose unit ("Silver Charger"), the bizarre 1950's GM/EMD Aerotrain with futuristic locomotive and lightweight cars based on GMC bus bodies. Hmm...I think I just talked myself into visiting.  |  IP: Logged Christopher Seo Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 530 From: Los Angeles, CA Registered: Jun 99 posted 05-06-2003 09:12 AM                     Paul, Wow, you didn't recall all those specs about the Big Boys from memory, did you? My personal favorite is the Union Pacific FEF class (i.e., the FEF-3 #844 used on passenger excursions). Nice sleek passenger machine. I think there's only three or so still surviving. In case you didn't realize, there is actually a nice railroad museum in downtown Dallas, at Fair Park. There's a Big Boy, Centennial, Pennsylvania GG-1, and a number of other locomotives and cars. There are walk-though exhibits of a sleeper and coach, I think, and lots of friendly staff who could probably get you into any of the rest.  |  IP: Logged William T. Parr Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 823 From: Cedar Park, TX Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-06-2003 12:42 PM                     Wonder how many of us in here also have a passion for railroading as well? Seems to be quiet a bit a least by some of the replies coming up.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 05-06-2003 01:05 PM                     William, I thought of the same question myself. There is something about steam locomotive that attracts people like a magnet. Just like the old movie theatres. Once it sucks you in, there is no way out, especially if you had the opportunity to "Ride the point." Steam is part of history world wide. Steam locomotive speed records were in February of 1804, when it achieved a whopping 5 miles per hour. 134 years later (in July 1938) the speed record for a steam locomotive was 126 miles per hour. Back in my day, it was always a small boy's dream to have a svuntz at least as big as his "old man's" and to drive a steam loomotive.  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 05-07-2003 08:15 AM                     Question for steam-buffs: I know about "...shovel all the coal in, gotta keep a-rollin..." and how the archimedes screw coal feed relieved the fireman of a job, but HOW do they get the ashes out of the firebox to make room for more coal? My childhood home was heated by coal, and we would shake out the ashes by moving a lever that would shake the grates. Since it was during the Great Depression of the '30's, we would sift the ashes in a rotary device of hardware cloth (screen) to remove the unburned coals and clinkers. Then we'd put the ashes in a steel barrel and roll it to the curb for pickup. My present home, built in 1923, had an iron triangle above the outside celler stairs. I'm told the ashman would come with a block and tackle to hoist the barrels and swing them above the retaining wall to roll them to his truck. Back to locomotives: Do they dump the ashes on the roadbed and risk setting fire to the ties and forests? Or what? Gerard  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 05-07-2003 09:14 AM                        As I recall, many coal-fired industrial boilers run so hot that the ash congeals to a hard glass-like substance known as "klinkers".  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 05-07-2003 05:58 PM                     I was fascinated by trains when I was a kid. It was cool to watch Southern Pacific trains over 1 mile long motor through Arizona. When I lived in Japan, my friends and I hiked into the mountains west of Iwakuni to go check out the Shinkansen (the bullet train). I'm not quite as nutty about trains, which is probably a good thing because I'm usually driving along highways like US-287 whenever I see them now. I would wreck my truck getting transfixed by a train passing off to the side of the road. Picture taking still works. NO! Don't take photos this way! Not unless you're that stupid blond girl from the TV series "24" (Jack Bauer's dipshit daughter). Insanely stupid TV characters need to write themselves out of the plot by stepping in front of speeding trains. Lord knows this BNSF locomotive could use a break from that wierd Halloween color scheme. This is the preferred way to take photos of a train. You're at a safe distance. The worst that could happen is perhaps a disgruntled engineer slinging coffee out of his mug at you. If he shoots you the finger, shoot it right back in kind. It takes trains something like 200 miles to stop. So its not like he can stop, get out and beat your ass. BTW, beware of flying hobos launching out of box cars. They can interfere with good shot composition. And then they'll want to bum a ride (those stinkin bastards!). [ 05-07-2003, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: Bobby Henderson ]  |  IP: Logged

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