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Author Topic: How fast did steam engines go? Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 02-24-2004 07:00 PM                     Travis, here is a picture of the locomotive I was talking about. I thought it was in Minot, but come to find out it is at Havre, Montana. Here is a picture I took of it. She is a high driver engine (80-inch drivers) that weighed 420,900 lbs. Baldwin built it. One of it's sister engines, No. 2581, was scrapped on 4 February 1947 when her boiler blew up in Crary, North Dakota on 9 January 1947. This engine has 29-inch cylinders with a 29-inch stroke. This engine class had a tractive effort of 58,310 lbs and operated with a 225 psi head pressure. Will, there was an old steamer (a 2-8-0) that ran in Eastern Washington until it was repossessed by the owner. It was old No. 51, which now resides somewhere in California. Anyway, she was coal fired, and authorities told the leasees that if they want to run that thing, they would have to convert to oil. The fire departments were getting irritated by chasing that thing down and putting out right-of-way fires.  |  IP: Logged Pete Wolla Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Tioga, ND, USA Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-24-2004 08:26 PM                     Not the wild wild west but here in ND towns were laid out 7 to 10 miles apart. that was a days trip in a wagon . many pararie fires were started by the steam trains . in the old days nothing to stop them but a river or rain the fires that is. fires were started by cinders from the stack and hot bearings in the wheels The trains stopped in every town. so it was a slow trip accross the state. the rail road hauled cream in cream cans to larger towns with creamerys. if there were no passingers to pick up in a town the mail sack was hung on a pole by the tracks and hooked by someone on the train. . incoming mail sack was thrown in to the parking lot at the depot From what i 've seen in family history the cars they rode in just had seats no sleepers. if they brought a car with livestock one person could ride with them to care for the livestock. when they got to the homestead area that car was rented put on a siding and lived in til a house or shack was built Some just lived in a tent near the tracks  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 02-24-2004 09:18 PM                     Pete, that sounds like the wild and wooley west. [ 02-25-2004, 11:37 AM: Message edited by: Paul G. Thompson ]  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 02-25-2004 06:24 PM                       Steve Kraus said: quote: That cluster of valves in the middle are for the stoker jets. The stoker (an Archemedian screw driven by a small steam engine) would dump the coal onto a plate just inside the firebox... Then you've got a blower valve (steam jet that provides boiler draft when the engine is stationary), injector controls (puts water into the boiler; there's another on the engineer's side), various blow-downs Steve, you never cease to amaze me. I am impressed!  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 02-25-2004 06:34 PM                     According to a good friend who is an avid rail historian, the trains of the old west, the locamotives with the tall inverted cone smokestacks, cruised at about 35 or so mph. and top safe speed would have been 45-50,IF somebody could fire it adequately.  |  IP: Logged Pete Wolla Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Tioga, ND, USA Registered: Jan 2003 posted 02-25-2004 06:59 PM                     That was 1902-03 in 02 two brothers and a cousin rode bike from benson county minn to here along the railroad right of way then put up 40 tons of hay while they were here. then rode back the families came out the next spring by train.  |  IP: Logged Travis Hubrig Expert Film Handler Posts: 175 From: Minot ND, USA Registered: May 2003 posted 02-25-2004 08:58 PM                     Pete, A few months ago, I read a very interesting book about Erik Ramstad and the Empire Builder... I wish I knew the name of it. It really gives a better idea of what happened to the prarie when the railroad came through. Many interesting pictures. I actually live about .75 mile away from Erik Ramstad's home in Minot. I believe it is still a private residence, but lots of history to it. Paul, I will try to post a picture of the locomotive that I'm talking about. Not quite as large as the picture you posted. I don't know maybe 2-4-2???? The Minot Railroad Mueseum has many old pictures, I just don't think they have the manpower to archive and post on the internet. I will also try to post a picture of the 2/5 model train they run in the park. Great fun in the summer for the kids. I don't know if it ran this last summer as many of the members of the Mueseum/Society are too old to work on the track and locomotive. Last year they advertised for volunteer work to help get the track in shape to run the train again... not sure how that worked out. There are many retired railroaders here with the know-how, but just can't do that type of work. There are also a couple of old passenger cars parked in the prarie just west of Berthold, right off of Highway 2. Just the wooden frames left on them now, but maybe I will get a picture next time I go that way.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-25-2004 09:15 PM                        Paul - is that engine in your picture a Northern type? (4-8-4) That, and the Hudson are my two favorite looking steamers. The Northern Pacific, now BNSF, railroad runs right through our town here (the tracks are about 300 feet from the theatre's front doors) so there are lots of rail-nuts around here, and lots of good pictures of the steam era in the museum.  |  IP: Logged Paul G. Thompson The Weenie Man Posts: 4718 From: Mount Vernon WA USA Registered: Nov 2000 posted 02-25-2004 09:25 PM                     Mike, that is a Northern Engine built my Baldwin Locomotive Works.  |  IP: Logged David Favel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 764 From: Ashburton, New Zealand Registered: Feb 2002 posted 02-26-2004 02:44 AM                     The 'K'88 “Washington” lives about a mile away. http://www.plainsrailway.co.nz/attractions.aspx  |  IP: Logged

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