did the class 1s, specifically SP, use steam during this era? to my recollection i heard then saw a steamer just south of san jose about then. i was a young un then, but i remember it was full length so i doubt is a photo run. the noise! i thought 1000 harleys were passing us. sadly, that is all my steam experience. thankfully i have trains mag to live in the past with. thanks in advance if you can help. somehow i think ericsp will know. dude is all knowing.
To my recollection of that period of time…no steam engines on any Class I railroad were activated for revenue service.
I dont know what the railroads did during that time. I am old enough to remember the day the Baltimore Sun made it clear with front page headlines and the following 10 days where odd-even days were implemented. Those were some troubled times in those days. It was all about which gas station has the least line and who had odd or even tags for that day.
I can probably say that there was no steam in revenue service (Knock on wood) in the USA during that time but certianly in places like China probably had steam working revenue service quite commonly.
Then again back in those days .50 gas and 25 gallon tanks on 30 foot long barges getting 5 miles to the gallon; no one dreamed of 3.80 gas and even bigger pickup trucks totally destroying the speed limit in the morning commute while a war is raging in that part of the world.
I recall that time as where the new 55 mph speed limit was put in place along with splits for all sorts of vehicles. 30 years later we still have splits and drink more oil than ever before.
I remember the embargo while living in Southern Cal. I filled the big tank on the van on the even Saturday, getting up at 4AM to get in line. Then I siphoned out the gas for my Honda 305 and for the wife’s car. SP, UP, and ATSF had plenty of fuel.
4449 should have pulled the American Freedom Train between LA and the Bay area during 1975, was that what you saw ?
I also recall the Freedom Train near Baltimore. I THINK it was the Reading T1 instead of the 4449 due to track limits.
The 4449 should still be living up near Portland today I dont know what condition she is in, the T1 sadly is rusting quietly away at the B&O after being damaged in a fire.
That was the era in which the ACE3000 theory was being developed and touted, but it never got off the ground due to the overall embargo ending and things just went back to the oil guzzling ways before the embargo (albeit with many more Toyota’s, Datsun’s…remember that name before Nissan?..and others on our roads then and ever since).
We grew up in a Datsun or two. Ours was rather tiny, a bit of a death trap. But with good TLC it lasted almost 95,000 miles. Toss 5 bucks of gas in the tank and go to work all week. I once commuted 60 miles one way to work with a Maverick daily and was filling that thing every 3rd trip. I quit that job after the gasoline bill became larger than my net pay at the time.
That was also a time where muscle power was being nuetered by the emissions crap.
Think of a Nuclear Submarine and how small they can go. Surely we can use mobile nuclear reactors on rail today.
Click here:
http://www.sp4449.com/
4449 is alive and well
I would say you likely happened by the Freedom Train
I was a kid but I remember the gas crunch and waiting in gas lines, ration stickers (were you odd or even days), and fights breaking out at gas stations.
I also remember we all learned to drive small economy cars and that Detroits responce to the gas crunch were some of the worst examples of automotive technology in history! Remember the Pinto-xploder, Vega-rustamatic, care for a Gremlin anyone ?
I even remember the Great Tanker Robbery, when a guy’s semi truck and two full tankers of gas were hi-jacked at gunpoint, and the truck simply dissappeared (yeah, in someones barn for the duration).
I remember there being an article in a “way back” issue of TRAINS on that subject as well.
Regarding some of Droits worst autos… some still live on at the Auction house.
It is amusing to see the new generation of early 20 somethings eye a Citation and ask… what the &^% is that thing? I tell em, the worst auto ever sent to the line.
Or perhaps the Vega-Bomb. Or even the Flakey-paint Escort with the bad timing belt. Or perhaps the geo or kia that shakes it’s frame at idle.
I think the droit-bombs dominance stopped after the wholesale peeling of paint and the flat inability to get out of it’s own way in a increasingly cut-throat beltway commute.
Other cars like the Genada (spelling?) and Fairmont (Sorry I know… I know…) Barge live on as well.
But it’s the AMC Pacer that deserves all the love we can give it. Yeesh.
The only revenue steam I ever saw ever, was actualy in 1974, while traveling by train through north west Germany. I clearly remember several 2-10-0’s operating.
My dad bought a VW Rabbit when they first came out, a revolution from the traditional rear engined air cooled BUG. It rusted quick.
Actually the ACE3000 development occured in the early 1980’s. I do recall reading that during the first oil crisis there was a proposal to return at least one DM&IR Yellowstone to service hauling ore.
As far as the DOE Nuclear Locomotive project goes, the development ended years before the anti-nuclear backlash.
With a submarine you don’t have to worry about having cooling water for the reactor, you have as much as you need all around you![:D] It is a different story with a land base vehicle.
Bert
I say TRACK PANS.
I wonder if my little widdy town would like to charge UP for trackpans and the water used for several hundred yards in each direction. I think 3000 gallons is something like 8 bucks but I pay my bill annually and never see the charges so Im not quite sure.
Need lots more water than track pans can give you!
Well, if they would just line the entire right-of-way with water pans…and as long as the temperature doesn’t go below 32F…
But consider the excitement should two nuclear-powered trains collide head on!
Perhaps we should stick with oil; or better yet, string catenary along all rail lines.
Let’s just string over head over all the tracks and build nukes around water.
I once saw a list of Detroits worst production cars. I had owned 3 that were in the top 10.[xx(]
Track pans would be more expensive then catenary. Virtualy the whole railway would have to be water level flat !! Plus even with deep track pans everywhere it would never be as much water as a submarine could access. Crazy ideas.