It wa interesting to see Diane S. Segal’s pictures and poetry on C&O fireless locomotives. I was amazed to find that a class 1 railroad had this type of locomotive. Were there any other class 1’s or even short lines that operated them? I was always under the impression they were only operated by industrial operations. Any photos on the websites about these C&O locomitives?
BN had a Fireless locomotive at its Tie Treating plant in Brainerd, MN. It lasted into the BN era and was the only steam locomotive owned by BN. The locomotive is now plinthed outside the Brainerd Shop. It came from the Northern Pacific RR.
John, I’ve read an article about that plant some time ago. Could it have been in Staples instead of Brainerd?
There are some fireless cooker photos here-
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/srchThumbs.aspx?srch=fireless&search=Search
That’s very fascinating! I read at the NRHS website about the fireless locos and was surprised that they could run an entire day on just one charge. Neat stuff…
I believe the Santa Fe had one. I am not completely sure, but it rings a bell.
The BN/NP tie treating plant was in Brainard(on the west end). Staples was the crew change point where the Duluth and Twin Cities lines came together. The NP had large car shops in Brainard(and it was the junction at one time for the two lines).
Jim
Union Electric’s power plant in Venice, Ill. used to have a fireless locomotive, and when I was in the area I would stop by and watch it work. This was in the 80’s. It was adjacent to the GM&O yard. I have no idea if it’s still there.
A weird sensation, it looked and acted like a steam locomotive, but sounded like a stationary engine. Sort of a whoosh-whoosh sound. Didn’t have much pulling power either. I never saw it handle more than one freight car at a time.
They were used around roundhouses also. There was always a way of recharging them there.
In the summer of 1969, I rode the New York Central’s “James Whitcomb Riley” coming back to Chicago from a class at VPI (now known as Virginia Tech). I was amazed as the train eased north out of the station at Indianapolis, Indiana, as there was an operational fireless steam engine working there at the facility that provided steam power to the station and surrounding buildings. I was not in a position to get back and photograph it. 1969! That makes it pretty easy for someone to develop a “reasonable” scenario justifying having one of these little cookers shuttling around any sizeable facility - especially if the facility has a large boiler that can provide a little extra steam.
Bill
Here is a web site with lot of fireless locos. There is even #4094 a 0-8-0 which is streamlined.
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/steam21.html
Rich