LIST AT LEAST FIVE OF YOUR FAVORITE STEAM TRAINS
Trains as a whole, or locomotives that pull them?
I’ll go for it.
-
Norfolk-Southern steam excursions pulled by Class J 611.
-
Norfolk-Southern steam excusions pulled by Class A 1218.
-
New Jersey Transit steam excursions pulled by Chesapeake and Ohio 614
-
Susquehanna steam excursions pulled by 2-8-2 142.
-
The Durango and Silverton and their wonderful stable of narrow-gauge steamers, NOT to be missed if you’re in that part of the country.
Honorable Mention: The Strasburg Railroad!
And at least the D&S and the Strasburg are still in operation.
Hope that answers the questions.
In no particular order:
- NYC Dreyfuss Hudson
- N&W Class J Northern
- N&W Class Y6 (or a or b)
- NKP Lima Berkshire (or Lima C&O Kanawah)
- N&W Class G1
-
C&TS
-
D&SNG
-
Huckleberry RR (Michigan) ex-D&RGW 464
-
PM 1225
-
UP Big Boy if they get it running again
Excursions on the Reading & Northern, Reading to Jim Thorpe PA.
Texas State Railroad, Strasburg, & a Chessie Special. I can only make 4!
I’ve been on the Texas State, Strasburg, Huckleberry, the old Steamtown in VT, Ohio Central, and Everett. I guess that makes my five. Didn’t see the N&W 4-8-0 when I visited the Strasburg.
Some not mentioned:
Milwaukee Hiawatha anything. (This includes those funky little North Woods engines, which in turn brings up the Lubeck-Buchener Eisenbahn with the class 60s playing the part of the As and those … interesting other engines.)
New York Central trains in sections on tight headway behind latter classes of J1s, unstreamlines except for one grand example. And later, in different context, Niagaras on anything, doing pretty much anything. I’m partial to those A2a’s too.
Why no Daylights?
Algerian Garratts (and, why not, C&O M-1, perhaps the largest passenger steam engine, a kind of North American counterpart)
T1 power on trains meriting them for the brief time before PRR gave up on debugging them. (We will see, in detail, what was and wasn’t possible … hopefully sooner than later.)
Coronation Scot over Silver Link, but that’s more prejudice than objectivity. And what a pity the hush-hush development failed to thrive. Plenty of other interesting steam in Blighty including 71000 and later Tornado; I’ve always been partial to Churchward’s and Collett’s designs…
More later.
Personally I’m an east of the Mississippi kinda girl. [swg]
Nothing against Doyle’s Daylight myself, but I’ve never ridden behind that one, I confined my own choices to those I’ve experienced personally. If I was going to give a wish list for rides it’d go something like this…
-
The Blue Comet
-
Any of the New Jersey Central’s Camelbacks
-
An Erie K-1 up the New York and New Jersey Railroad, now called the Pascack Valley Line. (NJT)
-
The 20th Century Limited behind a Dreyfuss Hudson
-
The Broadway Limited behind a T1.
Honorable mention, anywhere on the New York Central from New York City to Chicago behind a Niagara.
As I said, it’s a wish list.
Have we not done something like this ten times already? Oh well it just too tempting, can’t resist.
A T1 during that six month period when they were the stars.
A NYC Hudson at speed…put me on the CASO With heavyweights. Wartime.
A NYC Niagara at speed
A CPR Jubilee…the original high stepping ones, and their matching train. High flyers, Edmonton-Calgary.
CNR/GTW streamlined Northern …magnificient in full stride. So powerful.
I would love to have seen the C&O M-1, been trackside…what hopes for the future that never happened. Glad Overmod brought it up, I suppose most of us disqualify it.
How about UP Portland Rose behind a grey jacketed Challenger and its matching trainset.
Anything high drivered Sante Fe, I mean c’mon.
Concur…anything Hiawatha, homemade cars, such pride, so beautiful.
Tastes evolve. Besides, it’s winter for most of us. [:D]
I’d like to see a CPR Jubilee up and running. I believe Steamtown has one, not sure if it could be fixed.
Not the right kind. All the drawbacks of a light Hudson, with none of the advantages. Real useful for running excursion trains too short to pay their own way, while stalling often or burning rail with poor adhesion doing it.
What’s needed is a 3000-class Jubilee, which was Canada’s somewhat better answer to a Milwaukee A class.
Christ, what a mess! If Steamtown can’t do anything with it they should just give it to someone who can. Wouldn’t anyone in Canada be interested?
Maybe someone in Canada IS interested. Maybe Steamtown COULD do something. I’m not sure, but I think other locomotives in similar shape have been revived.
Well Father, anything built by man can be restored by man, but it DOES take buckets of money to do it. In the meantime Steamtown should send someone out there with a few buckets of Rustoleum just to keep it from getting any worse.
The original finish is shot anyway, just something to stop the rust. As they say, rust never sleeps.
One of the strangest consists you’ll ever see! F1a 3002 a streamlined 4-4-4 taking water, ancient steel underframe (S.U.F.) headend car is only an empty buffer (required by BTC Order) between engine and passenger cars, a single near-new RDC and a single lightweight coach make up this light traffic Saturday run stopping only at Woodstock, and shown here
taking water at Galt, just one hour after leaving London, it will be only another hour and five minutes to Toronto Union.
Saturday February 27,1954 Gordon E. Lloyd.