Just caught the end of “Giants of Steam” on History International channel. Voyages is the program title, and it has great footage of UP BB’s as well as Norfolk & Western steam. Has a bit with O Winston Link and a bunch of other good stuff! In my locale, it’s also on at 4PM EST. [:)]
I’ve seen that program on History International several times and it’s a good one! I also like the bit with Link and his stunning photographs. It’s really worth catching.
My only small complaint: What, no YELLOWSTONES? [:P]
Tom [:)]
Tom,
Is there any cure for our “Yellowstone Fever??!?”
dlm
No, but you can prevent the disease by eliminating the mosquitos that carry it. [:-^]
Andre
Not until the manufacturers and importers feed your addiction for true Yellowstones. It is obvious the SP-cab-forward, backwards-running ACs haven’t helped much. You’ll still be addicted, but your fevers will be gone.
Mark
Might I suggest a shower - under the fallout from Old Faithful? [:-^]
The closest I could come to a Yellowstone would be doubleheading a D52 2-8-2 with a D62 2-8-4 - except that I don’t own either of those locos. [#oops]
Do you realize that a Yellowstone - anybody’s Yellowstone - weighs more than a typical Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo train? [:O] The Giants of Steam in postwar Japan were E10 class 2-10-4Ts, all five of them.[(-D]
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where the big steam was small)
Mark:
Actually, a couple of shots of the Cab-Forwards on the program warmed me a lot. Believe it or not, I LOVE those 4-8-8-2 beauties with their very unique and striking profiles. My all-time favorite is the AC-6 ‘flat face’, that was the ‘transitional’ loco between the AC-5’s and the later, more ‘streamlined’ versions, but any one of the classes will get the old pump racing. [:P]
Actually, I’ve got an AC-5 (BLI), 6 (Sunset), 8 and 11 (Akanes) in my roster, and I love 'em all!
Oh, yah, and an AC-9 that I still have to convert to ‘oil’. It’s an old Akane that the previous owner had re-built with the STRANGEST drive system I’ve ever seen (he somehow double-articulated the beast and put the motor in the tender), but despite that very unusual re-build, it runs really sweet.
I just thought a shot of one of those Missabes would have completed the program (which as I said, I like a lot), as there’s still a lot of contention as to whether or not it was more powerful than the BB (which in retrospect is like comparing oranges with apples).
Actually, I’ve got all the Yellowstones I need, (Good God, did I just SAY that?[:O] ) I’m just thinking of all the other poor 2-8-8-4 Addicts out there, LOL!
Tom [:D]
At least they weren’t triplexes—[:-^]
Guys!
Yellowstones are wonderful locomotives, and SP’s AC-9s have got to top the list for beauty. Nevertheless…I eschew locomotives with four-wheel trailing trucks. In my mind, they require super broad curves (42-inches-plus, which I’ll never have) because of the overhang between locomotive and tender since the “curve-center” of the locomotive is far forward. I’ll never acquire a GS for this reason, and I’m even suspicious of locomotives with four leading wheels even though I have a Pacific (4-6-2) and will be acquiring a Mountain (4-8-2).
Regardless, I do have one SP B-1 Berkshire (2-8-4), but that’s only because it has a whaleback tender, and they are so brutishly ugly, like Baldwin’s six-axle road switchers.
Therefore, I prefer the early ACs with the 2-8-8-2 wheel arrangement, MM-3s (2-6-6-2 always-remaining-compound-steam-Mallet-cab-backwards) and the leased UP Bull Moose (2-8-8-0). Those, with Decks, Mikes, Hogs, and Moguls, make me a happy hostler.
Mark
I plan to “lease” a Dick-Truesdale-modified-oil-fueled-Southern-Railway 2-8-2+2-8-0 duplex (one of five) for helper service.
Mark
There is one good reason to get a DM&IR yelly (and/or B&O) into the BLI-PCM scheme of things, they will have BOTH driversets rotate than the rear rigid. Although this is not prototypical, it allows these huge engines over sharper curves. Which is why its done.
My Akane gets around 24" fine and it will snake on 22" also. Well, I modded it slightly finding some parts rubbing.
Plus dcc/sound, the missabes not just looked the brute, they SOUNDED the brute. I would believe the Missabes could handle the UP’s running demands easily, its a high stepping drivered engine as well, BUT, since the Big Boy needed good tracking at high speeds, it may have needed the 4 wheel lead truck, thus making the prolly 2-8-8-4 into a 4-8-8-4.
So the Yellys didnt get the romantic touch like the Big Boy, but its still got the brute and its just as impressive.
Mark:
Maybe it’s my own perspective, but actually a 34-36" radius tends to cut down quite a bit on the overhang you’re talking about. I certainly wouldn’t suggest using a loco with a 4-wheel trailing truck on anything less, myself, but I’ve found that on my own MR, it doesn’t affect my sense of ‘sight’ as much as it might were I modeling anything with less of a radius.
However, your choice of loco wheel arrangements certainly makes me smile in appreciation–especially the ‘Decks.’ I can’t really think of a handsomer 2-10-2 than the ones that SP ran, or a locomotive more suited to where SP ran them. Well, maybe the Rio Grand F-81’s—but at least our favorite 2-10-2’s ran in pretty rugged country where they looked at home.
I think we have the same SP 2-8-4, BTW. Balboa?
Tom [:D]
Hi Tom,
Nope, I have a Westside Models B-1, with Canon motor. It is custom painted as #3501 (an ebay acquisition).
Interesting…I’m reading here on page 47 of Jim Boyd’s Southern Pacific In Color, Volume 2 that SP’s first backwards Yellowstone (AC-4 #4100 which the SP called an “Articulated Consolidation”) was built in September 1928, four months before Northern Pacific #5000 that gave 2-8-8-4s the name “Yellowstone.”
Mark
I know that Tom has seen these, but do these help with anyone else’s Yellow(stone) Fever?
Doug