I think this is a sad but important question. What is the future of restored steam locomotives?
If they can avoid the NIMBYs and the EPA they may have some hope of continued preservation. Unfortunately, without the heavy forges and other major industrial capabilities of the era that built them they will be difficult and expensive to maintain. Hopefully, those interested enough can maintain enough of the necessary knowledge to both build and maintain these beasts for the children of another age. Who knows, we may need some in 50 years when oil completely runs out.
LC
I think steam should be used more for the tourist industry. It is far more interesting for the young to see the action of a steam engine than to see the motionless diesel. I don’t think steam has much use for freight anymore but they haven’t outlived their usefulness.
I saw a 2nd place picture under the “Your Best Shot” in the August 2004 issue of Popular Photography & Imaging that shows the Jitong Railway in Mongolia, one of the last freight lines in the world still using steam locomotives. Has anyone ever heard of this railway and do you know anything about it? In the picture it appears that the two locomotives are pulling hoppers of coal, and I’m not sure what type of locomotives they are either.
They are not “still using” steam locomotives.
The Jitong Railway was just built, opened in 1995 IIRC, and all the motive power was built new. Almost all 2-10-2 as I remember. Why steam? Because China has lots of coal so they don’t have to import fuel, and steam is a low tech solution compared to diesel or straight electric, so they can build and operate them very cheaply. In China it doesn’t make any difference if they are labor intensive.
I saw some film of double headers hauling a train up the grade in the winter. Steam plumes going up hundreds of feet into the sky. Really impressive!
Steam locomotives will be around indefinitely, provided that there is a place where they can be run. Very few steam locomotives have a secure operating future.
If I were to make a prediction, I’d say that UP 844 and 3985 will be around. Steamtown in Scranton will be running steam, as will Cass in W. Virginia. Illinois Railway Museum will still be running Frisco 1630 (or another steamer).
I’ve heard that Frisco 1630 will likely go out of service next year for major FRA-mandated work, so if you want to see it run, plan a visit this year. The hope is that UP 428 will take it’s place but both locos need drivers turned and they need to finish work on overhauling the drop pit in order to do that. 428 is in much better shape than it appears. The boiler, firebox, and smokebox are all done and have been hydro-tested. The cylinders are round again and the running gear is in good shape. The major effort now is rebuilding the cab and all the backhead appliances.
The FRA regs were changed a few years ago so mandated inspections & repairs for excursion engines are based on service days rather than calendar months. That should help a lot of organizations keep them running much longer.
A dream? In the future it will be possible to make replacement parts from “modern” materials that can withstand the forces and heat involves, and maybe even be more durable than the original parts.
How about poeple who know how to maintain and operate them?
I recently visited the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga. They were running steam, and they had a shop where they could do a lot of restoration. One of their projects included driver maintenance for other rail museums, on a contract basis. They claimed they were the only shop in North America capable of doing the work.
They also said that they had to hire a nuclear reactor vessel welder to come in and do the welding on a boiler they were rebuilding. Apparently, the trade of boilermaker relative to steam engines is a dead art in the USA. I would guess that Steamtown has a curator or two who can do the work…
A question- it took years to qualify as a locomotive engineer in the so called “Golden Age” of railroads. I wonder how museum engineers are trained and licensed- I assume they have to be licensed and qualified. Who are the instructors? How did they qualify? I suspect that there aren’t that many locomotive engineers around who actually ran steam on main line roads… they must be getting a little long in the tooth by now.
Erik
I do hope the American steamers that have been preserved will be around for years to come.
I read a while back that the 614 is no longer running and may not run in the future. Don’t remember if the issue was insurance or maintenence. This is very saddening as I got to see this beautiful 4-8-4 in action in the 1980s. She’s poetry in motion.
Most of that time was a union required apprenticeship program, aka fireman. You can learn the techniques of running a steamer in a few days, learn the rules and regs in a week or two, and the rest is practice, practice, practice!
Many of the museums and excursion lines train their own engineers and also many are mainline qualified, whatever the term is, because at different times they may have to run on the regular railroads. Especially excursion trains.
We shouldn’t forget about the 5AT project in England (a place where preserved steam has become one of the national pastimes, so I wouldn’t worry about ‘the knowledge’ dying out there anyway).
Part of this effort is intended to codify the design and construction ‘best practices’ for steam locomotives.
Let’s just hope that Steve Lee,Doyle McCormac,and others around the country are grooming the next generation of steam mechanics.And we will need some of those shackle equipped boxcars to put all the lawers in[;)]!
After mulling the question over in my head for a day, I was thinking maybe it was not a very good question. But from your answers, I can see that while this is an important question, it is hardly a sad one, in fact it is one of great hope !
Right on, peace.
I am not a steam fan but I do enjoy seeing them run. I like the MILW 261 the most and it seems that she will be around for quite some time to come. The same goes with the UP 844 and 3985. They have UP and BNSF backings so they should have no problem running.
Sad to say the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, WI…owner of MILW 261, has an operating steam locomotive…well sorta. They converted the tender to a deisel engine. For kids, its great because there is smoke coming out of the stack, for people like me and older, we can clearly hear the deisel working inside the tender.