An article in today’s The Washington Post notes that the Confederate submarine Hunley was built from a locomotive boiler. Does anyone know what railroad the locomotive was from, and whether or not it was a 4-4-0 “American” ? And, has that railroad, or its successors, ever headed their trains with a U-boat ? [:)]
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Oh…that kind of U-boat…I thought you were refering to the U33C GE diesel electric locomotive…
Might want to chnage the title, the U-Boat was a WW1/WW2 German submarine class, The Hunley was a Submersable.
And since the 4-4-0 was pretty much the only Engine running in aboundance at that time, i’d have to say it was at least 2 4-4-0 boilers (this after looking at the pictures).
as for the railroad, that wouldbe tough to know, since the confederate army probably just took a few wrecks and make the sub, metal was hard to come by that late in the war and the railroads were pretty much destroyed. I belive at the end of the war,the south had maybe 2 or 3 active Railroads companies running out of the 30 or more they started with.
Jay
Despite the obvious opportunities for wartime confusion, where was the “Hunley” built? Presumably not far from the proposed action, since it didn’t have an engine! Check what railroads ran to that point, and assume the boilers came from their stock.
Alternatively, assume that the railroads concerned became part of CSX or NS and the answer is yes!
There might be more detail available from the US Naval Institute at Annapolis. They have a monthly magazine and are active publishers. They have a web site, (but I don’t know the link).
Peter
Peter,
I presumed that you would be a Proceedings and/or Naval History subscriber…here you go…
Dan
I’m pretty sure the Hunley was built in Charleston, SC.
Maybe the boilers came from a predecessor of the ACL. They had U boats, didn’t they?
John