I was 4 or 5 at the time, riding in my grandfather’s 1957 Buick on the main highway leading west out of downtown Minneapolis (the old Hwy 12, now I-394), which ran along a part of the Cedar Yard of the Great Northern. It was a cold and cloudy November day, just before the first snowfall of late autumn. As we drove past the GN yard, I saw (and stared in amazement at) a great number of large dark and brooding steam engines there- perhaps they had been brought down from outlying locations to be scrapped. That picture, now some 53 years in the past, remains with me today in my mind’s eye. That is why I love steam (in addition to colorful and “modern” diesels.
To some, it’s a memory of a ride on one as a kid, the symmetry of the rods moving along a locomotive’s side as it moves either leisurely through a freight yard or at rapid speed across the plains- or the mental picture I painted above.
To others, it might be the visual poetry they find captivating as they look at old photos or carefully made camera still shots which are more artistry than mere image capture.
To each his (or her) own, but there’s just something special about those old steam locomotives…
I’m with you 100% on that. Any steam loco has LIFE, just like us old f***ts. They just hiss and wheeze and puff and spit just like us, but they still keep on chuffin’ along.
I agree. Steam locos have LIFE to them.They have parts that perform a concert of movement. They have a chorus of sounds that brings music to my ears. They SHOW how hard they work to move tons of dead weight. They have smells that do not assault my nose, but instead fill my sense of smell with delight. There is nothing more thrilling than air pumps pumping up air, either in a round of “applause” or in a constant thumping rhythem.There is nothing like the smell of burning coal first thing in hte morning. I take trips and drive miles to see a chuffing steamer and ride behind it’s billowing puffs of coal smoke and steam oil!
I have described diesels as “moving boxes on wheels”. They STINK when they smoke, They grumble along groaning at the work and weight they have to move. They have few obvious marks of the work they do…I rarely will go out of my way to follow one and often can’t tell the difference between a SD45 and an SD50-anything.
My Choice is steam. Yet, I admit to running both on my layout.
I got up close and personal with steamers on the C&NW on the northwest side of Chicago and the Illinois central in southern Illinois (Anna) during the '50s. The sights, sounds, and smells were soooo real, not to mention the sheer power of which they reeked.
Of course life was not a bowl of cherries with the steamers. Some folks did not appreciate the soot and cinders they threw out, and pity the poor lady that hung her wash out to dry near trackside.
From a modeling standpoint, steamers can be difficult, and a real test of your track laying skills. On my recently built HO layout, a BLI 2-10-2 was THE test loco of choice. If it could pull or push thru the trackage at slow and medium high speeds, that was good enough for me.
The other thing about modeling steam is that you get those fantastic water tanks, coal towers, ash facilities, and the like. And while diesels used turntables, they were really put in place for the steamers.
I understand the pont of view of the previous set of posts wherein the writer posited why he had no interest in steam. I too was born t the end of the steam era and never saw a steam locomotive in revenue service.
However, i was fortunate enough to be of driving age in the 1970’s when the Southern ran many of its steam specials as well as riding behind the N&W 611. That was enough to convince me of the glory of steam and instill in me a lifelong respect for steam motive motive power
The GG-1 I rode behind on my first trip to New York a close second.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVOtszRmw3A even during my times of non-involvement in the hobby, I still think how much I like the J, and without a doubt, even if I were to part with my whole collection, my 611 model will stay.
In my early childhood days, steam was still the main traction on Germany´s rails. Each weekend, my Dad took us kids to the train station to watch trains. Standing next to one of those class 01 Pacifics with drivers twice my size, hearing them hiss, smelling the scent of hot oil and coal coined my interest for a lifetime.
When steam was abandoned in 1977, my interest in trains dropped drastically. In Eastern Germany (former GDR), steam stayed on much longer, up until the time of re-unification with Western Germany. Thanks to of numerous steam fanatics in the East, we now have a large number of big steamers running the rails again.
My reason for preferring steam to diesel is similar to my reason for sticking with analog DC:
I can look at it and see what makes everything work!
When I look at an art-deco furniture van or an emergency genset on steel wheels, all I see is a funny-shaped box with a coupler at each end. Even an 0-4-0T has more visual appeal than the latest and greatest six-axle super-machine. (At least a catenary motor has pantographs. Diesels don’t even have that!)
Yes, a model steam loco requires more maintenance than a model diesel. Yes, a model steam loco has more things that can go wrong. Yes, a steam loco has more fragile details, some a lot more fragile than diesel handrails. So What! That’s just part of the trade-off.
Forget that I’m following a prototype that was still burning coal to produce ton-kilometers in 1964. That’s just gravy.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with steam, diesel and cat motors)
I won’t dispute your right to like or dislike anything - even steam locos.
But, while the models on my layout can’t produce steam or smoke, their sounds are awesome. In particular, the BLI ATSF 4-8-4 has about the most realistic sounds I have ever heard in a model.
Crandall - Thanks for that post. I grew up in a small town and my grandmother’s house was about a block or so from the RR tracks. I can remember sitting on her porch when the steamers came through and the whole place would vibrate. Great memory.
In 1950, when I was 11 years old, my family moved into a new home about 6 tenths of a mile from the Pennsylvania RR. At that time there was little between our house and the railroad except fields. I used to listen to the Pennsy passenger trains coming from and going to Chicago early in the morning. One would come south (?) about 2 am and the other would go north (?) at 4 am.
It was the swan song of steam. I remember the steam switcher that used to stand at 5th & Main near the PRR Freight House chugging away while the crew grabbed lunch. I remember walking north out to the coaling tower that sat along with a water tower on the west side of the crossing with Madison Ave. (Rd). They were on the south side of the tracks. And, of course, the water tanks and the freight and passenger stations here in Anderson. I remember the steam whistle of those early morning passenger runs sounding like a lost soul calling to whoever would listen. They called to me across the night and I listened. I listened and they became a part of me. Those whistles were for t
Personally, I am interested in steam because I never got to experience the heyday of mainline steam. I have seen mainline steam engines run on excursions and such, but that is not the same thing as an entire class one railroad running steam, or a class one railroad with steam and 1st generation diesels working together side by side.
I see diesels all the time. They run right by where I work on coal trains and amtrak. Yes, I like them. I like them just fine. But I have no drive to reproduce that in model form, as I do see them everyday. By modeling the steam/diesel trainsition (summer 1958), I can see for myself, in some form, the way it was. I can try to recreate a bit of history, a way of life and operations, a world that has faded away. For me, that is the challenge. That is what sparks my imagination.
Others, of course may have different views. And that’s good- one of the wonderful things about this hobby is that there is room for all of us.
Growing up in the 30s and 40s in a small Iowa town I was fascinated with the railroad - I remember only steamers being used. I would go down to the tracks and watch the the cars being switched from one track to another and I vividly remember two occasions when the engineer asked me to ride in the cab - what a thrill; I am sure that couldn’t or wouldn’t happen today even if steamers were still in wide use because of potential liability. I did not grow up a railroader, but 10 years ago at age 70 I started my layout - try to keep it in the transition era which I understand is basically the 1950s. Off the subject of steamers I did kitbash an Atlas turntable into a 90’ TT; some time I will send pictures of this which works quite well (of course I cannot index it properly so have to manually stop the TT at the desired points.)
Born in '46 I was at the tail end of steam. Fortunately I lived right across the street from a train station. As a young boy I would stand and watch the big steames comming and going into Wash DC. The thunder of the engine and sounds etc. were and still are amazing… Unforgetable!
I like modern engines as well but Steam still lives inside of me.
Growing up on Long Island outside of NYC in the 1950s, I never saw a steam engine in service. In fact, I was wide-eyed whenever I saw a diesel, since all the trains through town were electrified Long Island Railroad commuter trains. As I built my first real model railroad, I chose diesels.
Later in life, I pulled that equipment out of the box and stuck with it - early 1960s at the newest. Slowly, I built my “grown-up” layout around the same theme. But then, one day at the LHS…
She was undersized, dark, and perfectly proportioned. I was fascinated by all her parts in perfect synchronous motion. She turned to face me and just beamed. And then, she gave a short whistle and I was hooked. I’d fallen for an 0-6-0. I had caught a bad case of Steam.
So, I did what any of us would do - I made my layout dual-era, adding another roster of automobiles, rolling stock and locomotives. Good Lord, man, why didn’t I think of this before? I was still constrained by space, but this way I could have twice as many locomotives, twice as many cars and not have to worry about which ones to run. I had my personal way-back machine in the trainroom.