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preserved steamer

Started by: priscus (inactive)

Started: 29th Apr 2017 at 18:32

Posted by: taylork54 (247)

What an awesome piece of machinery, I bet the people responsible for the preservation / restoration were justifiably proud of that performance. Mind you the tender on it must weigh at least as much as the Flying Scotsman on it's own it's enormous!

Replied: 30th Apr 2017 at 00:36

Posted by: britboy (6794)

I didn't look at this up till now, with the title I thought it was a steam driven ship.
The locomotive was very impressive for a USA unit, a lot tidier in appearance with a lot less exposed pipework on the outside of the boiler.

It appears this loco was converted to oil fired but was originally coal, an attempt was made in the UK to do this conversion on a British loco but was not successful.

A USA " big boy" locomotive which became a display unit was recovered from a place in California and transported by rail to the Union Pacific HQ in Cheyenne Wyoming to be renovated back to working order. The intention is to convert this to oil fired, will be interesting to see how it works out.
The restoration project will take quite a few years.

The Union Pacific centre is on my bucket list to visit

Replied: 30th Apr 2017 at 13:29
Last edited by britboy: 30th Apr 2017 at 13:44:13

Posted by: priscus (inactive)

Big boy's trip is/was on youtube.

The UK oil conversion (There may have been more than one), at least that one I know of, was attempted on a Beyer Garrat: another massive locomotive (by UK standards) built to bank coal trains from Barnsley area collieries up the Eastern approach to the then Woodhead Tunnel, prior to electrification of the Woodhead route.

Banks on this line were nominally 1 in 40, but mining subsidence had rendered the climb much steeper.

It is the only section of the UK network where trains were regularly scheduled to employ FOUR locomotives, and occasionally a FIFTH if assistance from the serving bank engine was required.

Replied: 30th Apr 2017 at 17:16

Posted by: priscus (inactive)

Replied: 2nd May 2017 at 00:03

 

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