Ghosts of the past thunder on!

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F

fcsflyboy

student pilot
I have to admit, my favorite locomotive of all is the NYC Niagara. Sadly there is not one in existence, and if I could find the sponsers and blue prints I would love to rebuild one for excursion purposes.

I have always caught myself wondering why such a 6,000 horsepower beast that once proudly pounded the rails with the sound of thunder that ecoed throught the valleys and town she passed through. It's sad to see how such a beautiful, powerful locomotive was jsut up and abandoned, all within about 2 months all remaining Niagaras were retired and destroyed in the mid 50's.


I may only be 21 but I must say, driverods, raw power, thundering echos and a display of true class, no disrespect to modern lovers but I jsut don't get the same thrill out of SD70's and dash9's as I do in steam. I'm not saying I don't like modern or that it's stupid, but what if the world could hear the echo of the whistle, the ground shaking for hundred and hundreds of yards away, and pulling single handedly a million pounds of train with such grace.
 
Something I sometimes say to younger people and I'll say to you--I'm glad to have had the opportunity to see (and hear, and smell) steam locomotives in actual daily use. There's nothing now that has the same ability to grab our emotions the way those machines did.
 
I'm with you.Just as you said, the raw power, huge spoked wheels, massive pistons. And to think that a 2 man crew can control this massive amount of machinery from the cab where the fireman puts his life into keeping the behemoth at full steam. I love the NYC hudsons, and the early 1900s 4-4-2 Atlantics. But nothing can surpass the Union Pacific Big Boys. I've stood next to one at Steamtown, and it was definitely something special.
 


My dream job is to become an airline pilot, but man what I wouldn't give to grow up in the 40's and work for a RR
 
I often spend time with my girlfriend in some random farmer's field, in the bed of my truck on a warm summer evening but oh man if only I would be able to see a sight like this when layin with her!
 
Luckily there are still a few steamers pounding the rails today. Not as many as there was back in the day, but I am glad there are still a few around. My kids got to see the ATSF 3751. If things work out this year, hopefully we can catch the NKP 765 or the SOU 630. But I am with you, I'd love to see them in their heyday.
 
Photogdad said:
Luckily there are still a few steamers pounding the rails today. Not as many as there was back in the day, but I am glad there are still a few around. My kids got to see the ATSF 3751. If things work out this year, hopefully we can catch the NKP 765 or the SOU 630. But I am with you, I'd love to see them in their heyday.
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I was unfamiliar with some in your list so I looked them up.

ATSF 3751
2637.1230658253.jpg


NKP 765
NKP-765.jpg


SOU 630
6137.1319698878.jpg


Fine locomotives indeed.
 
There are also a few others being rebuild or overhauled. SOU 4501, MILW 261, PM 1225, UP 3985. Also UP 844 still runs but due to flat spots on her wheels from a mishap last week, she sits in Texas while her wheels go to Strausburg, PA (sp ?) And TVRM in TN. Speaking on PA, there is ex-N&W 475 that runs. Thhere a few others out there. Then there are the narrow gauge railroads in the west. Durango & Silverton, they run a few steamers, Cumbres & Toltec, and a couple other narrow gauge scenic railroads. Oh yeah, Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 734
 
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Ahh yes, CASS, I forgot about them. I had also heard rumors that someone was wanting to rebuild or is rebuilding the NKP 759, but not to sure on that one. There is also the SP 4449 that runs as well. If you look hard enough, you can still find quite a few steamers pounding the rails. NKP 765 will be pulling a NS buisness train for their 30th Anniversary.
 


Oh and WHGSEA (Williams Grove Historic Steam Engine Assosiation) runs a steamer on a short back and forth track. Because my uncle works on this engine (PRR 643), I got to ride in the cab!
 
Where I live in Ohio the town I grew up in only 10 miles from where I live now there's an 0-6-0 sitting away rusting in Wellington Ohio. The RR society (Lorain and West Virginia railway) won't do anything about it but let it sit and rust. I visited there last year and they told me to go away because I'm 21 and don't know anything because of my age...personally those f&^%ers can go and let the RR collapse because they don't do anything to help it. They operate an E8 with a cou[ple passenger cars on weekends but even that is becoming rare, there's a lot of track that they don't maintain, when they tlak about getting government grants etc etc, well I've heard through the grapevine that they don't even apply for anything and I'm starting to get the feeling they want the small RR to die :/
 
Another locomotive that almost makes you feel that its mass is creating a gravity well is the C&O H8's. I have climbed all over the one at the B&O museum. They had 85,500 LBS on each driving axle! They weighed too much for C&O. another loco I've had the pleasure of riding in the cab is 1218. I can't imagine a pair of them pulling 200+ hoppers toward the coal docks at Norfolk at 85MPH!
 
I got to see SP 4449 blast by me at close (too close) range in 2009. That was an awesome sight indeed. I always envied my older brother. My mother and him would ride the NYC behind steam to come into downtown Chicago. My parents/grandparents house overlooked the NYC tracks and he could watch the steam engines. By the time I came along the family had moved and I have no memories of steam in service.
 
Both of my grandfathers worked for the railroad. The one on my moms side worked for the RF&P and he would tell me stories from his days behind the throttle of their steamers and the one on my dads side worked for the Southern out of Manassas, Va. I never got to meet him, but my dad would tell me the stories of being able to watch his day roar past their house in Nokesville, Va.

My personal experience was I was able to ride in the cab of WM 734 and also the cab of the 1218.
 
I wrote this several years ago....

It was late into the dusky twilight as I rolled westward toward Anderson, Indiana caught up in the usual drive time traffic. Clearing the buildings of the small town of Daleville, the highway once again lined up with the Conrail tracks. The track signal ahead was showing green, so I glanced in my left-hand rear view mirror to see if there was anything in sight. The bright glare of a locomotive headlight reflected back at me. It was fairly close and was moving along quickly. I turned my attention back to the cars in front of me and yet, there was something about that headlight that was different, almost compelling. Looking again, I found the light nearer still and the shape of the loco and its consist was becoming more discernible in the growing darkness. It seemed out of place, but I knew that I should recognize it; I had seen this before...

My heart leaped. It was a New York Central Mohawk complete with Elephant Ears (smoke deflectors)! The frontal silhouette was unmistakable! The dark shape of the loco framed the headlight as it raced through the gathering darkness pulling its consist of freight cars. THIS SIMPLY COULD NOT BE! My gaze moved to the road ahead and back to the mirror and back to the road and back to the mirror as I tried to see more clearly. I knew that this wasn't possible. It had to be a trick of the failing light and the deepening shadows and yet...

The locomotive was catching up with me and, now, there was something else about it. I could swear that I could almost see through it. The consist no longer looked right and the size of the cars were a little too big. I watched as the smaller 1950s cars faded to be replaced by something larger. And then the Mohawk had shifted, blurred and faded and became two... two Conrail Blue GE units pulling westward with its train of modern freight cars.

As the track curved away from the highway, the train and I separated, but it didn't matter. For what I had seen was not a part of what was there. For a moment, for just one beautiful and all too brief moment, in my minds eye at least, the NYC Niagaras and Mohawks that used to rule this Main Line had lived again. I knew the look. I had seen them before. I used to race with them in my mind when my family would take trips south out of Anderson. We would parallel NYC trackage and the Niagaras, Mikes, Mohawks and Hudsons would race by us on their way to far off places. For just a moment, after nearly 50 years, that time had lived again. The ghosts of my mind had escaped and by using the tricks of light and shadow had given me a glimpse of what had once been. They had shown me a memory long lost, but, obviously, not forgotten.

Is this, then, what drives us to create (or re-create) with our model railroads? Do our 'ghosts' express themselves in the miniature steel rails that pave the way for our 'scale' locomotives and consists that continue to deliver the 'mail', the 'passengers' and the 'freight' that makes our scale worlds go? We think that our buildings, people, farms, industry, cars and trains are the worlds that we want them to be, the worlds that we make. But are they or is it the ghosts of Rails Past that drive us?

As for me, for just one moment, the Interlocking Towers were manned and the cabooses followed their freights as sure as night follows day while crossing guards protected their grade crossings and 'name' passenger trains still raced each other against the schedule and the clock. For just a moment, for one wonderful moment, the world was young.

Roger Hensley
Madison County Historical Society, Inc.
 
As much as I like diesels, I think because I did not grow up in the age of steam, when life was more laid back and more small towns dotted the maps instead of big cities, I want to recreate a world that I would've want to grow up in. Where you could feel the power as a steam locomotive went barreling through the towns and countryside. But I think the major attraction for me to steam is the romance (cheesy, I know) about steam locomotives pulling a train of fancy Pullman heavyweights. Hearing heavy Mallets, Challengers and other heavy steamers in the mountains of the Appalachin Mountains pulling a long heavy train of coal from the Va and WV coal fields.
 
My grandfather was the cook on a NYC wreck train feeding the workers when they went out to clean up the wreckage. I'm told they would be gone for days at a time. He died before I was born but he always sounded more interesting to me than any of my living relatives did. He also played french horn in the bands backing Sinatra and his likes when they played Chicago. Just an Italian immigrant working hard to feed his family.
 


Gary B said:
My grandfather was the cook on a NYC wreck train feeding the workers when they went out to clean up the wreckage. I'm told they would be gone for days at a time. He died before I was born but he always sounded more interesting to me than any of my living relatives did. He also played french horn in the bands backing Sinatra and his likes when they played Chicago. Just an Italian immigrant working hard to feed his family.
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Sounds like a great guy! Wonder if he used any cast iron on those jobs of feeding the troops.
 
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