Fifty Years Later

If we mark the official "end of the stam era" as the dropping of fiires by the last U S-based Class I railroad (thereby omitting GTW) then the 50th anniversary of that event will come in May of this year, when N&W reportedly ceased steam operation.

This might be an occasion for those of us who were lucky enough to be around for only a small, tantalizing part of that era to submit out thoughts, memories, and reflections.

One day in the fall of 1953, a month or so after my fourth birthday, an indulgent bachelor uncle of mine took me down to the interlocking tower in our home town of Nescopeck, Penna, where a friendly operator informed us that the afternoon northbound freight (symbolled S-80, I was to learn a couple of years later) would be steam powered. I was too young to deal with wheel arrangements and the like, but was to learn through later research that that run, powered by an M-1 4-8-2, and the return trip, probably on S-81 that night, were likely the last steam operation on Pennsy's Wilkes-Barre Branch.

Over the next few years, on family visits to friends in Harrisburg and Philly, and trips to Dorney Park in Allentown, I got a small taste of Reading operations in Tamaqua, and luckily, a couple of passes by Enola Yard before the show closed down. And another group of relatives in Cameron County provided exposure to the Northern Division main between Lock Haven, Renovo, and Driftwood, with a never-to-be-forgotten pacing of the power from Brady's Bend - Renovo local R-64, after the load proved too heavy to avoid the crew's running up against the "hog law".

That was about it, except for a visit to the "dead line" at Renovo, probably in 1958, and one lone survivor still in storage a year later. My relatives weren't aware of the Sunbury-based attraction of the ore runs to Shamokin and Mount Carmel.

We paid visits to Strasburg and Orbisonia, but the contrived atmosphere wasn't the same. Excursion trips behind NKP 759, "Notable 90" and George Hart's CP Pacifics were a lot more interesting due to the "real" railroading in the background. And while I was grateful for those opportunities while an undergrad, the multiple showers required to get out all that grit served as a reminder that steam operation on a daily basis had its drawbacks.

It was DPM, as always, who said it best ..... "Steam: What a void she left!"

2nd trick op-Thanks for the memories! Having grown up in northwestern Pennsylvania, just south of Jamestown, NY, my memories of working steam are very limited. The Erie had dropped the fires on their last steamer before I was born.

My experiences, at a very young age, were being taken on a couple of fantrips to Renovo, PA and someplace in Canada (Fort Erie maybe?) by my father.

I remember riding a bus from Jamestown to Olean, NY and then boarding a train that took us to Renovo in the fall of 1957. This was the swansong of Pennsy steam and I still have some very vague memories (And a number of black and white photos) to remind me of this trip, along with the flyer for the trip that my father saved as a momento.

The Canadian National still employed steam for another year or two, and we went on another trip to Canada from Jamestown. (I strongly suspect the old man took me along as an excuse for getting away for a day to do some railfanning.)

Here's a photo of me, taken on July 4th, 1956-three days after my third birthday. NKP #773 is sitting in a siding in Brocton, NY, headed east towards Buffalo. Unfortunately I have no recollection of this and only have the photo to prove that I was there.

http://forums.railfan.net/image.cgi?NKP ... 73_001.jpg

But memoeries can come back, to haunt our rails today.
We in Germany are not the stream-crazy like the british folks, but we do something we call "Plandampf"

Regullary trains, express trains, urban trains, suburban traffic and even freight action is done for a couple of days by steam engines. Some trains even are from the old times, some still modern.
So not all daily task can be done by steam, but several trains were used. The regually sheduled electricial or diesel locomotive is withdrawn and replaced by a typical steamer.
You do no go on a museal or histrorical railroad, no, you ride on a regular train in the regular shedule and regular timetable.
This year, we celebrate 175 years german railroad, and we celebrate a huge "Plandampf" festival around Gerolstein and Trier around easter... look here for informations: http://www.dampfspektakel.info/

So here the memories return.
We once did before and our passenger, suburban traffic engine, a 2-6-2 light engine pulled a train the gradient from Bad Mergentheim to Niederstetten. It was rainy, the train was typical lenght of four coaches, but it was filled to the last place. We took the gradient, had the cross in Niederstetten and made it again on the gradient till Rot am See.. here the track did come to even and started to fall down to Crailsheim. We took the gradient at top power output levels, we reached crailsheim only 2 minutes to late... the people did not get their connections train, and most were very grumpy... but not for the steamer, they were grumpy on the express train, departed only one minute before we reached Crailsheim. Because: even the regular diesel train wasn't able under the rainy circumstances to keep the shedule and had often delays of four up to five minutes... so our two minutes delay weren't a realy bad time, the two minutes delay were a benchmark for the circumances and a treshold for other steamer, travelled decades the line before... We did it superior!
That' s regular duty... We are withdrawn from regular service, yes, but sometimes we return to haunt all, who think we never could do the job today... We do not better, we do only even... but we do even with a technology of more than half a century in age, compared to many locos today, only less than a decade old...

In Britain 1968 is seen as the end of steam, so there are still 8 years to go before the 50th anniversary. While there is no Plandampf, there are dozens of preserved railways running steam regularly, and there are also quite a few mainline steam trips. The newly-built A1, Tornado, seems to have generated a fresh interest in steam.

Here in Africa it's more difficult to pin down exactly when steam ended. In South Africa, probably around 1990, in East Africa a bit earlier. In Zimbabwe steam is still in regular service due to the economic problems there which have made imported diesel very expensive. But in South Africa steam can still be seen regularly on the main line due to clubs such as Friends of the Rail and Reefsteamers and the luxury tour operator Rovos Rail, and even in Kenya there is now a concerted effort to get a loco back in steam. Seems steam will never go away!

I was still very small. We lived with my grandparents in Belmar NJ, along the NY&LB, right next to the tracks, 3 crossings south (west) of the Belmar station. I remember my grandmother yelling about the soot and cinders from accelerating Pennsy K4 locos going by the house (the CNJ had dieselized by then), and what that did to her clean laundry hanging outside. She tried to time her washing to the railroad's schedule, key word here is "tried".

As a toddler, when the train went by and the (manually operated) crossing gates went up, I said "Yay gates!" Most of my family still uses that expression today.

There was steam around southwestern Ohio in the mid-50s, when I was about 4, but I can't recall seeing any of it on the LIttle Miami portion of the Pennsylvania, or the B&O St. Louis main through Leesburg, Ohio. The PRR Trinway secondary that went through my hometown was diesel from my earliest memories.

My mother and dad went on a trip through Kentucky and Virginia in 1960, and my mother knew I'd be interested in the big engines that she saw on the coal-hauling railroads. She took some pictures, but there's no identifying marks on the engine or tender that I could see. If I can dig up those pictures, I'll post them.

Remember well being covered with falling cinders along the tracks of the Illinois Central in Tuscola, IL in the early 1950's. By mid fifties they were gone. All other railroads in the central IL area by that time had gone diesel. IC was the last, as a major coal hauler. The ITC IIRC still had some steam operations around O'Fallon IL in the early fifties.

CarterB wrote:Remember well being covered with falling cinders along the tracks of the Illinois Central in Tuscola, IL in the early 1950's. By mid fifties they were gone. All other railroads in the central IL area by that time had gone diesel. IC was the last, as a major coal hauler. The ITC IIRC still had some steam operations around O'Fallon IL in the early fifties.

I'm too young to have seen steam power in regular revenue service. As too seeing steam locomotives in meseum s and fan trips, one disappointment occurred in 1999 when my wife (then my fiancee) and I were in Stone Mountain state Park. We bought tickets and lined up for what was promoted as a steam train ride around the park and it turned out to be a diesel powered train with a diesel locomotive pulling the coaches and pushing a cold steam locomotive that was there just for show. It was admitted to those of us who were on the train that the steam enginee hadn't been fired up in about 10 years.

I too missed the authentic days of steam. However, having grown up in Arcade, I lived only a few doors down the street from the A&A shops, while my uncle lived closer to town and on the other side of the road, the A&A shops are literally in his backyard. As such, I had steam in my blood from an early age. I've managed to travel behind both A&A locomotives, at least two of the Strasburg, the Knox & Kane's chinese engine, the Middletown & Hummelstown #91, and as of this weekend, East Broad Top #15.

Steam has a profound impact on the psyche of the average American. While training with a certain engineer, who has experience firing at least two different engines, we discussed steam technology. Our conductor asked us a simple question: "whats the big deal with steam?" we tried for an hour to explain the draw of external combustion. Finally I had to sum it up: "For those who understand and feel, no explanation is necessary... for those who don't know, no explanation is possible."

Steam tugs at the very heartstrings of the being. It plays the heart like a drum and the soul like a full orchestra. It leaves you speechless and full of emotion, grasping for more and yet loving to watch it as it leaves. Steam is like nothing else in the world.

Thanks for a heartfelt topic.