Steam Engine You Won't Forget

We all have a specific engine we'll never forget and a story that goes with it. My special engine is Strasburg 90. When I went there and took a shop tour my father and I were the only ones on the tour. Anyways, we went to where most of the engine were stored except 31 which was pulling trains and 425 which was getting overhauled. The tour guide let me climb up in the cab and sit on the engineers seat. It felt like a dream come true. I wish to see that engine running sometime. Unfortunately my disposable camera wasn't up to the task of shooting in that gloom and my shot across the cab from the engineers seat came out poorly and my shot of 90 from the front didn't come out at all.

I'm glad you were able to tour Strasburg's shop and see their engines. Talk about a diverse roster! Strasburg is an amazing operation and I hope to see their facilities some day myself.

Former Great Western 90 is a famous engine and there have been many photos and recordings of her made over the years, including prior to her arrival at Strasburg.

Take your time and look around and you can come up with some good shots, videos or sounds of her.

John

I am torn... so many steam locomotives that I have and so many memories.. the one that stays with me the best... seeing 3985 pulling outta KC's Union Station.... First time I have ever felt the ground shake from a steamer.... But almost all the ones are special... from the small, Moore-Keeple Climax #3, to the largest ones i have been around, UP 3985 and NW 1218..... i have seen so many.... by far the prettiest was the N&W 611

Century Lover 68:

What a coincidence! I was at Strasburg 10-2 and rode the 90 on its first trip to Paradise and back. The 90 is a Baldwin standard light Decapod, and I rode her newer sisters in service on the Gainesville Midland in the 1950s - GM 203, 208 and 209.

I'd seen 90 run before, but riding her cab was like a reunion with an old friend . . .

ek2179

It has to the Reading Company's T-1 s for me. I grew up with these engines and rode many miles behind then on the Reading's Iron Horse Rambles as well as the trips the the Blue Mountain & Reading ran. The best had to be the double headers on the Iron Horse Rambles.The images of two T-1's with a rake of 22 day coaches doing 70 mph up the Philly to Reading main line still is with me today and was some of the best steam powered trips I've taken. I know a lot of people don't like the T-1's for being a plain work-a -day engine, and being small for a 4-8-4, but they are still my favourites. A couple trips that I remember especially, one being of the last Iron Horse Rambles that was ran. We had to get up at some bizzare hour to get over to Phiily for a 07.15 departure, we walked into the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia and went to the gate and there was a sign for whatever track it was that raed "IRON HORSE RAMBLE". We walked out into the train shed and there was our train with a couple Reading Company F-Units and 19 or so daycoaches sitting at the ready. We found our car (Car#12,I still remember it today) and we go on board. At excatly 07.15 we heard the conductor yell "ALL ABOARD" and a second later we started rolling,there was no noticable indication that we have begun our journey,just a smooth slow movement. Through the terminal interlockings and off to Norristown we went. We stopped at Norristown,the F units were uncoupled and the T-1 was backed down onto the train. Again with no fanfare, the train just started moving forward and then we could hear the exhuast of the engine as the engineer started to open the throttle and we picked up speed. We hit the main line and before long we were making 70 mph,the engine's exhaust a roar at this point and the car's wheels clicking away the miles. We then pulled into the DeKalb Street Station in Reading and the engine took on water and off we went to Tamaqua and then on to Shamokin. At Shamokin we cut off the T-1 and had three F-units put on the train for our trip up the Cattwissa Branch. The diesels pulled us up to West Milton over some rarely traveled railroad,where we joined the "main line" again. Here we lost the F-units again and the T-1 which ran backwards in a light engine move backed on to the train and we started our way the Reading. This trip was in the autumn and the foliage was in full color in the Pennsylvania mountians,the scenery combined with the smell of coal smoke and the engine's exhaust made for an unforgettable ride. Now I'm not sure of which trip it was we rode, but we had worked our way forward to the combine car which was next to the engine,and when we hit the grade coming into Tamaqua or Shamokin,the 2100 was on the head end and we could hear the booster engine being kicked in to help us up the grade. It was a very distinctive sound over the main engine's exhaust beat. This was the last time I had the pleasure of riding behind a T-1 until the BM&R ran thier Fall Foliage Trips up the Lehigh Valley into Jim Thorpe ,PA some years later. And some trips they were!!! They first one we rode we got "hung" by the block operator in Bethlehem and were put about 2 hours behind schedule. This resulted in the need to take on water ahead of schedule,which we did at Leihighton,PA. The local fire company was more than obliging to supply us with the needed water. The only problem was thay has an additive they put in thier water for fire fighting to increase to water flow at the fire nozzles. Well this may be good for fire fighting, but it's BAD for steam boilers!! On the return trip from Jim Thorpe, we left with all good intentions and hit the high iron with a great vigour. Well, down the Bethlehem branch we go at 70 MPH and just short of the PA Turnpike bridge south of Bethlehem, the additive turned the 2102's boiler water into a bubble bath. The additive caused boiler water to foam so bad, the fireman couldn't keep enough steam pressure to let the compressor keep the brakes off. And we stalled with the brakes dragging just under the Turnpike bridge, Con-Rail dispatched a couple diesels to pull us back to Temple,PA and we finally got back at Mid-night. We call it the 24 Hours of 2102,while it wasn't fun at the time, it's kinda funny now,along with all the other goofy stuff we have endured riding steam powered trops throughnthe yaers.

Y'know, I reluctantly checked out this thread and nearly cringed at the volume of "ink" in the last post, but I'm glad I skimmed through it enough to take interest! That's not only a cool tale, (worthy of yet annother cool tale in response,) but I could perfectly picture the scene unfolding!
That said, I too have fond rememberances of a Reading T-1, albeit under quite different circumstances:
I must not have been much older than 5 or 6, (* and I'm reluctant to do the math,) when my Dad and I chased the American Freedom Train from Worcester down to Framingham and through Medfield, Mass, (yes, back then it was Mass, not MA!) on it's trip into Boston. I can't remember exactly why she was diverted from the "B&A" onto the "Old Colony Northern" route, but it made for a really neat chase through New England scenery! I remember standing at the crossing in Medfield with many a railfan young and old, including someone with a police scanner. To this day I can still hear the staticy voice on the scanner saying".... It's the FREADOM TRAIN! It's coming up on the crossing NOW!" All this above the rising volume of the whistle with it's classic doppler, and the clanging of the crossing bells.....
.....ahhhh....memories!

For me it would be the Flying Scotsman, despite the fact that I'm American and a big fan of the N&W and especially C&O. Back about ten years ago a friend and I were able to drive the Flying Scotsman for about five miles in Wales. At the time the Welsh museum offered these trips on the footplate for around $100 US or so. They were discontinued a couple of years later as the locomotive was sold, but it's an experience I won't ever forget!

For me, it would have to be NKP Berkshire 759. Most of my excursion-riding dates from my college years of 1967-71, and I was lucky enough to ride behind this very-late-model on a Harrisburg-Gallitzin-and-return trip in the summer of 1970.

My one trip behind "Notable 90" was a winter excursion Newark-to-WilkesBarre-and-return in February of 1968; she was added to George Hart's (High Iron Company) CP Pacific at Jim Thorpe and we made our way up the Lehigh Gorge as a doubleheader.

Unfortunately, a lot of unforseen events turned up that Sunday, and to top it all off, we suffered a minor derailment at Frazer, near White Haven, on the return trip; had to be brought out on a fleet of emergency-charted buses.

If there's anyone out there who was with us that day, we'd love to hear from them.

Louisville & Nashville Pacific 152. Always looks fresh out of the shops. One hundred years old this month and still carrying passengers between Boston and New Haven Kentucky. It was one of the original exhibits for the Kentucky Railway Museum in 1956.

Any one of the 8 remaining Big Boys. I'd love to feel the ground shake as it went by. I watch last of the Giants part 3 all the time. Yep the Big Boy an amazing feat of engineering for the time.

I would love to see a 2-6-6-6 run, although it probably will never happen

I would most surely say a PRR T-1 had I seen one run however missed them by a few decades. I would have to say the most special engines I saw operate had to be the N & W J 611 and A 1218. I used to travel to Alexandria VA every year to ride the excursions. I also remember the C & O 2716 (correct number?) that ran in the mid to late 1980's.

I have dreamed of seeing 1361 running. And it might happen soon. Any new news on that rebuild? I know it ran some trips awhile ago but then what happened to it. Also I want to witness ex-B&M 3713 if Steamtown can get her going.

They are working on her,she needed a lot of work. check out http://www.railroadcity.com/gallery/index.php?cat=36

I would love to see her on the old Seashore Lines in South Jersey struting her stuff on the way to Cape Way!

I'll take any steam locomotive anyday!