Railway pictures (10)

Wow Dena, you had some very good vantage points, and made optimal use of them. The first is great and really shows the size and might of the Big Boy, the third with the bridge as a frame and the reflection is also very good. Thanks for sharing!

@Phil Wood - thank you for posting this ancient Steam engine.
Still large parts constructed in wood without a cabin for the driver. That means probably an engine from the start-period of the steam-trains. The image combined with the shed gives it an authentic look.

Phil,

Thant is a very nice Vintage Steam Engine! It looks like it would be one of the earliest made, maybe a Stephenson? is it operational? I'd like to have seen what the sign said. I'd guess Do Not Pass this point. Is the photo cropped?

Kind regards,

Kelly

minolta_mutley wrote: @Phil Wood - thank you for posting this ancient Steam engine. Still large parts constructed in wood without a cabin for the driver. That means probably an engine from the start-period of the steam-trains. The image combined with the shed gives it an authentic look.

AudioDoc wrote: Phil, Thant is a very nice Vintage Steam Engine! It looks like it would be one of the earliest made, maybe a Stephenson? is it operational? I'd like to have seen what the sign said. I'd guess Do Not Pass this point. Is the photo cropped? Kind regards, Kelly

Hi Ivo, Kelly, its a 2005 replica of Fire Fly designed by Daniel Gooch (an ex-Stephenson apprentice) for the Great Western Railway in 1840. Following this another 61 Fire Fly class engines were built by several companies.

It runs on steam days (not on the day I visited), I'm not sure how far but the broad gauge track is not long.

The sign says GWR Engines must not pass this point - which is nonsensical in it's modern location! The engine is poking out of a shed that replicates sheds built to shelter passengers transferring to and from broad gauge and standard gauge trains at stations where the two systems met, the sign may have had relevance in such a shed once upon a time.

The photo is an HDR merge in an attempt to get detail into the part inside the shed. It is, of course, cropped square (one of my self-imposed targets for Oktoberfest) - here it is 2x3 (showing why I was happy to crop the sign):



And from another angle:

pegelli wrote: Wow Dena, you had some very good vantage points, and made optimal use of them. The first is great and really shows the size and might of the Big Boy, the third with the bridge as a frame and the reflection is also very good. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks. I was the first to arrive at the crossing (first photo), so got a good spot. I choose that crossing because of minimal extra junk in the view. Train was running late, so I stood there about 3 hours and in that time, at least 100 other people showed up. Train passed and stopped a short distance away in the town for only 15 minutes or so. I had to hurry to get to the other side of the river in time to get the last 2 photos as it started up again. People were standing with cameras on the bridge and traffic tied up. I had maybe 3 minutes to spare until I made these last 2.

Thanks, it was a fun experience, even with being scared someone was going to get killed. Foamers...   Two freights went through the crossing before Big Boy. One older handicapped man was so close to the first one, I thought he was going to get hit. I could not look his way anymore. The gal letting a 3 year old boy play on the tracks, even as we could hear the horn.. the crowd was screaming at her. Speaking of which, Big Boy has a horn like I've not heard before, a low deep tone.

Dena, believe it or not that is a steam whistle! And yes, it it very unique. Much different that other multi-tone steam whistles. Deeper in pitch. And very loud! Early American steam engines had single tone whistles which Western European steam engine have almost always used. For anyone interested, find a YouTube video of Big Boy 4014 and you can get an idea of the sound.

By the way, Ed Dickens in my photo is Senior Manager of Union Pacific Steam Operations. He oversaw the restoration of 4014.