Steam in Pennyslvania

Great news, this has been a long time coming and lets hope the optimism is well founded, putting a single loco back on the short section that was last used will be a massive challenge.

 

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wi...team-locomotive-for-early-restoration-efforts
Great news from EBT despite the current problem.

 

They did have a vehicle strike one of their bridges a couple of weeks ago, which nobody reported (surprise, surprise...) but the local police were able to trace the offending vehicle. Whether the drivers insurance will cough up for the damage is another matter!

 

East Broad Top back in operation........

Diesel hauled on limited runs for the first weekend of operation, but I believe two of their steamers are currently being worked on to return them to service.

 

N&W 611 is back at the Strasburg RR for the summer...
https://www.strasburgrailroad.com/611-at-strasburg/
....not that I can see anyone from the UK being in a position to go there easily this year....

 

Excellent value for such a giant to be in steam albeit a short non demanding run.

 

Just in case anyone reads the latest edition of Steam Railway and thinks that the Grand Canyon Railroad would be an nice place to visit for steam, they are rather out of date with their information as #18 is heading for the Coalbrookdale line in Pennsylvania at some stage....
https://www.colebrookdalerailroad.com/steam/our-equipment/
That was announced back in March, which just about sums up the way that Magazine seems to have gone over the last couple of issues....

 

Found this rather nice film of N&W 611 at Strasburg on YT...

..some good quality work there, though it all seems to be from the 2019 visit, given that it only got to Strasburg again in the past few days.

 

Grand Canyon pulled regular steam over 10 years ago, great whilst it lasted although smoke by the Canyon rim always seemed a little out of place, the run from Williams was the longest daily for that period.

 

Three photo's of N &W 1218 a 2-6-6-4 on the Ohio State Ltd which started at Buffalo NYC and finished at Ashtabula Ohio . Estimated HP of these loco's was 6500-7000 .The whole train was turned on the many lines and sidings at Ashtabula ,tour to place on 23/07/1988.Several photo stops were done en route ,one at Brockton NY (photo ---474),birthplace of G M Pullman, of sleeping car fame .
My last visit for steam to the USA was on 21/10/2017.That was to Chattanooga to visit the Tennessee RR. Southern 2-8-2 4501 was working the trains. Southern 2-8-0 630 (Alco /1904) should also been working but was stopped for a minor fault. This loco had a very unusual valve gear. Photo' at Soule shops.

 

Unusual maybe, but not very unusual. Quite a few US locomotives were fitted with the Southern valve gear.
This is really a Marshall valve gear (like the older O&K locos) that is turned 90 degrees on the side.
Thereby the drawbacks of the Marshall gear are avoided, longer links give less errors and the the vertical movements of the driving axle does not affect the motion.
But the output of the valvegear is in the vertical direction and has to be turned horizontal with a bell crank or short axle with two cranks.

 

The PRR K4 restoration in Altoona is back on again.....

 

The K4s reportedly were the inspiration for Nigel Gresley to go the wide firebox route on his Pacifics.

 

To update my own post, photos appeared on a US site overnight of #18 - or rather a kit of parts to make it - being transported to the Coalbrookdale line, taken at a highway rest area in Maryland.

 

The New Hope & Ivyland line had a bridge (includung one of the abutments) washed away in the storms yesterday caused by the remains of Hurricane Ida, so they are now shut for the forseeable future.

 

According to their facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/newhoperai...jH4rUOYgdoZub5LoT7O4Uo_Fo&fref=nf&__tn__=kC-R
After an initial inspection, it has been discovered that the excessive rains from the remnants of Hurricane Ida have caused extensive damage to our railroad line.
Under the current circumstances, we have unfortunately had to make the difficult decision to annul all passenger operations over the Labor Day weekend, Friday September 3rd to Monday September 6th. Any customers that have already purchased tickets for these days will be contacted by our Customer Service Center.
Our crews are currently working to assess the full state of things, with more information on a reopening date forthcoming.
We hope everybody is staying safe at this time and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

A film on YT about the EBT that might be of interest....

 

R&N #2102 on test again a couple of days ago....

 

Lovely clean lines on 2102 ..... me like! For some weird reason, I straight away started imagining a 15in gauge edition hammering up Eskdale.