Thursday, June 12, 2025

Big Number

 


7 comments:

  1. A Shay of some sort?

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    Replies
    1. Not a geared engine. SP 3605 should be a Class F-1, 2-10-2 road engine.

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    2. I guessed geared because it looks so short in that picture, which is actually the tender. I may have been thinking camelback. Perhaps this is photographic foreshortening from early telephoto lenses, but ALCo 3605, built in 1917, was a huge locomotive nearly 100 feet long. In the picture I see the cab, then a short blurry area, below the cab, then what could be the cylinders. A bit of smoke is rising from somewhere. Then there’s a low freight car and a boxcar. The locomotive looks 1/3 as long as the tender, when it was actually at least twice as long.

      Here’s a picture of one of the two surviving engines of that style

      https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/train-restore-steam-locomotive-houston-19768986.php

      The other one is here

      https://www.instagram.com/p/C87KmMRRkTZ/?img_index=3

      The 3rd picture there shows a view of its similar tender.

      These engines were huge.

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  2. Seven Thousand Gallons!!! Pretty damn big.

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    Replies
    1. 20000-25000 gallon tenders were common in the last days of steam.

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  3. Looks like a switch engine to me. The fuel bunker sides on the Vandebilt tender are slanted inward so the engine crew can have enhanced vision to the rear. It's a lot safer to see that guy on the tender foot board. The engine looks like it could be an 0-8-0 or a 2-8-0 in yard (switching) service. Not sure as to the owner railroad.

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  4. A steam engine could use 10k gallons in just a few miles depending on grade and load. Injectors that forced water into the boiler could pump 12k gal an hour. Water was a major factor in diesels replacing steam.

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