Vintage Trains
I'm in a train-ish mood today. Am I feeling LOCO? You be the judge. Here are two nice vintage scans for you.
First up is this very cool, undated photo of a huge locomotive from the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the Milwaukee Road), at a station somewhere while people seem to be wandering around trying to get a good look at this impressive machine. A man is washing the windows while a woman tells him that he missed a spot. In the distance is what I believe is a grain elevator, but the Milwaukee Road operated throughout the midwest, so I don't really have a clue as to where this could be. Maybe one of you knows?
This next image is from a black and white negative; it shows the Durango and Rio Grande Western No. 315. It looks like a proper choo-choo! I was surprised to find a rather detailed history of this locomotive on Wikipedia, so you might want to check that out. In a nutshell, the D&RGW 315 was built in 1895 by Baldwin Locomotive Works (it was originally built for the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad).
It is a narrow-gauge locomotive with a 2-8-0 configuration. It appeared in Mike Todd's "Around the World in 80 Days" in 1956, though by that time it was no longer operational and had to be pushed by a disguised diesel locomotive.
I zoomed in on the sign and did a bit of Photoshop adjusting to make it more legible. Happily, this locomotive has been restored and is operational! In 2002 the boiler received a Hydrostatic and Ultrasonic test and was deemed to be in good condition for returning the Locomotive to operational condition. It was then decided that the DRHS would go through with performing a complete restoration of No. 315. On August 24, 2007, a fire was lit inside No. 315's firebox at the D&S Roundhouse and that evening the locomotive moved under its own power for the first time in 58 years.
16 comments:
Major-
That 1st image is a beauty. Those colors-! I love the 'silver' Hiawatha logo seen on the right edge of the image.
"You missed a spot". That line haunts me from an old TV commercial for - I can't remember the product - but it was part of a strange exchange in the kitchen [apparently] between newlyweds:
"Good morning Mr. Smith.
Good morning Mrs. Smith.
You missed a spot.
I like my new name". Or some such nonsense.
Thanks, Major.
The first thing I noticed in the first pic was the logo in the lower right. I couldn't decide for sure what it was, so I googled it: It's Hiawatha! (Nanook beat me!)
Major, If that lady isn't saying, "You missed a spot", then what is she pointing at? That smokestack?
Beautiful train, beautiful colors. It looks fairly new; like it just came off the production line.
2nd photo: Hmm, the Milwaukee Road train was more colorful. ;-p
"had to be pushed by a disguised diesel locomotive." You mean to say that Phileas Fogg cheated in his trip around the world?
Thanks for the choo-choos, Major.
The presence of the Super Dome in the Hiawatha consist dates the image to no earlier than 1952. This particular car, #52, is still in use today on the Napa Valley Wine Train.
You can see the level of care provided to top-tier passenger trains of the day, keeping the windows clean on the dome so that passengers could enjoy the scenery as it passed by. All that glass made the cars exceptionally heavy (I have found references that give weights between 104-112 tons; a typical passenger car of the era weighed around 60-70 tons), which led to a fairly rough ride. All that glass also meant that the cars were equipped with a special, heavy-duty air conditioner that required its own generator to operate. The railroad worker on the ground level is accessing the generator and air conditioner compartment; all of those hatches with grills to his right were for that system.
JB, I think the pointing lady is explaining what’s happening to the little girl standing next to her.
Mrs. Chuck and I were planning a trip out west this fall to see, among other things, D&RGW #315 in the wild, but, alas, a plumbing catastrophe a couple of months ago ate the vacation budget. Maybe next year…
Thanks again, Major!
Yes Major, you ARE loco, but at least you have a motive. (I'll show myself out.)
Nice train pics by the way!
Grant, you beat me to it!
Chuck, I thought that Super Dome looked familiar. It’s the same color scheme today, isn’t it?
Elevating grain is an important process. The higher, the better. Elevated grain makes self-rising flour!
Speaking of, Major, there’s a fine grain elevator in Templeton, should you feel moved to see one when visiting family, only a short side trip.
Moving under my own power is my goal for today, cheers all!
JG
Nanook, yeah that first one is nice, and like you, I love the vibrant colors. Gosh, I wonder what that TV spot was for? It doesn’t ring a bell.
JB, I actually did look up Hiawatha, but somehow neglected to mention it in the actual text. I swear! That photo has a “cinematic” quality, if you can have such a thing in a still photograph. I never trusted Phileas Fogg, he still owes me a quarter.
Chuck, I wondered if anybody would delve deeper into any of the train photos. And you did! Interesting that the glass added that much weight, I would have never imagined. Why didn’t they use transparent aluminum? You’d think they would have used special heavy duty suspension to mitigate the rough ride, since they also used a special air conditioner too. Maybe it was a rough ride even with extra suspension. Nice to know that that car is still in use! And kind of amazing too. Hopefully you and Mrs. Chuck will be able to ttake that train trip soon.
Grant, why you! ;-)
JG, if you look at Chuck’s linked photo, the train car looks kind of dreary compared to the old photo, though it might just be a “not great” photograph. I always wondered about self-rising flour, and now I have learned something that I will never forget. I’ve seen plenty of grain elevators in the midwest, believe you me!
Great train photos today, Major1
It's possible that the building in the background of the first pic is a coaling tower for steam locomotives, but it's too indistinct for me to tell for sure.
I've always liked that paint scheme! I think it's most striking on the Southern Pacific 4449 Daylight. Pure beauty! I'm not surprised that Chuck was able to get us more details! Good job!
There is a beauty that steam engines have that deisel has never equaled, IMO.
Thanks, Major!
Steve DeGaetano, oh interesting, I did not know about coaling towers.
Stu29573, the paint schemes that they used back then were really great, I particularly love the "Super Chief" red and gold. And yes, those steam engines are beautiful machines.
Chuck, thanks for that link. The colors look kinda blah in that recent image compared to the photo we see here. (I see that Major noticed the faded color of the train car as well.) I noticed in some of the photos that there was a bright-colored dome laying off to the side, overgrown with grass and weeds. Was that the original dome that's in today's photo?
"I think the pointing lady is explaining what’s happening to the little girl standing next to her." Oh... duh. I didn't see the little girl. Makes sense now. [JB is embarrassed.]
Grant, nice one! :-D
JG, I deflated when I read your self-rising flour joke.
Major, Scotty didn't give us the formula for transparent aluminum until 1986, thus the heavy glass. (You need to bone up on yer history!) ;-p
I recently found a rare old picture from a childhood trip to some kind of antique train museum. It might have been the one in Rochester, NY, but neither I nor Mom can remember. First time I ever rode a train that wasn't at an amusement park. Trains! Who doesn't love 'em? Choo choo!
Melissa, are you the one in the Little Orphan Annie dress? Or the one in the Swiss Miss dress?
It's actually a Little Orphan Annie jumpsuit! You can't get more stylish than that! Yeah, that's me in red, my sister in the middle, and our cousin (the son of Mom's twin) on the right.
Melissa, your train picture is adorable. Thank you for sharing it! Choo choo!
—Sue
JB, I’m guessing you are talking about this picture. That’s actually the back end of a Skytop Lounge car, which were also built and operated by the Milwaukee Road during the era of the Major’s photo. Those pieces are parts of cars sold to the Canadian National in 1964 and later became part of a floating restaurant, the SS Lansdowne, along the waterfront in Detroit. The restaurant closed, the former ferry was towed to Erie, Pennsylvania, sank, raised, towed to Buffalo, sank again, and was broken up for scrap. The Skytop Lounge cars were cut into pieces and transported to the Milwaukee Road Heritage Center in Montevideo, Minnesota.
^ I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Thanks for the info, Chuck.
Post a Comment