Vintage Locomotives
Before we get going with our regularly-scheduled blog post, I have a fun image to share, courtesy of Sue B. (of "Lou and Sue" fame, though this is not one of Lou's photos), in honor of National Boy Scout Day. Some of the Junior Gorillas are former Scouts (or is it a "once a Scout, always a Scout" sort of thing?), while others are still involved as troop leaders. The kid in the pic is trying to earn a merit badge (I presume) and is weaving a basket, much like the ones we can just see at the bottom of the photo. The concentration is off the charts, his tongue is sticking out, Michael Jordan-style. If he is ever cast upon a tropical island, he will be able to keep his food and belongings in charming woven baskets, while the three Swedish flight attendants will have to go without.
I have some nice vintage scans of nice vintage locomotives! Starting with this first example, undated but certainly from the 1950s. There was no label with helpful details, but it didn't take long to discover that ol #25 is the William Mason, a 4-4-0 steam locomotive built in 1853 for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It has the ballooniest of balloon stacks. I'm not sure where this photo was taken, but we can see that exhaust is coming from the stack, so it was operational. It's possible that this picture is from 1951, when the engine was loaned to the Erie Railroad, operating as a traveling exhibit as part of the railroad's centennial celebration. A newer diesel locomotive is next to it.
Here's a more recent photo of the William Mason at its current home at the Baltimore and Ohio Museum, in (you guessed it) Baltimore, Maryland. It had remained operable during the 1950s, when it was used in movies, most notably The Great Locomotive Chase in 1956, and Raintree County a year later. After these performances it returned to the museum, seemingly never to operate again. However, in 1998, the locomotive was restored once more to operating condition for use in the movie, Wild Wild West. Since then, the locomotive was damaged after a snowstorm caused the roof of the roundhouse to collapse, and it is non-operational once again.
Next is another scan from an undated slide, it features #35, the Hannibal and St. Joseph. Originally Hannibal & St. Joseph RR 4-4-0 no. 66 was built in 1892 at Aurora and became Chicago Burlington & Quincy RR 359. Retired in 1932. Then it was rebuilt at Denver for Century of Progress Exposition as Burlington & Missouri River RR no. 35. Later relettered as H&StJ... to celebrate the centennial of the first the Railway Post Office car to sort (not just carry) mail.
Here's a second picture! What a beauty. The novel idea of sorting mail on the train was intended to expedite the connection at St. Joseph with the overland stage, which had replaced the Pony Express routes to the West a year earlier. The H&StJ furnished a baggage car, altered to Davis' specifications. Similar to a postal route agent's car, it had a table and a 65-pigeon-hole letter case, but no pouch rack.
Here's a photo from La Grange, Illinois, circa June 1, 1962. The locomotive and car are now at the Patee House Museum in St. Joseph, MO. I couldn't find any definite info, but I believe that it is no longer operational.
I hope you have enjoyed today's vintage locomotives!
12 comments:
Major-
These locomotives sure are beauties-! And as beautiful as they are, I can't take my eyes off the intense concentration on display by our young friend. Undoubtedly in another lifetime, he would've been a Rubik's Cube champ-!
Thanks Sue and The Major.
Ha! That tongue. I wonder why some (not all?) people do that when deep in concentration (or excitement). There must be an evolutionary reason for it. Looking at the shoulder patches on the two Cubs, it looks like they belong to the Mordore troop. Sauron must be their sponsor, although I don't think he would appreciate having Mordor misspelled. Thank you, Sue.
1 & 2) Wow, that IS one big balloon stack! Reminds me of the old sawdust-fueled furnace we had in the basement of the home where I grew up. On cold days, we had to dump several 5 gallon buckets of sawdust into the big cone-shaped (actually, pyramid-shaped) hopper.
3 & 4 & 5) Hmm, there's an engine, a tender, and a caboose (or is that the mail sorting car?). But they left out the passenger (or freight) cars! That silvery section at the front is a nice touch.
Thanks again to Sue for our tongue-tied lad. And thanks, Major for the beautiful vintage trains.
Great pictures today! The kid is still a Cub Scout (blue/gold uniform as opposed to green for Boy Scouts), so he wouldn't be going for merit badges yet.
The William Mason is sporting what is more properly called a "funnel" stack because it looks like a...well, you know--a funnel cake. The C.K. Holliday has more of a balloon stack, with a more rounded/pronounced top portion.
The silver front portion (or black on the William Mason) directly under the smokestacks is the smokebox. It is uninsulated steel or iron (the grey boiler of the William Mason is actually a covering of insulation, and you could touch it without a problem). But the smokeboxes, being uninsulated, were exceedingly hot, and had to be painted with a heat-resistant paint, usually powdered graphite mixed with boiled linseed oil, and applied to the smokebox when it was hot. Later in the steam era, a more silver-colored coating was used.
After the 1970s and 80s, when Disneyland used a white hear-resistant paint on the smokeboxes, the crews decided to go old-school, and began painting their smokeboxes with graphite-and-boiled linseed oil for authenticity.
The young Cub Scout weaving his basket is in Den 1 of Pack 292, his arm covers his rank badge but two arrow points are visible, so he is at least Wolf level as arrow points are not awarded for the lower achievements. The baskets on the table are finished versions and strongly resemble the basket our son made at Scout camp many years later. I wonder how long this particular craft project has been part of the program? Weaving clearly requires focused attention.
Thanks Sue and Major for recognizing the Scouting Program today.
And thank you for the locomotive pictures! I know next to nothing about trains, but I sure enjoy reading the information from the GDB enthusiasts.
Is the roundhouse that collapsed the one visible in the picture? That is surely a shame.
JG
Yep, JG, that's the roundhouse that suffered the collapsed roof. It is literally a round house--a fully-enclosed circular building. The roof has been completely repaired. It's a gorgeous museum if you ever get a chance to visit.
I have found when doing difficult tasks at work, sticking out your tongue like this scout makes the task easier, and is a direct link to your brain. The kid behind him actually looks like he is clutching his pearls in amazement, but probably he's clutching a scarf...and I am sure there is a name for the scarf and isn't there like a little wooden bear thing that the scarf goes through? I wasn't a scout, I went the Indian Guides route, and instead of making scarfs we made beaded things, which suited me just fine. Making baskets is quite the art form...and as you can see in this post: quite the "thing". Yes: that price is correct. Would you like to put down a down payment on a house, or buy this basket?https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/decorative-objects/bowls-baskets/decorative-baskets/nantucket-double-lollipop-basket-circa-1900/id-f_28576072/?gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADhpJtUNuZcB6toUS7DDJKS-3MJhf&gclid=CjwKCAiAnpy9BhAkEiwA-P8N4pUeESmhOdahTCbjPzwBNY7KdUdl87ovtPI-cCquQPPD5KalSWFjrhoC8cIQAvD_BwE That being said...TRAINS...I do love them, and there has to be a word/name for train enthusiasts...I'm not that guy, but I do like looking at them and admiring the craftsmanship/artistry/ and historic ties that grew the economics world wide. I don't have much to say, but "super cool"...would love to have a Ward Kimball thing in my backyard, with all that spare time I have. Thanks Lou and Sue and Major for a lovely Saturday diversion! I'm off to boil oil and pencils to make paint!
That Cub Scout was a member of Cub Scout Pack 292 in Moore, OK, which is located just south of Oklahoma City (I ran in three track meets there when I was in high school). Pack 292 does not seem to be in existence anymore, although Pack 291 remains active in Moore.
The two horizontal gold bars on the sleeve of the boy to the right signifies that he was a “Denner,” a Cub designated to help the Den Mother in setting things up and setting an example for the other Cubs. This emblem was designed to echo the two green bars of a Patrol Leader in a Boy Scout troop, which was a symbol of youth leadership carried across the Scouting movement worldwide from its beginnings in the UK in 1907. In my current troop, we call the youth leader huddle after a troop meeting a “Green Bar” after that emblem, a term I brought to the troop from an old adult Scouter I knew when I was a Scout in the early 1980s (it was an archaic term in those days, as the green bars on the BSA uniform had been replaced with silver bars in the 1972 uniform redesign and weren’t changed back to green until around 1989).
This photo was taken before the 1972 uniform redesign, although since I can’t see the Cubs’ rank I’m not sure if it was before the 1967 rank reorganization.
I think the photo of the William Mason was probably taken at the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1948-49 rather than when it was loaned to the Erie for that road’s centennial in 1951. The Erie’s F units (the locomotive seen behind the Mason) were painted yellow and black, but the one in this photo appears to be a Great Northern Railroad F3 Phase IV (although I am a bit confused by the lack of gold pin striping between the orange and brown bands). I have also seen photos of the Mason on static display between pageant runs at the Chicago Fair (it represented President Lincoln’s funeral train, which the Mason actually helped pull in 1865), and the spacing between it and locomotives on other tracks looks the same. Fun to think that Walt and Ward Kimball saw this locomotive at that Fair and then WDP later leased it for The Great Locomotive Chase.
Fun photos and commentary today, Major. Many thanks to you and Sue!
Bu, a Scout scarf is called a neckerchief and the thing that holds the scarf in place is called a neckerchief slide or, more traditionally, a woggle.
People who like trains are called railfans, although those with unhealthy addictions and railspotting habits are sometimes derisively called foamers by others in the hobby (because they foam at the mouth at the sight of a train). Foamers are the idiots who step in front of your safe, legal camera setup to plant their tripods on railroad property three feet from the rails and then get mad when the railroad police run them off or arrest them. They give the rest of us a bad name and are why many railroads which used to be tolerant of railfans now run everyone not affiliated with the railroad away from railroad property for safety and liability reasons. I am no longer allowed to park and watch trains from the safety of one of my favorite train station parking lots because of jackasses like these.
Nanook, I do love those old locomotives, though it makes me a bit sad to know that they are no longer operational.
JB, I don’t stick out my tongue, instead I make a loud “honk” sound through my nose. Hey, it works for me. Sauron was a tough Scout Master, but he was fair too. If I owned an old locomotive, I would want to have the world’s record for the largest balloon stack. I’d have one made that is about 15 feet tall and 10 feet in circumference. Then I’d finally get respect! I never knew about heaters that used sawdust as fuel, a great idea. I assume there were no passenger cars attached to that one loco because you get the idea!
Steve DeGaetano, ah, Cub Scouts, I am obviously not wise to the way of Scouts. I’ve had one funnel cake in my life, and it sure didn’t look like the William Mason’s stack! It looked more like the flying spaghetti monster. With powdered sugar. Not many people know that the smokeboxes were also used to slow-cook delicious brisket, the smell was intoxicating! I think that in your book you said that the heat-resistant paint was super expensive, which is why I got rid of all my gold bullion and exchanged it for heat-resistant paint. I didn’t really care for that white paint on the smokeboxes of Disney’s trains during that era, it just looked weird to me. The darker “graphite and linseed oil” paint is A-OK.
JG, wow, I wish I was “Wolf level”, nobody would mess with me. “Oh, you’re only Hyena level? You poor dope!”. Basket weaving seems like a potentially-useful skill for those who might find themselves in outdoor settings a lot. Make a fish trap! Or a hat to protect your noggin from the hot sun! Or a nice trivet. I was going to say that I had no idea if the roundhouse that collapsed was the same one that is in that photo, but I cheated and read ahead, Steve says “yes”!
Steve DeGaetano, I am glad that they repaired the roundhouse roof, but wish there was money to fix the William Mason again.
Bu, maybe tongue-kid is weaving his basket so quickly that the other kids can’t believe their eyes. “”Truly, he is the greatest of all time!”, they whisper. Ha ha, I don’t think the neckwear is called a “scarf”, I’m going to call it a “neckerchief”. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m used to that by now. My best friend was an Indian Guide, he talks about it frequently! Some of his wisdom is questionable, but I am glad he had such a great experience. I know that some antique baskets fetch big money, but 40K? I’ll just ask that kid to make one for me, and to weave in some sparkly pipe cleaners for added class. Train enthusiasts must have a nickname, but I don’t know what it is. “Choo-choo heads”? Like you, I love old trains while knowing very little about them.
Chuck, you’re doing it! You’re doing your “Chuck thing”! It’s like watching Johnny Cash sing “Folsom Prison Blues”, a true honor. But it makes me sad that I don’t observe all the things that you do, I mostly watch cartoons and laugh at the funny sounds. I went to the home of collectors of carousel horses/animals/figures, and they had one that was a likeness of Robert Baden-Powell. WHY? Who knows, but it was cool because it was so weird. In 1972 the Cub Scouts redesigned their uniforms so that they looked like real bear cubs. Rawr! Hey, I don’t want any talk about F-units on this blog, there might be children reading. You might be right about the Chicago Railroad Fair, too bad Walt and Ward didn’t appear in the background.
Chuck, aha! I win a million dollars for being right about the term “neckerchief”! Who do I go to so that I can collect my winnings? A “woggle”? For real? There are always levels of fandom, from the “normal” to the extreme. Look at Disney fans! Or Star Wars fans. The bad ones give the others a bad name. You really aren’t allowed to sit in a parking lot to watch trains?? Just because I kept putting pennies on the tracks. I feel bad now.
The railfan/foamer distinction reminds me of the people called "pixie dusters" in Disney fandom. Those are the people who live, eat, and sleep Disney. They take every vacation to a Disney park, have their house decorated with Disney produced housewares, and would buy a Disney car if one were made. The joke I've heard is that if Disney had a seal-clubbing expedition on an Alaskan Disney cruise, they'd talk about how "magical" it was.
Major, there's a vlogger named "Hyce" on YouTube who has cooked several things, including steak, on a coal scoop placed in the firebox of narrow gauge steam locomotives in Colorado.
As far as cooking in the smokebox, we once poured un-popped popcorn down the stack of our operating steam locomotive. Seconds later fully popped popcorn came up and out of the stack! Since we were burning used crankcase oil, I can't say the flavor was better than butter and salt, but it was a fun and interesting experiment!
Steve D, thank you for confirming. Great news that the building was restored.
I knew Chuck would have more info about the Cub uniform, thank you Chuck!. The uniforms in the picture strongly resemble my Cub uniform from the post-1967 reorganization. The heavy twill fabric of the shirt and the unusual embroidery of the arrow points look really familiar. I’m sorry that shirt didn’t survive the years.
Re the woggle, for me, this term came from Wood Badge, an advanced training for Adult Scouters that is very strong on terms direct from Baden-Powell’s era. Wood “Badgers” are permitted a special beige neckerchief with a tiny scrap of RBP’s tartan on the back of the neck, worn with a special woven wicker slide, or “woggle” which is supposedly based on that worn by RBP. All Wood Badge scouters are honorary members of Troop 1, the first Scout troop ever, based in Gilwell Field. I still have my special Troop 1 shirt and all the Wood Badge regalia, but I can’t wear it anymore since I am no longer in Scouting. Good memories.
JG
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