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I was thinking "The Beave".
 
would love to see a big boy in action......
 
Interesting, that is the second Big Boy to be moved recently. In the summer they moved one in Texas on the tracks to transfer it to a new museum.
 
It's a biggie!

 
Incredible machine. Saw one at the RR museum in Denver several years ago.
 
Never saw one of those monsters but recall as a young child being led through a stand of trees by my grandad, to a railway a few dozen yards from the house to see the "last" trip of a steam locomotive owned by the PRR... had nightmares of a dragon attacking us for a while after that. :smirk:
 
PAUL161 said:
It's a biggie!

Click to expand...


While the Big Boy is often cited as the biggest steam locomotive ever built, in fact it is not. The Norfolk & Western's Y6 and A, the Duluth Missabe & Iron Range's Yellowstones, and the Chesapeake and Ohio's Alleghenys were all in the same league, and some exceeded the Big Boy's weight and power. @
 
I remember when I was a kid, yes I can remember back that far, once a week we used to set by the railroad tracks in Mt Holly, NJ at the feed mill and wait for the train to pass. The elderly crossing lady would come out of her little wooden house and stop traffic. You could feel the ground rumble and smell the coal fired steamer. Because of the S turns through town, the train only moved about 10 mph. The engineer, who looked like he was 20 feet in the air and king of the road, always waved to us kids and rang the bell, that made our day!:excitement: Fond memories, I still love those old trains. PJ
 
That was nice, thanks for posting. PJ
 
I saw the Big Boy 4012 at Steamtown in Scranton 3 years ago when there for a car show. Man, that sucker is BIG!!! Wiki says 25 were built, with 8 surviving. They haven't tried to restore it because it is too big (read heavy) for most of the track-switches-bridges it would have to traverse.
 
CP Rail here in Canada has the 2816 Empress a 2002 restoration, I've only seen it once in action, back in my crappy photography days, far too many neat moments I didn't capture quite right... *sigh*

According to Wikipedia the Empress isn't being used right now, which is a shame... Hoping to get a re-do photo opportunity sometime... :rapture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_2816

https://www.cpr.ca/en/in-your-community/2816-empress/Pages/default.aspx

My rather crappy contribution to this mix from nine years ago...

53614018_855f6fa746.jpg


A friend of mine has seen the Empress in action on the open prairies, and has told me all about it...
 
Surprised Dave has not chimed into this.
That is one BIG boy!!
What does the back half do?
Not being a train guy
 
DNK said:
Surprised Dave has not chimed into this.
That is one BIG boy!!
What does the back half do?
Not being a train guy
Click to expand...

Fuel storage. I might be wrong, but I don't think it was set up to run on coal. I can't imagine shoveling that much coal to keep the steam up. PJ
 
PAUL161 said:
Fuel storage. I might be wrong, but I don't think it was set up to run on coal. I can't imagine shoveling that much coal to keep the steam up. PJ
Click to expand...

The Big Boys were originally designed to burn coal. They are equipped with "automatic stokers" that were basically an auger system that moved the coal from the tender to the hungry firebox. The stoker was steam operated, controlled by a valve on the Fireman's (LH) side of the cab. Tender capacity is 28 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water, good for 100 miles or so. Union Pacific is planning to convert the engine to burn oil.

Other possibly interesting facts:
Top speed: 80MPH
Total length: 132' 9 3/4"
Drive wheel diameter: 68"
Total weight: 1,250,000lbs/625tons
Operating Boiler Pressure: 300lbs
Fire box area: 720 sqft
 
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