Railfanning

[jonathan]

On a recent camping trip, we hit a transportation museum at Fort Eustis, Newport News, VA.  I was pleasantly surprised to find some preserved trains under cover.  There was a Consolidation, 0-6-0 switcher, Army troop and medical transport passenger cars, various freight cars, a Jordan Spreader and a few cabooses.  Quite a find...

Anyway, I took a few pics to share with my fellow foamers. Took lots of photos, just sharing a few...

Regards,

Jonathan



Pay no attention to the guy in the black Price-is-Right T-shirt!







Switcher's Cab:

[RAM]

I am glad to see that  they are now under cover.   They were getting to be in bad shape.  I have a friend who fired 605 which is now in Tenn.

[Trainman203]

Thousands of those army steam engines were shipped everywhere in the world during and after WW II including China.  There are no doubt a lot of those still around.  They look sawed off because they had to fit minimal clearances worldwide.  Look close, the 607 has an extension on top of the normally very shorty stack.  Overseas, the bell, headlight, and whistle wouldn't be where they are on this engine, a tunnel or bridge beam would take them off.

In the US, the 610 and the 1702 survive and have operated in relatively recent times.  There may be others still existing.

There are great stories about the yard and local service steam heads who got drafted in WW II, got to run very fast hotshot freights and passenger limiteds overseas, then came back to the same American plug runs they had jockeyed before the war.  This was particularly a letdown for yard firemen who got to run the French or Italian version of the 20th Century Limited, then came back home to third trick rust bucket firing.

[rogertra]

Thousands of those army steam engines were shipped everywhere in the world during and after WW II including China.  There are no doubt a lot of those still around.  They look sawed off because they had to fit minimal clearances worldwide.  Look close, the 607 has an extension on top of the normally very shorty stack.  Overseas, the bell, headlight, and whistle wouldn't be where they are on this engine, a tunnel or bridge beam would take them off.

And don't forget, in Europe they'd need three 'headlamps' but not North American style headlamps.  They'd need one up by the stack and one on either side of the pilot beam and in the UK, no headlight, at all.  And, nowhere in Europe or the UK would they need a bell.

There are one or two USRA 2-8-0s preserved in the UK and a couple or maybe be 0-6-0T, taken into service after the war by the Southern Railway and modified for service in Southampton Docks.  Know as the 'USA' class.  I saw them in steam well into the 1960 at Southampton and Guildford.

Cheers

Roger T.

[Trainman203]

And overseas most of the time they wouldn't have a pilot either.  The American locomotive eye has difficulty with steam engines having no pilots or headlights and with those round buffer things ..... And with those peep whistles too..... But man, steam is steam ...... With a cool factor up past the stratosphere.

[RAM]

Are the round buffers still being used, or are they being replaced couplers?

[Woody Elmore]

Okay Jon - when will we see your version of the 2-8-0 and the very interesting red caboose (or are you still making boxcars for every railroad that ever existed?)

Seriously, thanks for the pictures. Maybe, if you do this engine, you could put a model of the guy in the black shirt in the engineer's seat.

By the way, the Great Smokey Mountain Railway in North Carolina has a 2-8-0 but I don't know if it is the same as the one at Fort Eustis. I rode behind it way back in 1999 and I wonder if it's still in service.

[jward]

wondering what is up with that steel caboose. was the odd shape of the cupola designed for European clearances? did it have buffers or a knuckle coupler? and on those flat cars why were the brake wheels set so low?

[rogertra]

wondering what is up with that steel caboose. was the odd shape of the cupola designed for European clearances? did it have buffers or a knuckle coupler? and on those flat cars why were the brake wheels set so low?

The steel caboose does look as though it's built for European clearances.  Looks to have buffers as well.

If you notice, I think the cars you are referring to all had buffers.  The usual practice in the UK and Europe is for the hand brake to placed so it can be operated from the ground, considered safer than the North American practice of having to climb onto the car to apply the brake.

Cheers


Roger T.

[Desertdweller]

On most American freight cars, it is against the rules to apply or release handbrakes while standing on the ground.  In practice, this rule is often ignored.  The reason for the rule is, in order to do this, one usually must stand on the ground between cars, and a car sometimes will roll if the handbrake is released.

An exception is certain flat cars that are arranged to work the brake by a person standing beside the car (and out of danger).  Climbing on, or working a handbrake on, a flatcar is inherently dangerous, as there is nothing to hang onto.

Les

[Earl Ghylldale]

Hello All
I am fascinated by these conversations about the different coupling methods used in US and Europe.  This is especially in relation to the locomotives and rolling stock initially brought to support the Allies and later for Germany's reconstruction.

Buffers, combined with some sort of chain coupling, stems from the earliest days of railways/tramroads/waggonways (the different terminology we use would fill a book!)  Europe kept with them, in gradually improving forms right up to, and beyond the end of steam.  This included sprung buffers and couplings which could be tightened  to hold the wagons or carriages safely together.  The flat car, or wagon in these photographs, has "screw couplings".

Knuckle couplings (still with buffers) came along later, perhaps influenced by American practice.  Often they were  fitted as well as screw couplings and were hinged so they could be moved out of the way, if an adjoining vehicle did not have them.  As passenger trains in fixed units, like the ICE in Germany and the Inter-City 125 in the UK, began to appear, buffers as you see them in the photographs, disappeared to be replaced by a variety of different coupling devices.  If it was necessary to couple two fixed units together, one device, called a "Scharfenberg" (not sure about the spelling) is used in the UK.  This automatically couples the units, as well as brakes, driving controls, door controls and lights.

Talking of lights;  Yes British Railways did not use headlights, until relatively recently. Even now, they are to warn people on the ground of the trains approach, not for the driver to see where he is going.  The purpose of the old style oil lamps, was so that the signalman, could tell which type of train it was, and, with a red light at the back, that nothing had become detached.  With those primitive chain couplings and only the engine and guards-van brakes, to stop a freight train, broken couplings were a problem 

Then of course there are the narrow gauge railways.  "Norwegian" or "chopper" couplings were most popular, but, with no exaggeration, probably as many different types as there were railways!!     

Hope that isn't too boring, chaps (and ladies).  I am sure there are others out there who know more than I do.

[rogertra]

On most American freight cars, it is against the rules to apply or release handbrakes while standing on the ground.  In practice, this rule is often ignored.  The reason for the rule is, in order to do this, one usually must stand on the ground between cars, and a car sometimes will roll if the handbrake is released.

An exception is certain flat cars that are arranged to work the brake by a person standing beside the car (and out of danger).  Climbing on, or working a handbrake on, a flatcar is inherently dangerous, as there is nothing to hang onto.

Les

To prevent the need for people to go between cars or to climb onto cars when applying handbrakes is why European handbrakes are always at ground level.   Unlike North American practice, European switching does not require a person to ride the car to apply the handbrake at the appropriate time, as is, or was North American practice.  If a freight car was fly shunted in Europe, it was shunted at an appropriate speed so the impact of the buffers would be at a safe speed.  If the freight car brakes had to be applied, they could be applied by a brakeman running/trotting by the side of the car and spinning the brake wheel or, in the UK, pressing down on the brake handle.  This was only done in railroad yards where the ground next to the tracks was maintained as a smooth path and not when switching a private industry track.  There, cars are pushed to a stop.


In the 1960s, I used to watch fly or loose shunting in my local yard at Fratton, in Portsmouth, sometimes with two headshunts (yard leads) in action at the same time.  The yard is now long gone owning to the steep decline in UK rail freight traffic.



Cheers


Roger T.