'Cadillac of steam' to ride the rails again

By Scott Gold, Los Angeles Times
April 30, 2010


About 25 years ago, a group of Southern California train enthusiasts made either the best or the worst investment of their lives, depending on how you look at it.

For the grand sum of $1, they bought the Santa Fe 3751, a 430-ton locomotive that had once played a seminal role in introducing high-capacity, high-speed passenger rail service to the West. Then they set out to get the thing working again, which wound up taking five years, $1.3 million, including cash outlay and in-kind contributions, and the work of nearly 400 volunteers.

Now, the 3751 is about to make a triumphant return to the public rails, the latest turn in what has been both a glorious and tortuous history.

On May 1 and 2, the locomotive will ferry as many as 500 people between Los Angeles and San Diego, pulling 10 Amtrak cars.

more

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0430-train-20100430,0,5362179.story

I wonder if that would be the one?

I suspect she is coupled to, and pulled by modern diesel-electric trains if she visits out-of-town Railfests.

...and photograph the steam engines. To see a diesel engine was a rare treat back in those days.

operating in MA in the late '50s. They were beautiful.

memory was one night sitting on top a mountain looking down on a coal train as it emerged from a tunnel. It was a black night, the clouds covered the moon. The train was hauling a heavy load up a steep grade, so there was some drama waiting for the train to appear. The light and sound came well before the engine.

That happened on Halloween. I was at a party in Lee County Ky. We were not in any condition to be navigating that ridge on a pitch black night, but it was ultimately rewarding because of the show that coal train gave us. Not sure if we lost anyone on that ridge, but we could have done without the Frankenstein wearing ass-less chaps.

Excuse me if my enthusiasm is abated.

I hope they have their fun, then put it back in the museum where it belongs.

This is fun, give them a pass.

Heck, give them :applause:

Maybe we could tear down a few coal and natural gas power plants to compensate.

(And let's trust their boiler technicians and engineers are awesome.)

but watching that train belching smoke would turn my stomach. It's not "OK" anymore.

Maybe they'll take it across the plain and shoot buffalo from the tracks too, just like "the good old days"...a "part of our history".

Blech.

... made from hemp.

:smoke:

and forth to San Diego for six months straight - no emissions.

"A Nuclear-fuelled (condensing) steam locomotive:

A heavy-haul steam locomotive rated at a maximum of 15, 000-Hp and using 4-turbines (1, 000-Hp;2, 000-Hp;4, 000-Hp and 8, 000-Hp) could offer 15-power settings at maximum efficiency. If a 500-Hp turbine is added (total 15, 500-Hp), 31-power settings would result, all at maximum efficiency. A micro-reactor capable of 12-Mw would be needed and would use helium as its working fluid to transfer heat from the micro-reactor into the superheater, boiler and heater/preheater. The helium would circulate in a sealed tube, including a coiled section inside the insulated boiler. The state of the art in nuclear power research indicates that mini and micro reactors using a gas like helium, instead of heavy water, could dispense with cooling pools. This could contribute to making mini and micro-nuclear power cost competitive ......at present, a nuclear power installation is estimated at US$1-million/Mw. Future prices of micro-nuclear could drop, making nuclear powered heavy-haul locomotives cost competitive against other types, including them operating in extended duty cycles which exceed the capabilities of diesel powered or even future solid-oxide fuel cell (methanol fuel) locomotives costing US$2-million/Mw."

http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/newsteam/modern16.htm

Power on your end, through every single server farm routing your data to DU's server, which no doubt eats energy like crazy, and is itself connected to an electrical network that keeps its servers up 24/7/365... All the infrastructure in between...

Makes you stop and think.

That infrastructure is also supporting billions of other "posts".

Seems appropriate-


My Grandaddy was a railroad man
When I was young he took me by the hand
Dragged me to the station at the break of dawn
Said "boy I got to show you somethin' 'fore it's gone"
She was blue and silver - she was right on time
We rode that Texas Eagle on the Mopac line
We had some sandwiches that Granma packed
We rode to Palestine and hitchhiked back
Home in time for supper with a tale to tell
That night I dreamed I heard that lonesome whistle wail

When I got old enough to take the train alone
I rode that Texas Eagle down to San Antone

Nowadays they don't make no trains
Just the piggyback freighters and them Amtrak things
They shut the Eagle down awhile ago
Sold it to the railroad down in Mexico
But every now and then that whistle's on my mind
I ride that Texas Eagle ‘cross the borderline


Great song set to some smoking bluegrass by Steve Earle and The Del McCroury Band.

he would love this.

....I love old steam locomotives....I wouldn't want to see them put back into daily service but I have no problem with an occasional novelty run....

....I wouldn't begrudge cannons firing at the White House, a WWII ceremony or a Civil War reenactment. Nor would I prohibit rockets and fireworks on the 4th of July.

....I'll bet every time the Space Shuttle is launched it belches the equivalent of 1000 steam locomotives pulling freight up a grade....

Although the main engines produces nothing but water (H₂ + O) the solid fuel boosters burn 2 million pounds of ammonium perchlorate, which produce enough chlorine to make a temporary hole in the ozone layer that's detectable by satellites.

Unfortunately there is no alternative (if we assume we must continue the program). Lots of alternatives for steam locomotives.

It was converted to burn oil in 1936 per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Fe_3751