I don’t know how much of the work of pulling the train it was doing. At the end of the train were two diesel engines as well, and a scenic train like that made up of a few passenger cars should not need that much power. My guess is that the steam engine needs one of the diesel ones just to push it alone.
Sure is pretty, though. Listening to it go down the valley, huffing and blowing its whistle, maybe that makes it all worthwhile.
When I worked in the Midwest, a railroad track ran alongside the runway. One day, large numbers of cars began pulling into the little parking lot of the rural field. I went out to ask, and was told that a famous steam engine would be passing at 11:20. Indeed, a little after that time, I heard chugging and puffing, and the whistle. At least fifty people stood along the track, taking pictures and cheering as the log black and silver locomotive and tender rolled past. Then they all departed.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
LittleRed1, I've been there and done that several times for Union Pacific 'Bog Boy' 4014, and trains in general
ReplyDeleteGrim, my guess would be the steam loco was doing most of the work going forward and then turned the train over to the trailing diesels on the return trip (plus being there to cover for any breakdowns). We run a similar push-pull operation with diesels on each end. Our steam locomotive is under going a rebuild which will hopefully be finished in time for me to run it a bit.