How To Fire Up a Steam Locomotive

[Sedalia Dave]

In case you were wondering why no one ever stole a steam engine.

 

 

 

 

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A step-by-step video, with descriptions, on how to fire up a coal-burning steam locomotive. The entire 6 - 7 hour process was shortened down to ~37 minutes in this video to highlight most of the main points. •

 

The locomotive seen in the video is Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) mikado (2-8-2) #491, one of the largest narrow gauge locomotives ever created. It now runs at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. It has ~37,100 pounds of tractive effort, and weighs ~150 tons or ~302,000 pounds. It was built in 1928 by the D&RGW Burnham shops in Denver, Colorado using the boiler off of a standard gauge D&RGW 2-8-0. #491 is a pristine example of a locomotive perfectly suited for rugged, mountain climbing work.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Twice I roomed at the Best Western next to the Durango station of the Durango-Silverton Narrow Guage. Now I know why the engines ran all night.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

I'm surprised by the youth of the engineer. Nationwide, I doubt there are many his age with that skill set.

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

I got to drive one for a few minutes while the owner made a few tweaks.

Right up there with shooting a gattling gun.

Best

CR

 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

 

For a long time schools in California have traditionally had all fourth-graders study the California Missions and work on a related project – often constructing a model of one of the missions.  Tons of sugar cubes were used over the years as substitutes for adobe bricks…

 

When my son, Sassparilla Kid, was about to enter the fourth grade, his ma and I took him to visit two or three of the missions in preparation for this project.

 

On the day of the assignments, we anxiously awaited hearing which mission he was going to do.  But he surprised me when he said “Dad! We don’t have to do a mission this year! We could pick something else, and I picked the Transcontinental Railroad!”

 

Well, I was shocked.  Those long drives over the summer… but then, trains ARE definitely cool!

 

Now... there's an attraction on the road to Yosemite called the Sugar Pine Railroad - an old logging railroad that had been restored back in the early 1960's by a gentleman named Rudy Stauffer, running oil-fired Shay locomotives.

 

And it happens that one of his sons and I are friends... and the railroad was still owned and operated by his brother, Max. Max and Bob had actually lived on site when they were growing up.

 

Well, I called Bob and spoke with him, and he arranged for the Kid to interview his brother one Saturday morning, very, very early in the morning.  So, we were out of the house before dark, and made it for the 0630 appointment - a "breakfast" interview.  Very cool... but the coolest was to come!

 

After the "interview," Max took the kid on a tour of the facilities; locomotive shed, shops, and so on.

 

And then...

 

He had the Kid climb into a Shay and under his supervision helped fire the boiler... and, after a while when a head of steam was up, the Kid got to “drive” the locomotive.  Now how cool is that for a ten-year old??  

 

Sadly, we lost Max early last year, and parts of the facility were damaged in the summer fires.  But the railroad survived, and I believe the is still in the family…  

 

[Hoss Carpenter]

Marshall Mo.  I worked two Summers for the D&S NG RR as a Brakeman. (03 and 04). We had a couple of fellows who came into the round House at 0200 and started the fires on an engine that would pull the first train of the day at 0815.  They did not "run" them all night, but they "started" them pretty damn early!   Cheers   Hoss C.

[J-BAR #18287]

My Uncle Ralph passed a year ago at age 97.  At age 24 he was shipped to Belgium with his army colleagues.  Prior to his enlistment he had worked for the D&RGW out of the Pueblo, Colorado yards, and while he had not been an engineer as a civilian, he had learned how to fire up and operate a steam locomotive.  So when the army captured a train, Uncle Ralph got the job of driving it for the Allies.  He would tell us what it felt like to be strafed by German aircraft.  Even a year before he died, he could take us through the checklist for operating a locomotive.  He particularly stressed keeping a close eye on the watch glass so the boiler would not run out of water.  

 

I wish I could show him this video. Thanks for posting it.  I picture him as this young man;  really interesting stuff.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

15 minutes ago, Hoss Carpenter said:

Marshall Mo.  I worked two Summers for the D&S NG RR as a Brakeman. (03 and 04). We had a couple of fellows who came into the round House at 0200 and started the fires on an engine that would pull the first train of the day at 0815.  They did not "run" them all night, but they "started" them pretty damn early!   Cheers   Hoss C.

I was there in ‘92 and ‘93. We were bicycling 100plus miles a day so i’d Go to bed early. The engines were running at 9pm, midnight, 3 am ,I assumed they were running all night.  Perhaps in the following ten years, they came to save some money and started shutting down in the evening.