Mastodawn

simonbp Sep 17, 2024

Tobu Railway 2-6-4T steam locomotive C11 123, waiting this summer at Tobu Nikko before pulling an SL Futura service. C11 123 was built in 1947 to the Japanese Government Railway C11 design, but for a private railway in Hokkaido. It remained in private ownership until being put on static display in Ebetsu City (江別市) Hokkaido in 1975. The private Tobu Railway acquired it in 2018, and it joined their other two C11s in service in 2021. It is the only operational mainline steam locomotive in Japan that was never owned by the nationalized railways, and only has signaling equipment to run on Tobu lines.
#CoolTrainTuesday #TrainTuesday

simonbp Apr 9, 2024

#CoolTrainTuesday is back!

The Heisler Locomotive Company built and streamlined this 0-8-0F for the 1939 World's Fair, making it the largest fireless steam locomotive ever built. "Fireless" means it was powered by steam from an external source, and what looks like a boiler is a pressure vessel. It remained in service at a power plant until 1969, well after mainline steam was gone from US rails. Now at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

simonbp Jan 9, 2024

H.K. Porter 1880-built 3'6" gauge 2-6-0 "Benkei". Originally purchased by the Kan-ei Horonai Railway, it was one of the first two locomotives to run in rapidly industrialized Sapporo. Most of Japan used British or German locomotives at the time, but Hokkaido kept with American until Japanese locos were available. Currently at The Railway Museum at Omiya on the north end of Tokyo.

#CoolTrainTuesday #Steam #Trains #Hokkaido #Japan

simonbp Jul 18, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday Two DB ICEs (1 and 3) in Frankfurt Hbf in September 2019. I had just ridden the ICE1 from Basel Hbf on a very rainy day. Frankfurt is a strong contender for one of my favorite stations; not as much diversity as Munich Hbf, but you get to see the whole yard coming into the station.

#trains #traintuesday #highspeedrail #frankfurt #de

simonbp Jul 12, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday NSW Government Railways #4490, a class 44 built in 1967 by A. E. Goodwin, it was a license built version of the Alco (American Locomotive Company) 1800 hp "World Model", in turn based on the Alco FA of the 1940s, but with an extra flat cab added in the back. 4490 was retired in 1994, and still in operation for excursions; it left for an excursion later that day. Photographed at the NSW Rail museum, Thirlmere, NSW, June 2022.

#trains #traintuesday #nsw #australia

simonbp Jul 4, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday The most important American locomotive that you've never heard of: Baltimore & Ohio #50, built in 1934 by the Electro-Motive Corporation with Public Works Administration funding. It was the first mainline diesel locomotive in the US, and was the mechanical prototype for the streamlined E and F series that sold thousands, revolutionized the world, and killed steam in North America. Now preserved the National Museum of Transportation, #StLouis.
#trains #traintuesday

simonbp Jun 28, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday Chesapeake and Ohio 490, a streamlined L1 4-6-4 rebuilt in 1947 from an unstreamlined 1926 4-6-2. Intended to haul the "Chessie" DC-Cincinnati express as an interim until the massive M-1 steam turbines were ready, the M-1s and Chessie itself were cancelled in 1948 and the L-1s retired in 1953. 490 is the only survivor, donated to B&O Museum #Baltimore in 1968. It remains there today, a true relic of the last gasp of US steam.

#steam #train #steamtrain #traintuesday

simonbp Jun 16, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday on a Thursday, it's a GO Transit MP40PH-3C about to leave West Harbour, Hamilton, Ontario, to head to Toronto along the Lakeshore West Line. The GO Lakeshore West is the line I probably rode the most as a kid, and will always be my reference for "Cool Train".

#gotransit #hamilton

simonbp Jun 6, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday The GM/EMD Aerotrain of 1955! It looks slick, but actually has the mechanicals of an SW1200 switcher, and the passenger carriages are based on GM's Fishbowl buses. The ride quality was terrible, it could barely make 80 mph on a good day, and needed helper to get over the Cajon Pass. They eventually ended their days as Chicago commuter trains, as the Rock Island didn't trust them to do much else. Preserved at the National Museum of Transportation, St Louis
#trains #aerotrain

simonbp Jun 3, 2023

#CoolTrainTuesday (even though it's Friday)

The John Bull, the oldest intact locomotive in the Americas. Built originally by Robert Stevenson in 1831 as a similar 0-4-0 "luggage locomotive" to what was used on the Liverpool & Manchester, it was significantly modified by the Camden & Amboy (of New Jersey) into a 2+2-2-0 by removing the connecting rods and adding floating pony truck with cowcatcher.

#train #steam #steamtrain