The Last Baldwin Steam Engine Returns

[CaptainCrutch]

Well I guess it’s time y’all found out why I disappear from here for long periods of time.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the end on the latest project of mine, the last Baldwin locomotive has breathed life again. It’s taken 7 years, countless people, millions of dollars, blood sweat and tears… But finally #1309 is alive again after nearly 70 years since the C&O railroad retired her.

Obviously I didn’t do this alone and there’s plenty of people who’ve put far more work in than me, but I can atleast hold pride that I had a hand in this.

Now I hear it’s almost time the jolly fat man borrows her to bring kids to the North Pole…

[Freightrain]

Very cool!! 

Im a member of a local railway preservation society and they are rebuilding old 4020.  It used to pull the excursion for the Cuyahoga Valley.  I rode it back on the 70s.  I am not active with them just due to my own schedule and the 1+hr drive to get to Cleveland.

I did take the opportunity to drive their old 49 Alco RS3 a few years back when they offered 1 hr at the throttle.

My father was a big railfan, as am I.

[Licensed to kill]

I LOVE steam locomotives. Been wanting to find one as "yard art" but haven't looked TO hard since the transport alone would be cost prohibitive if I found one. The old fella that I bought my '31 Model A delivery from used to run them back in the day and he was kind enough to tell me a lot about it. Thanks for sharing. Any more pictures of it??

[CaptainCrutch]

No more pictures of her recently I can share publicly quite yet, but be sure to see plenty come December 17th! But I do have some older pics of before she was completely finished.

[Freightrain]

Last month the Cuyahoga Valley brought the Nickel Plate 765 over from Indiana and used it for their excursion for a couple weekends.  We rode it, they dump you off and do a couple fly bys for video and pictures.  I have them on my phone, I need to get them over to youtube so others can enjoy it.  It just sends chills down my spine.  I'd really like to get to see a Big Boy in person someday.  I really enjoyed the restoration videos that UP put up.  I couldn't imagine what it took to do that locomotive.  No different then what worked on actually.

[Vladislav]

Man, that thing is huge!

I always take my hat off for people who restore steam locs. It's a summit of an old school tech and increadable state of art at the same time. Sometimes when someone visits my place and asks on how much labour may be involved into restoration of a truck I point out there's people who make up locomotives.

Thanks for sharing. I hope you will update the thread with pictures once the project is completely finished and up to public.

[james j neiweem]

How does that compare to the Alco big boy

[CaptainCrutch]

1309 is a 2-6-6-2 wheeled locomotive while the Big Boy is a 4-8-8-4 wheeled locomotive. The big boy is bigger, notably so, but that engine is so big it can’t come this far east. Still, 1309 is about the biggest engine you can reasonably operate regularly, and she’s much bigger than most of the other engines in steam.

[Mark T]

It takes a few minutes to sink in that when that was made, there were no mig welders, no CNC machines, and likely no where near the safety equipment for the men who made them. That's not to mention what the engineer needed to know to get that roll'n.  Literally awesome.

[Licensed to kill]

Thanks for the pics. That last pic looks like a detailed miniature train set. Any idea what kind of torque that would put out at full PSI?

[Terry T]

11 hours ago, Freightrain said:

Last month the Cuyahoga Valley brought the Nickel Plate 765 over from Indiana and used it for their excursion for a couple weekends.  We rode it, they dump you off and do a couple fly bys for video and pictures.  I have them on my phone, I need to get them over to youtube so others can enjoy it.  It just sends chills down my spine.  I'd really like to get to see a Big Boy in person someday.  I really enjoyed the restoration videos that UP put up.  I couldn't imagine what it took to do that locomotive.  No different then what worked on actually.

I was going to mention that 765 was in your neighborhood not so long ago.  It resides in New Haven, IN which is my neighborhood.  When we had our freight terminal in Ft Wayne, during excursion season, it would regularly run right past our front door as the office of our building faced the tracks and was only about 120' from them & the Lumbard St crossing was just 300-350 feet away. You could feel her before you heard her then you could smell her for quite sometime after she was gone!

[Mark T]

On 11/5/2021 at 12:16 PM, Freightrain said:

Last month the Cuyahoga Valley brought the Nickel Plate 765 over from Indiana and used it for their excursion for a couple weekends.  We rode it, they dump you off and do a couple fly bys for video and pictures.  I have them on my phone, I need to get them over to youtube so others can enjoy it.  It just sends chills down my spine.  I'd really like to get to see a Big Boy in person someday.  I really enjoyed the restoration videos that UP put up.  I couldn't imagine what it took to do that locomotive.  No different then what worked on actually.

We have a Big boy here in Scranton (non operational) 

[other dog]

On 11/5/2021 at 7:04 AM, CaptainCrutch said:

Well I guess it’s time y’all found out why I disappear from here for long periods of time.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the end on the latest project of mine, the last Baldwin locomotive has breathed life again. It’s taken 7 years, countless people, millions of dollars, blood sweat and tears… But finally #1309 is alive again after nearly 70 years since the C&O railroad retired her.

Obviously I didn’t do this alone and there’s plenty of people who’ve put far more work in than me, but I can atleast hold pride that I had a hand in this.

Now I hear it’s almost time the jolly fat man borrows her to bring kids to the North Pole…

That is a fine picture right there, hat's off to the photographer!

 

[Draggin Wagon]

Got a question - what are the 4 vertical things on front of engine that appear to be cylinders? 

[mowerman]

Wow captain that’s way cool thanks for sharing and good luck with the polar express we have one in Carson city every year I don’t have any idea what it is we rode it with some kids we borrowed a couple years ago

[CaptainCrutch]

11 hours ago, Draggin Wagon said:

Got a question - what are the 4 vertical things on front of engine that appear to be cylinders? 

They’re a pair of steam powered air compressors. Rail cars and the engine use air brakes, and this particular engine was designed for hills, so it got plenty of air to hold the train back without locking up or running away.

[CaptainCrutch]

On 11/5/2021 at 7:55 PM, Licensed to kill said:

Thanks for the pics. That last pic looks like a detailed miniature train set. Any idea what kind of torque that would put out at full PSI?

I don’t know the torque numbers, I’m sure it can be calculated, but railroads use Tractive Effort for that sort of measurement, and this one has a little more than 70,000 lbs. For comparison the other diesels we have can only do about 50,000 lbs and 40,000 lbs, but a lot of the big freight diesels you see on the big railroads have around 80,000 lbs.

Regardless I’m pretty sure the earth itself turns under 1309 when it starts off, you can certainly feel it…

[Freightrain]

I downloaded one of the 765 run bys.  Just shakes the ground.  Got a hair full of soot and leaves!

 

[mrsmackpaul]

Well I'll be buggered, yes I am officially stunned, not really speechless rather just stunned 

 

Here was me thinking I was the only truck nut ( other than Ken thomas) that is also a train nut

 Turns out that Im not the only fruit loop in the world 

Now that amazing discovery is out of the way, may I just say WOW 

 

Thats amazing, amazingly big, amazingly ugly and amazingly beautiful all at the same time, well done to all involved and I'll be watching this space 

 

 

Just did some googling to try and get some perspective on this loco and compare it to something I can relate to 

Australias largest loco was Heavy Harry or H class Victorian Railway's loco

Heavy Harry weight is 264 tons and a tractive effort of 55,000 lbs

C&O 1309    weight is 291 tons and a tractive effort of 98,300 lbs 

Thats quite impressive when I consider it only weighs a extra 30 tons and has probably 40% more power

Even more impressed is that both survive and this would never of happened with out the many thousands of hours volunteers donate and their extremely understanding families 

 

Well done to you and everyone else involved, you should be very proud of what you have achieved  

 

Paul 

[Freightrain]

For comparison, the Union Pacific Big Boy is 132ft long and 1.2 mil lbs.  It is a 4-8-8-4 articulated locomotive.  It only ran out west because it can not negotiate any tight radii.  If you look on Youtube, the UP did a whole bunch of videos of the restoration.  Talk about an undertaking.  Restoring a truck pales in size and scope!

[tjc transport]

there was a lumber mill here in New Jersey that owned a steam loco they used to transport the lumber from their mill on the Delaware river east about 25 miles to their yard until the mill closed about 25 years ago.

they also ran tourist excursions once a month..

i don't know what happened to the loco or cars, but the rail line is still there. it is pretty overgrown, but still there. 

[CaptainCrutch]

On 11/8/2021 at 2:56 PM, Freightrain said:

For comparison, the Union Pacific Big Boy is 132ft long and 1.2 mil lbs.  It is a 4-8-8-4 articulated locomotive.  It only ran out west because it can not negotiate any tight radii.  If you look on Youtube, the UP did a whole bunch of videos of the restoration.  Talk about an undertaking.  Restoring a truck pales in size and scope!

Luckily with 1309 we don’t have to worry about many corners being too tight, despite what some news sources and former railroad employees said… She was built for the mountains, and larger engines ran on our road anyways. Just shy of 100ft long, barely fits on our turntable!

[CaptainCrutch]

[1958 F.W.D.]

On 11/8/2021 at 4:25 PM, tjc transport said:

there was a lumber mill here in New Jersey that owned a steam loco they used to transport the lumber from their mill on the Delaware river east about 25 miles to their yard until the mill closed about 25 years ago.

they also ran tourist excursions once a month..

i don't know what happened to the loco or cars, but the rail line is still there. it is pretty overgrown, but still there. 

The New Hope and Ivyland Railroad over here in Bucks County Pa. runs a short freight line between Ivyland (Warminster) and New Hope Pa. They also have a steam excursion line that runs through New Hope and the surrounding countryside in Bucks County. The freight is pulled by older ex-Conrail oil burners but occasionally when they need a backup, they can and do use the tea kettle to pull revenue freight! 

 

[CaptainCrutch]