[PRCo] Re: Steam, Strasburg

[Herb Brannon]

Since a steam locomotive is, simply put, a giant tea tettle and since I have to clean my tea kettle every so often because of lime/calcium deposits forming then it would seem a steam locomotive would do the same. Then is this "boil wash" the way they clean the 'deposits' of out the boiler?
Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net> wrote:  Subject is steam locomotives, Strasburg Rail Road and my past. If it 
doesn't interest you, delete without going any farther.

This is for Derrick and Fred Bruhn and any others of you who are 
steam types.

I went to Strasburg today to patronize the book store ... needed some 
of those wonderful map books of our northwestern states.

I noticed that 31 was in service. My God, that was worth pulling 
out the Nikon. That little 0-6-0 seldom runs. And with an 8-car 
train yet. Why, because 86 and 475 are in the shops and 90 was down 
for the monthly boil wash.

I was intrigued that both 31 and 90 now had Nathan power lubricators 
on the air pumps. They were not installed when I worked. When 
were they put on? Some young wipper snapper said. " might have been 
back in the 1970s or 1980s ... before I came here." That long? I 
was feeling like an old fart. I was still around there as a 
brakeman in the 1970s and they were not there then and he probably an 
infant then.

And there was 90 sitting in front of the house with all the washout 
plugs out and water streaming out of the boiler. It still had the 
flags on it from service yesterday. I looked at the driver tires 
and thought, my God, they had to have replaced them at Strasburg. 
They're two inches thick. I knew they now had that capability 
because there had been a picture published in the Lancaster New Era 
of them doing that to 89 ... with the gas jets all around the tire 
heating it. And why wouldn't they have put new tires on 90? I did 
some mental calculations at 60 miles a day in the summer months since 
it went into service in 1967 ... that beast probably has had a 
quarter of a million miles put on it at Strasburg! Who would have 
ever dreamed it?

Then I went down to the shop and there was an old man still 
working. Glen Lefevre is 69. He was there as a young man when I 
was there. He is tearing the Russell snow plow apart and residing 
it. He told me this is the second time he has done the south side 
of it since it came there in 1967 but only the first time he has had 
to do the north side. I remember when it came. It had been owned 
by the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton (pronounced Gall'tun) 
Railroad. It was in such bad shape that the weigh bill said to ship 
at the rear of the train, just ahead of the caboose. Some numbskull 
coupled it behind the engine on a 100 car freight. It was delivered 
in pieces in a gondola. The Penn Central paid dearly for that 
blunder. Frank Herr and Glen Lefever cut it apart and then Sam 
Zimmerman welded a steel frame for each side of it. The frame was 
bolted to the original wooden underframe. Huge steel I-beams 
replaced the original oak plow timbers. Then Frank and Glen bolted 
2x4s into the steel for nailing strips. When they were finished it 
still looked like a 60-year-old Russel plow but it was built the same 
way. Right now is the second time you can see it torn apart.

The language was all new. I was told that 475 was in the shop for 
the 1460 day overhaul. What the hell is that. Flues. I had to 
explain that back in my day flues were done every four years, or five 
if you could account for twelve months in the first four years when 
you didn't use the engine. Now that the tourist railroads are the 
only people using steam, it was converted to days. If you use a 
steam engine only on weekends ...firing it up on Saturday, running it 
on Sunday and then dropping the fire ... and you do this only for 
three months in the summer ... looks like you can go for 56 years 
before you have to reflue an engine. I wonder if there is a 
statutory maximum???? But if you run it full time, it's still works 
out to four years.

Of the 52 vice presidents that recreated the Strasburg in 1958, I'm 
not certain how many are left. But of those who were active in 
management, only two are still living and both are not doing very 
well. Huber Leath and Bill Moedinger are still alive ... barely. 
Bill has Alzheimers. I was told that Huber is very weak.

What is the future for the Strasburg? Much the same as the trolley 
museums. They topped out at 425,000 riders per year in the early 
1960s. People were visiting to remember steam. Then they brought 
their children. Then the grandchildren. I understand that 
ridership today is under 200,000 plus what they get out of Thomas the 
Tank Engine weekends. Thomas is good for several more million 
dollars and maybe another 100,000 people plus the rentals on Thomas 
from other railroads during the year. They know that once Thomas 
goes out of syndication on television, they are in deep trouble. They 
also have a wonderful machine shop that does work for anyone from the 
East Broad Top to the Union Pacific. Sitting in the back of the 
shop today behind their own 475 is Rio Grande Southern 20, the former 
Florence and Cripple Creek engine from the Colorado Railroad 
Museum. The tender is resting outside on one Pullman 6-wheel 
truck! I suspect the whole engine and tender would comfortably fit 
inside the firebox for UP 844.

fws3




Rise Up -- Go Cavs
  Herb Brannon