Norfolk & Western - Hauling coal

Norfolk & Western articulted locomotives hauling coal.
Check out Herron Rail Video:

http://www.herronrail.com/

and Specialist Publications & Videos {Formerly Steam Powered Video}:

http://www.spv.co.uk/

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Norfolk & Western
• coal
• Virginia
• USA

[Southland27]

Great movie. Raw power at work.

Does the place in the movie still exist? Do trains still run here today?

[TheDepotCat]

@Southland27 Good question. I don't know the answer.

[TheDepotCat]

If you like N&W coal trains and their pushers then Pillars of Smoke in the Sky is a cracking video.

[drglinski]

I've read that the Y6bs had more tractive HP than the big boy (and they were built by N&Ws own shops). I like the aux. tenders too!

[Skywatcher31]

A good clip, because (a) there is no monotonous voiceover supplying you with facts you may or may not want to know, and (b) even better, there's no silly honkytonk or c/w music - just the stack talk ! It's like you're actually there watching these Y-6b's go by long ago in 1958- just how it should be.

Too bad no Y-6b's were exported to China- they would almost certainly have been copied and kept running until quite recently!

[196Stefan2]

Thank you for this video! O. Winston Link has preserved this scenery at the N&W in outstanding b/w photographs in "steam, steel and stars".

[stevenfd123]

What pollution? Looks OK to me.

[tprdfh51]

@kevingthompson13 N&W Y6B were rated at 152,206lbs in simple operation - 126,838lbs in compound operation. With only 106.2 square feet of grate and just under 6400 sq/ft of evaportive boiler surface operating in simple mode would exhaust an awful lot of steam in a hurry - UP B/B had 150.3 sq/ft grate and nearly 7800 sq/ft of evaportive boiler surface - she'd be steaming long after the Y6 had to switch over to compound operation. Given the choice - lb for lb - I'd take the C&O H8 anyday.

[kevingthompson13]

For those of us who read, and not the UP loving dick chenneys (we all know they cant read), there have been numerous articles and even entire books dedicated to the demise of steam when it had so many advantages.Those splendid 2-10-0s in the UK ran into the 70s, and Red Devil (smokeless design) into the 90s.So the end of steam was not so much its own weakness as it was the design and application of the units.One size/style did not fit all. This left many machines badly misapplied in service.

[kevingthompson13]

Its a sad fact that killed steam.A brilliant article some years ago in Trains detailed this and was very well agreed upon universally.Also, according to the actual BUILDERS MANUALS which I do have, The Big Boys were officially rated at 135k TF and the NW Y6B at 152k TF. Its apples and oranges. NW was a cheap road and never splurged on anything.This led to extreme design constraints.UP has always spent on big toys.AND YES those great,L&N Big Emmas were wasted in drag service, we all know this.

[UnIonPacCheyenne]

@kevingthompson13 LOL. I'm glad you informed us that the Allegheny, Big Boys, and Berkshires were all wasted power and designs. After all, I'm sure that you are old enough to have actually seen these locomotives in service, being an expert and all from reading so many books.

[kevingthompson13]

You know, we all appreciate the effort UP has placed into its steam program, but the UP is not a god road.IN FACT, the SR was the godfather of the steam program for most of modern history an only shut it down on some bad advice from accounting eggheads.IT WAS BACK UP THIS LAST YEAR AND 4501 is the steam goddess of the US followed by NKP 779 and NW 611.We all love bigboys.We all also know the "biggest" was a lie.There were several heavier, and stronger.We arent all PRing them to death like UP.

[kevingthompson13]

@UnIonPacCheyenne OK DICK CHENNEY....enough with the UP spin. The BBs were notoriously bad steamers at speed because they were not adequately designed for both purposes: drag freight/time freight. They ALWAYS required helpers on the Wasatch.They are gorgeous machines.I have read engineering books for years and have not found one that rated anything above the NW super 3, except those WM 2-10-0s that pound for pound out traction efforted anything ever made.Missabe had some super engines too.

[UnIonPacCheyenne]

@kevingthompson13 Not really. The N&W designs could never do what the UP expected the Big Boy to do, and the Big Boy did it for millions of service miles. As far as the B&O EM-1, they were also super reliable (lasted until 1962) easy to maintain, worked grades far more extreme than anything the N&W had, worked express at higher speeds than the A (80 mph on B&O mail trains), and produced more HP a speed than any of the N&W designs. The facts are out there--read it.

[kevingthompson13]

I know we all have our favorite engines, but its not fair to compare.RRs were the worst enemy of steam as roads hated to compare performance notes,share designs, or have anyone else tell them how to build an engine.This led to some spectacular designs that were badly misapplied.This started with the vaunted Yellowstones, and encluded those gorgeous Berks at L&N (wasted in coal drag service), to the Allegheny which was thrown away HP, to the Big Boy (a bad steamer at speed).Not to mention the T1.