4501 fired up

Great to see!!  Looks like black will be the color...

Looking forward to when she is running excursions again.

Neal Jeter

Fired her up without her valves or pistons installed?    

Pretty common practice with a lot of work like this...lets them blow the junk out before things get sealed up.  Crazy to imagine the forces in action when that throttle is opened to put a steam locomotive in motion.

Yes, initial firing to blow all the collective accumulated junk out of the steam passages, dry pipe, superheaters etc. so that once the pistons and valves are installed, you don't blow all that junk into the packings, rings, seals, and cylinders. All that time and expense spent machining and repairing would be toast within short order. I believe the pink color to the steam around 15 seconds would be rust that accumulated in passages.

Note that when the throttle is first opened and blasts out the valves, the steam has a pink hue to it. It was probably more like orange in color in person, but whatever color it was, that coloration is the "junk" in the steam passages being blown out. After the throttle is open for a few seconds the coloration disappears and the steam is white.

This is common practice for a locomotive that has had the work that 4501 has undergone in this overhaul.

I'm guessing everything and anything downwind of the 4501 got a nice dusting of Iron Oxide.

Very good news and hopefully in workhorse black for the future.

Dewey from what I hear 4501 will be wearing it's Original Dressing! Freight Black!