'Green' Steam Locomotive on CBS

Maybe Grand Canyon 4960, a former CB&Q 2-8-2. I believe it now runs on used cooking oil...

Didn't see the report, but it's probably about this guy:

 

ATSF 3463

 

Rusty

The story was the last piece done on the CBS Morning Show this morning.  It was about a train ride to the Grand Canyon that moves about 200 thousand people a year.  Half the story was about the cooking oil used as fuel technology.  The story was done by Peter Greenberg who probably has the best job in the universe.  I am sure this story will be on the CBS web site.  Worth checking out!

it may be environmentally friendlier, but i'm not sure i'd enjoy running a locomotive that smells like fish and chips.

Here is the website for the Grand Canyon 4960

 

Scrappy

 

 

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POTRZBE and mlavender480, you are both correct !!!

 

I went upstairs to refill to old coffee tankard and the story came on the 2nd half of the CBS morning news about 8:45 AM.  So I did get to see it after all - quite interesting; a steam engine that smells like a batch of McDonald's fries cooking.

 

Prior to getting 'the rest of the story', I had done some searching on the web and came across the story that Rusty Traque mentioned; and that too is an interesting one.  Hopefully someone here on the forum will 'bird dog' it so we all will know if they are successful at getting a steam locomotive to go over 130 MPH.

 

Related link to the CSR-3463 project 

 

Thanks to all who responded !!!!

 

Best,

Dave

 

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I think that Walt Disney World locomotives use similar fuel - maybe one or two others.

 

No. 4960 is the largest and (as far as I know) the only one in main-line passenger service.

The story was the last piece done on the CBS Morning Show this morning. 

 

That's what sucks about these"feel good' pieces. always leave the viewer hanging until the last segment of the show.

"feel good" is right.  a single 1000MW coal fired power plant burns 350 tons of coal per hour.  i'm willing to bet that if every live steam locomotive that exists today were burning coal, it would still contribute an insignificant amount compared to the pollution and greenhouse gasses injected into the atmosphere by the power industry.

I'm just pleased that they featured a Railroad tourist line by a major

broadcast company. Great PR.

 

BTW---you can see the original broadcast--by Searching/Googling

 

cbs news grand canyon steam engine video

 

Floyd

Here is the link via Youtube.

 

 

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I watched a great show last night on PBS (may have been a repeat, but it was on last night) entitled "National Parks: Great Train Rides."

 

Among others, it had a lengthy piece on the Alaska Railway run from the coast to Denali National Park, and also featured the Grand Canyon Railway, the Canadian Pacific train (stops in Banff and other spots), and the Coast Starlight (which stops in the vicinity of Crater Lake National Park and Mt. Rainier National Park). 

 

Beautiful to watch and great on-board filming. If you can catch it, you'll won't be disappointed.

I rode the Grand Canyon train a few years ago and it was a blast. They hold a wild West show before boarding that lasted over an hour and stage a show on board, I won't ruin the surprise but it was great. The train leaves Williams Arizona, right on Route 66 and takes you right to the rim of the canyon, awesome day. Unfortunately the ride back was a modern passenger train, but once back in town (straight out of the 40's) they hold gun fights in the streets and plenty of souvenir shops. Not as scenic as Silverton or Toltec but incredible experience 

I believe the Walt Disney World trains still operate on No. 2 red diesel.

 

The DISNEYLAND locomotives, out in CA, however, do run on biodiesel, from fry oil that comes from the park's own kitchens.

 

We poured rancid french fry oil into our fuel tank once. Not a pleasant experience. 

From when I was in Walt Disney World a few years ago and did the Steam tour, they did some tests with other forms of fuel, and were using a kind of soy-based mix for the fuel instead of diesel.

 

They said one try was with peanut oil, but since they don't sell peanuts in the Magic Kingdom, they didn't want people walking around, looking for a peanut vendor!

i can just imagine the look of horror on the faces of the Disney executives by the thought of those nasty peanut shells littering their perfectly manicured streets.

Walt Disney himself specifically forbade peanuts in the Park for this very reason.

>>They said one try was with peanut oil, but since they don't sell peanuts in the Magic Kingdom, they didn't want people walking around, looking for a peanut vendor!

 

Also, do fumes from burning peanut oil effect people with peanut allergies?

If that's her, former CB&Q 4960, they've moved the headlight and bell...would be nice to know an old Q engine is still running!

Grand Canyon Railway did a little more than move the headlight and bell...

 

Rusty