Rare Footage of A Brand New N&W Jawn Henry

Great video!

Peter

The shot inside the cab made my mind boggle as to what all those controls and gauges signified...I wonder if anyone ever wrote a book about Jawn H..

Very unique...thnx.

Being that is was new to the industry, I was surprised that more of the cab gauges, meters, valves and controls were not labeled.  Otherwise it looked similar to the controls of other water tube boilers I have worked around. It would be interesting to know what they used to blow combustion air through the fire box, if it was an electric powered blower. If so, I wounded if there was a Diesel engine generator on board to provide power for start up.  

"Rails Remembered Vol. 4 The Tale of a Turbine" by Louis Newton

I have this book.  Its a very interesting read.

One of the most disturbing things I read was the condition in which Westinghouse delivered the turbo-generator unit.  The first time it was received at Baldwin it was discovered that the assembly was seriously misaligned, as if it had been dropped.  So it was returned to Westinghouse for repair.  When it was returned to Baldwin it was found that inside the generators was a mess of oil and carbon dust.  All of this had to be cleaned before they could test the locomotive.

Now consider that this equipment was for a major project, and yet Westinghouse delivered their components in such poor condition.  It makes me wonder what condition Westinghouse delivered their equipment for regular production locomotives.  Much has been written about Westinghouse generators being prone to having "flash overs."  Perhaps this is an explanation of why they did have these problems.

Stuart

That book is going on my Christmas list for Santa Claus.

It's a fascinating piece of history, which seems almost doomed from the start.. which makes the film I posted seem all the more poignant, especially the guy in the background with a rag in his hand applying spit and polish while the hotshots gab.

If I remember correctly, it ended up in pusher service before scrapping and thats about all I can recall.

All that last minute experimentation as the diesel onslaught began makes for some great reading. The book "Black Coal, Black Diamonds" on the PRR experiments is one of my favorites. 

Thanks for the info.

That video is neat.

Thank you electroliner for posting the video of a 'Futuristic/Modernistic' locomotive.

Ralph

That footage is unique, for sure. Movies of the Jawn Henry are pretty rare as it had such a short life span. Although the poster claims it to be newsreel footage, I wonder if it isn't actually N&W company footage since there is no sound track or any intro footage showing a newsreel company logo, etc. It appears to have been taken when the JH was being delivered or put into service.

I have some 16mm color footage of the JH that was shot circa 1954 where the loco also looks new. It is seen alongside the last Y6b, no. 2200 at Shaffer's Crossing in Roanoke and there appears to be a group of visiting railfans who are going for short rides in the JH. It will be used in our next volume of our "Pocahontas Glory" series, Volume 8. 

We used some 8mm sound footage of the JH in Volume 7 which was before this latest film became available.

-Jim Herron

There can be NO question that the Jawn Henry story would have had a significantly different outcome had the engineering and construction work been contracted to GE ! The year JH was finished, 1954, was also the end of Westinghouse involvement in RR rotating electrical gear, IIRC.  

That is seriously cool.  Thanks.  

That is an amazing piece of equipment.  Thank you for posting.....