STEAMday Sunday (3/31/2024 edition)

Here is my baby blue LC+ Jersey Central Pacific steamer hauling green Lionel Postwar Jersey Central passenger cars in action:

Again, Happy Easter and STEAMday Sunday, Arnold

Happy Easter! From the old layout......New York Central big steam......

Have a great and safe week, folks!

Peter

Happy Easter, from some distance west of the Alleghenies,  Cass, Thurmond, and the former realm of C&O steam in the New River Gorge.

A Baldwin I-5, one of 10 delivered to the New Haven in 1937 for fast passenger service heads theWerchants Limited toward Danbury while an L1 mountain pulls a loaded reefer train for New Haven on the New Haven section of my layout.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/G9gkcUKKcNidi3xb7

Happy Steam Day Sunday

Happy Easter to all.

Happy Easter STEAMday Sunday fans, God and Country

Good morning and Happy Easter, StDaySun nation!  I’m in Maine Central country today - but I don’t have a MEC steamer (on the short list, but hard to find) - so let’s see what’s in the archives.

I haven’t posted one of my favorites, NYC 0-4-0 no. 901, in a long time.  She is seen on a caboose hop with another favorite, NYC 0-6-0T no. X-8688.  X-8688 gave years of faithful service, but stopped one day and started smoking, but not out the stack!  She’s a dummy today.

John

Now, we're building a head of steam here. That makes the Easter Bunny very happy.

Colorful Steam for the Easter holiday.

As if I don't have enough interests in this hobby, I have expanded my railroading interests into Mexico and Canada.   For trains in the Great White North, I picked up 8 scale length heavyweight CP passenger cars, mostly GGD.  With the restoration of Royal Hudson 2816 and its three-nation journey from Canada to Mexico promoting CPKC in May I really wanted to find one for my collection.  I was able to acquire this Weaver one even if it is 2860 instead.  This will also be fun pulling my GGD VIA Canadian cars on excursion.  2860 still exists today and last saw service in 2009.

Many years back, my interest in this specific train started with the acquisition of this promotional booklet that was published by the CP in 1953.  It is a wonderful history of the route with maps and colorized photos.  The MLW 2-10-4 Selkirk on the cover pulled CP transcontinental trains from Calgary to Revelstoke across the Rockies, while Royal Hudsons covered the remainder of the route prior to the introduction of the Canadian in 1955.  As can be seen, there is more than a slight family resemblance between the Selkirk and its older brother Hudson. 

When I rode the VIA Canadian in 2022 service for "Prestige" customers included this booklet continuing a great tradition of promoting the sights of Canada. 

While not completely on topic, it is not clear how much longer the Canadian will be running.  The cars turn 70 next year and a recent "Trains" article talked about how maintaining the fleet has become a true craft for the VIA staff in both utilizing parts from existing cars and also fabricating the parts needed to keep these iconic cars in service.  At this time Canada has no plans to replace these cars with new equipment and there is a chance, much like what happened in Mexico in 1997, that long distance trains in Canada may simply go away.  The F40PHs will live on as Canada has announced that they will once again be rebuilt, but there is not a lot of life left in these cars for daily service sadly. 

This post got a little more involved than I expected!

@GG1 4877 posted:

As if I don't have enough interests in this hobby, I have expanded my railroading interests into Mexico and Canada…  2860 still exists today and last saw service in 2009.

I am officially envious, Jonathan. I had the great pleasure of riding behind the 2860 back in the early 90’s. They offered a couple of trip options. My ex-wife and I took the boat from Vancouver to Squamish and then road the train back. For part of the boat trip, the train tracks ran almost along a cliff overlooking the water and when the whistle blew, it echoed across the water to the boat. I found a Weaver version when we got back, but it was one of the few things of value I lost in the divorce

Paul,

Being in the ex-wife club who did not support my hobby I feel your pain.    However, I am envious that you got to ride behind the real one!  I remember when I was very young, my family vacation was to Steamtown in Bellows Falls, Vermont.  A CP Pacific pulled the excursion train, but I have so few memories of it including the year we did that.  I am vaguely thinking it was 1979, but I need to verify that with my dad.

@GG1 4877 posted:

Paul,

Being in the ex-wife club who did not support my hobby I feel your pain.    However, I am envious that you got to ride behind the real one!  I remember when I was very young, my family vacation was to Steamtown in Bellows Falls, Vermont.  A CP Pacific pulled the excursion train, but I have so few memories of it including the year we did that.  I am vaguely thinking it was 1979, but I need to verify that with my dad.

Well, it may have been this one - I took this from the overpass from the then Steamtown Mall to the rail yard. This was after the Parks Dept. took over the operation.

I know I road behind the 2317 on a short trip, but I’ll have to wait till I back home to see which engine they used when I took one of the longer trips (pre-Parks Dept.) where the engine struck a couple of teens playing on the tracks

Thanks Arnold for bringing her to a boil, working up a full head of steam and getting rolling today.  Happy Easter to you and everyone here on the OGR Forum!   Here are some N&W J Class 611 photos from several angles.

Faster than a speeding bullet!  

More powerful than a lot of locomotives!

Steel against steel.  Drivers of power!

Engineer Varney Tucker at the throttle.

@trumpettrain posted:

Thanks Arnold for bringing her to a boil, working up a full head of steam and getting rolling today.  Happy Easter to you and everyone here on the OGR Forum!   Here are some N&W J Class 611 photos from several angles.

Faster than a speeding bullet!  

More powerful than a lot of locomotives!

Steel against steel.  Drivers of power!

Engineer Varney Tucker at the throttle.

Varney is a lucky guy throttling such a beautiful steamer!

Gene

Ps3 RK  B&O  4-6-2  moving valuable freight under steam .

HAPPY  EASTER   STEAMday  SUNDAY  all.    God Speed