STEAMday Sunday March 2, 2025 edition

This is something that we rarely, if ever, see in these parts (central Virginia), Great Northern steam. This engine was brought to our Open House last weekend and, was gorgeous!

Have a great and safe week, folks!

Peter

Hello Steam Crazies!  Today I’m going to bring you all the way back to Oct 23, 2009.  I was in PA with my lifetime train buddies, Dick and Ed, for the York show; we also visited the Strasburg RR and the RR Museum of PA.  I was very pleased to hear the State of PA is planning to build a new roundhouse to preserve some of the steam we saw displayed outside.  Another trip to Strasburg will be in order when the roundhouse is complete!

John

New Haven 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler is a Lionel Legacy model (6-82272) listed in the 2014 Volume 2 catalog at MSRP $899.99. The catalog refers to the engine as “A Classic Design from the 19th Century.” Ten-wheelers were capable of hauling a train of wood coaches but were replaced by 4-6-2 Pacific-type locomotives early in the 20th Century as heavier steel passenger cars came into use. On the New Haven, #816 was a Class G-4a locomotive initially used on its main line between New York City and Boston.

The prototype of Lionel’s model is a New York Central class F-2 (reclassified F-12e when superheated) Ten-Wheeler first built by Alco in 1905 but the real New Haven #816 was built by Baldwin in 1904. Lionel apparently was aware of this and put a round Baldwin builder’s plate on its model of an Alco locomotive.

Videos show the engine on my 12’-by-8’ layout pulling two unlettered wood-sided coaches by MTH Premier and an unlettered steel parlor car by Atlas O Premier. Also note the first photo, which includes three steam engines – Boston & Albany 2-8-4 Berkshire #1401 (left), B&A USRA 0-8-0 #53 (right), and New Haven #816 (center).

MELGAR

Happy STEAMday Sunday All. Thanks Arnold for getting the steam up on this 23 degree day. I'm going back a little further from 1951, 120 years to the beginning of Steam in the US.  Here are the first Steam engines on US soil, presented as the LIONEL HERITAGE SERIES:

In 1831, the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad pioneered the first passenger train ever to run in the State of New York. Led by the famous Dewitt Clinton 0-4-0 steam locomotive the train included three passenger coaches that were in essence the same design as the typical horse-drawn stagecoaches of the era. At a speed of 30 mph, passengers rode the 17 mile stretch from Albany to Schenectady and back. For 14 years this reliant train provided passenger service to the region and provided an early template for the nation’s 19th century passenger lines.

The need for coal transport spurred the development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal (1825) and a gravity railroad, from Carbondale to Honesdale, PA. The Stourbridge Lion was the first steam locomotive to operate on a railway in the US, It made its initial run on the Delaware and Hudson Gravity RR on August 8, 1829, but proved impractical. Hauling via horses and mules was resumed. The Sturbridge Lion is now in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.),

John Bull is a historic British-built railroad steam locomotive that operated in the United States. It was operated for the first time on September 15, 1831, it was initially purchased by and operated for the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey, which gave it the number 1 and its first name, "Stevens". (Robert L. Stevens was president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad at the time.) The C&A used it heavily from 1833 until 1866, when it was removed from active service and placed in storage. The John Bull became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution ran it under its own steam in 1981.

@leapinLarry, my sincere thanks to you for making these fine sets available.

Thanks so much Arnold for keeping the boiler hot to get us rolling today!   I love your B6 not to mention all those postwar milk cars ... that's quite a collection!!   I still have my postwar Lionel milk car which came with my first train set.  The car still operates too!  

Today I have a clip of my K-line two truck Shay departing with a couple boxcars.

@pennsyfan posted:

Happy STEAMday Sunday All. Thanks Arnold for getting the steam up on this 23 degree day. presented as the LIONEL HERITAGE SERIES: I'm going back a little further from 1951, 120 years to the beginning of Steam in the US.  Here are the first Steam engines on US soil,

In 1831, the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad pioneered the first passenger train ever to run in the State of New York. Led by the famous Dewitt Clinton 0-4-0 steam locomotive the train included three passenger coaches that were in essence the same design as the typical horse-drawn stagecoaches of the era. At a speed of 30 mph, passengers rode the 17 mile stretch from Albany to Schenectady and back. For 14 years this reliant train provided passenger service to the region and provided an early template for the nation’s 19th century passenger lines.

The need for coal transport spurred the development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal (1825) and a gravity railroad, from Carbondale to Honesdale, PA. The Stourbridge Lion was the first steam locomotive to operate on a railway in the US, It made its initial run on the Delaware and Hudson Gravity RR on August 8, 1829, but proved impractical. Hauling via horses and mules was resumed. The Sturbridge Lion is now in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.),

John Bull is a historic British-built railroad steam locomotive that operated in the United States. It was operated for the first time on September 15, 1831, it was initially purchased by and operated for the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey, which gave it the number 1 and its first name, "Stevens". (Robert L. Stevens was president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad at the time.) The C&A used it heavily from 1833 until 1866, when it was removed from active service and placed in storage. The John Bull became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution ran it under its own steam in 1981.

@leapinLarry, my sincere thanks to you for making these fine sets available.

Bob - Terrific photos and historical information!!  I have a friend whose great great great grandfather was the engineer on the first run of the Stourbridge Lion.  She proudly shares that fact with folks!

Btw you mention in your post ... "I'm going back a little further from 1951, 120 years to the beginning of Steam in the US.  Here are the first Steam engines on US soil, "  .... You are going back almost 200 years since the Stourbridge Lion first ran in 1829.   It's hard to believe railroads in the US are now just over 200 years old .... wow!  

@pennsyfan posted:

Happy STEAMday Sunday All. Thanks Arnold for getting the steam up on this 23 degree day. I'm going back a little further from 1951, 120 years to the beginning of Steam in the US.  Here are the first Steam engines on US soil, presented as the LIONEL HERITAGE SERIES:

In 1831, the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad pioneered the first passenger train ever to run in the State of New York. Led by the famous Dewitt Clinton 0-4-0 steam locomotive the train included three passenger coaches that were in essence the same design as the typical horse-drawn stagecoaches of the era. At a speed of 30 mph, passengers rode the 17 mile stretch from Albany to Schenectady and back. For 14 years this reliant train provided passenger service to the region and provided an early template for the nation’s 19th century passenger lines.

The need for coal transport spurred the development of the Delaware and Hudson Canal (1825) and a gravity railroad, from Carbondale to Honesdale, PA. The Stourbridge Lion was the first steam locomotive to operate on a railway in the US, It made its initial run on the Delaware and Hudson Gravity RR on August 8, 1829, but proved impractical. Hauling via horses and mules was resumed. The Sturbridge Lion is now in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.),

John Bull is a historic British-built railroad steam locomotive that operated in the United States. It was operated for the first time on September 15, 1831, it was initially purchased by and operated for the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey, which gave it the number 1 and its first name, "Stevens". (Robert L. Stevens was president of the Camden and Amboy Railroad at the time.) The C&A used it heavily from 1833 until 1866, when it was removed from active service and placed in storage. The John Bull became the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world when the Smithsonian Institution ran it under its own steam in 1981.

@leapinLarry, my sincere thanks to you for making these fine sets available.

Bob, what a gorgeous collection and thanks for the informative history.

Gene

Happy Steam day Sunday. Here's A older MTH Mohawk pulling postwar passenger cars.

Patrick, who made the bay window B&O caboose seen in your video?  I would like to have a BAR caboose to go with my BL2;  BAR had quite a few cabooses converted from other cars, like your model.

I was thinking a dealer like the Public Delivery Track might be interested in doing a special run,  so it would help to know the manufacturer.  I bet a lot of people would like to have a unique caboose like yours.

John

A few years ago on a western road trip, by pure coincidence, we came upon this classic steamer in Sheridan, WY, with the markings of "5631 / CB & Q."  Here's a link to Wiki that gives a history from Wiki's perspective on the class of steam locomotives...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...and_Quincy_class_O-5

K Line Boston & Albany tank engine hauling passengers slowly and carefully around the House that Ruth Built:

Well I can't go back as far as @pennsyfan  for trains at least not today but how about the early post war 1950's?  This is a clockwork steam locomotive and train (one car!) from Germany in the early post war period.  It is by Heinrich Wimmer of Nuremberg who made toys / trains both before and after the war (their Corporate designation for their toys was HWN) . This was an attempt to re-capture the pre-war lost market and it is a full 0 gauge train but a long way from 0 scale.  OBTW iaw my internet, Heinrich Wimmer (at least by corporate name) still makes HO trains today.

She is a clockwork 0-4-0 locomotive primarily in lithographed tinplate.  She has plastic driving wheels hence I would date her to about 1953-1955 or so.  She never had drive rods (note no attachment fittings) or cylinders and she rarely came with more than one car.  In this case a single passenger coach.  She does work and can pull her single consist around my mostly flat circular layout, not pretty but it works .

Best Wishes, hope you enjoy this humble offering for SteamDay.  Hope you have a good week.

Don

@Steam Crazy posted:

Patrick, who made the bay window B&O caboose seen in your video?  I would like to have a BAR caboose to go with my BL2;  BAR had quite a few cabooses converted from other cars, like your model.

I was thinking a dealer like the Public Delivery Track might be interested in doing a special run,  so it would help to know the manufacturer.  I bet a lot of people would like to have a unique caboose like yours.

John

John - The caboose with the bay window is a work caboose of the MTH RailKing line.  They are somewhat common on E-bay and at train shows.  Trainz  may have them as well.   I bought mine brand new back around 2005/6 and decided to weather it.  Some of these same MTH cabooses came with a digital air whistle ... I found one of those on Ebay and won the bid several years ago.  I also weathered that one too and run it with any steam locomotive I own that doen't have a whistle.

Some of the old prototype roads ( early 1950's and before )  would sometimes convert an old boxcar into one of these kinds of cabooses.  This kind of converted caboose ( " caboxcar" ... my term ) served well in work trains, branch line freights, and mixed trains where a passenger coach might be coupled just ahead of the "caboxcar" and the cargo part of the car would be used for hauling express packages/ baggage. etc.

It would be pretty cool if Atlas O produced a similar work caboose in their Masterline series.    I would imagine their product would be well detailed and certainly upscaled from the MTH version.

@Steam Crazy posted:

Patrick, who made the bay window B&O caboose seen in your video?  I would like to have a BAR caboose to go with my BL2;  BAR had quite a few cabooses converted from other cars, like your model.

I was thinking a dealer like the Public Delivery Track might be interested in doing a special run,  so it would help to know the manufacturer.  I bet a lot of people would like to have a unique caboose like yours.

John

John, If I can step in here that caboose / freight is an MTH car.  I got mine at YORK in the old Yellow Hall. No box it was part of a set. @Mark V. Spadaro provided some good information about it in the past.

Patrick and Bob, thanks for your replies.  I will start the search.  Now I know what a "caboxcar" is!

John

@Genemed posted:

Bob, what a gorgeous collection and thanks for the informative history.

Gene

Thank you Gene.

@Steam Crazy posted:

Patrick and Bob, thanks for your replies.  I will start the search.  Now I know what a "caboxcar" is!

John

Another point some come with a great air whistle.

@trumpettrain posted:

Bob - Terrific photos and historical information!!  I have a friend whose great great great grandfather was the engineer on the first run of the Stourbridge Lion.  She proudly shares that fact with folks!

Btw you mention in your post ... "I'm going back a little further from 1951, 120 years to the beginning of Steam in the US.  Here are the first Steam engines on US soil, "  .... You are going back almost 200 years since the Stourbridge Lion first ran in 1829.   It's hard to believe railroads in the US are now just over 200 years old .... wow!  

Thanks Patrick! Re your BTW about 1951; I put that in there because Arnold mentioned in his original post "let's pretend it's 1951".

@trumpettrain posted:

Today I have a clip of my K-line two truck Shay departing with a couple boxcars.

I really like your K-Line Shay.  These engines seem to have the most correct chuff count of all the manufacturers.

Some S gauge locomotives - 2 American Flyer Hudsons, a PRR K5 and a 'Flyionel' SR Mikado. It is said that "S is the perfect size' and there is some merit to that statement....

Just ordered a Northern Pacific work caboose from Trainz.  It will hit the paint shop when I receive it for conversion to BAR.  Thanks again, guys, for your tips.

John

RailKing PS-1 U.P. Northern

@Steam Crazy posted:

Just ordered a Northern Pacific work caboose from Trainz.  It will hit the paint shop when I receive it for conversion to BAR.  Thanks again, guys, for your tips.

John

John, we await the finished product!

Here is another video of my K Line Boston and Albany tank engine passenger train crawling through town leaving a cloud of steam in its wake:

Arnold

That K Line tank engine running on cruise may be my best smoker and it has terrific detail in my opinion. For such a big engine it runs very well through my sharp O31 curves.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

That K Line tank engine running on cruise may be my best smoker and it has terrific detail in my opinion. For such a big engine it runs very well through my sharp O31 curves.

@Arnold D. Cribari. That is a really nice engine👍

Did it come with cruise or did you add it?