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Nice video RICKO!!!! Where did you shoot this? Like the consists of different passenger cars.
Looks like you were at Techny Rod crossing in Glenview? I was just down line from you, at the next Metra platform at Northbrook, I bet my cell phone video picks up right where yours leaves off. But, um, i got a little over-stimulated and yelled a "holy naughty word" (and I'm a religious type!) right in the middle of my vid...live steam has that effect on me, and I haven't seen any since 3985 came through through ca 2001-2002. Earlier I was also at North Glenview where they picked up the lucky excursion-ers. Rich had her talkin', like someone beating the world's biggest snare drum. I welled up! I'll never forget her "bap-bap-bap-bap" right in front of my face, her vapor condensing in the cool morning air and giving me a wet sloppy "kiss" .
I jogged to the point with the hope of saying hi to Rich, he was totally friendly and I went into some gibberish about how beautiful his steed is. Well, I was excited, OK? He said they had the brakes on coming into Glenview in order to "put on a good show" GOOD SHOW INDEED, yes, good show indeed. Holy cow. I'll catch her on the return and keep my language a bit cleaner!
Rob
That was good. Our esteemed webmaster had 'er hooked up and picking up speed. Beautiful!
Very nice!
I have been told that the Illinois Central never had vista domes ... and, there it is, a full length vista dome in IC orange and brown paint. Might have been after the fact.
illinoiscentral posted:I have been told that the Illinois Central never had vista domes ... and, there it is, a full length vista dome in IC orange and brown paint. Might have been after the fact.
The "IC" full dome belongs to the Iowa Pacific. The car is ex-Santa Fe #554, I believe. The Iowa Pacific has a "thing' for the old IC paint scheme.
The IC did purchase 6 "short" domes (3 Budd, 3 Pullman Standard) from the Missouri Pacific in 1967, though.
Rusty
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Number 90 posted:That was good. Our esteemed webmaster had 'er hooked up and picking up speed. Beautiful!
Thanks, Tom. We had her wound up a little faster than that later in the trip. This is about 70 mph.
Beautiful. And the video was horizontal! Great work FWRHS!
I'm still jazzed from this AM, WHAT A SHOW, BRAVO 765! BRAVO RICH MELVIN: the best whistle jockey going! You made her wail like John Coltrane (pun intended)
Let me add, I was talking to a friend that was at the Franklin Park static on Saturday. Apart from being blown away seeing 765, he was moved seeing so many people, young, old, all Chicago's ethnicities just elated to be around her. You guys brought a LOT of smiles to a LOT of folks this weekend. She's a real happiness machine. With all the horribles in the real world lately, you guys are all saints.
That was fantastic.Thanks for posting!
OGR Webmaster posted:Number 90 posted:That was good. Our esteemed webmaster had 'er hooked up and picking up speed. Beautiful!
Thanks, Tom. We had her wound up a little faster than that later in the trip. This is about 70 mph.
Now that was too cool.The kids screaming,the crossing bells,and the sounds of the high speed engine blasting through.
Now that's just impressive 
Good god what an amazing set of videos. 72mph!!! That's awesome!! Hopefully you guys can go even faster on "the racetrack" in 2 weeks.
Not mine, but Rich should like this one; no whistle, clean stack, pops lifted and just the roar. How did she ride at 70, Rich? Any idea how much coal she burns at 60-70 vs the normal 40 mph?
Bob
Well, when I saw the 765 at Route 167 at 40 MPH. I thought that was fast? That video above takes the cake.
There are some pretty nice videos of 765 here in Illinois, now posted on YouTube. However, some are taken at grade crossings, so people and the whistle sounds tend to cover-up that fantasy exhaust music at speed.
Rusty Traque posted:illinoiscentral posted:I have been told that the Illinois Central never had vista domes ...
The IC did purchase 6 "short" domes (3 Budd, 3 Pullman Standard) from the Missouri Pacific in 1967, though.
Rusty
City of New Orleans, at Memphis. Note two dome cars on the train in a couple of the pictures.
Awesome videos; my 4th time watching them. 
Followed 765 on Rollins Road into Fox Lake. As Rich was braking the big train into the station, he was working some throttle to keep the train stretched. 765 exhausted like a high powered rifle, with the exhaust richocheting off surrounding buildings. Nice !! All who saw were impressed !!
MJV1988 posted:Good god what an amazing set of videos. 72mph!!! That's awesome!! Hopefully you guys can go even faster on "the racetrack" in 2 weeks.
To be clear, the term "race track" is a railfan term, and was NEVER used by Burlington employees. The three track main line between Aurora and Chicago was ALWAYS referred to as "The East End".
Great videos everyone!!!!
Rich, your video of the 765 at 70 MPH was amazing !!!!!
Thanks, Alex
Please excuse me Rich but, I'm going to bump this thread up, so more people may see it.
bbunge posted:...How did she ride at 70, Rich? Any idea how much coal she burns at 60-70 vs the normal 40 mph?
At 70 mph she had just a trace of "bounce" in her, but she rides a LOT smoother now than before the overhaul. The engine is more efficient at high speeds, so the coal consumption was not much different than what she uses at 40 mph.
mark s posted:Followed 765 on Rollins Road into Fox Lake. As Rich was braking the big train into the station, he was working some throttle to keep the train stretched. 765 exhausted like a high powered rifle, with the exhaust richocheting off surrounding buildings. Nice !! All who saw were impressed !!
When I saw all those people at the station, I decided to set a little air, pull against the brakes and put on a little show for our passengers. I normally would not pull that hard on a train with the brakes set, but on this morning it just seemed like the right thing to do.
Ha! I'll bet that those NKP berks burned up many a trailing tonnage wheel bearing back in the day!
Ed
I was in the GN dome. On the way back from Janesville I could see guys in neon vests in the coal pile of the tender. Did they have to break up the coal pile?
Sam Jumper posted:I was in the GN dome. On the way back from Janesville I could see guys in neon vests in the coal pile of the tender. Did they have to break up the coal pile?
They were probably just "cutting coal." That means they were pulling coal down from the sides of the coal load into the bottom of the tender where it could reach the stoker screw. There's never any need to "break up" anything.
Or...they were just riding there, soaking up the experience.
Very nice to see a steam engine running "clean" (my word for it) -- without a diesel assistant/standby. It certainly adds to the realism. Clearly that says a lot for the condition of 765 and the competence of its crew for that kind of running to be allowed.
That kind of running was not "allowed." It was REQUIRED.
At our initial meeting, one of the first questions Metra asked us was how fast we could run. When I told them we could run 65-70 mph, the VP of Operations said, "That'll work."
Metra runs commuter trains even on the weekends. We had to fit in with those trains and not delay them even one minute.
These videos ALMOST capture what it was like in the steam era, but one thing is missing... track noise!
Good catch, Kent. It's all welded rail now.
Kent Loudon posted:These videos ALMOST capture what it was like in the steam era, but one thing is missing... track noise!
Obviously he means the sound of jointed rail.
Notice some dutch doors were open. Very nice!
The Dutch doors open were awesome! Folks in the vestibules would lend you their goggles. At one point from the leading dome we noticed crew members in the coal of the tender. A lady in the dome said she thought passengers could walk into the tender and look up like the guys were doing. There were three ex-MILW employees in the dome who had a good laugh at that one.
Sam Jumper posted:The Dutch doors open were awesome! Folks in the vestibules would lend you their goggles. At one point from the leading dome we noticed crew members in the coal of the tender. A lady in the dome said she thought passengers could walk into the tender and look up like the guys were doing. There were three ex-MILW employees in the dome who had a good laugh at that one.
Well, only funny here in the U.S.. The British Railways did indeed have some tenders equipped with internal passageways, in order to "change crews on the fly".
OGR Webmaster posted:That kind of running was not "allowed." It was REQUIRED.
At our initial meeting, one of the first questions Metra asked us was how fast we could run. When I told them we could run 65-70 mph, the VP of Operations said, "That'll work."
Metra runs commuter trains even on the weekends. We had to fit in with those trains and not delay them even one minute.
I'm uninformed about the aspects of running diesels with steam engines. Running the two together requires a lower running speed than can be achieved be running the steam engine separately?
breezinup posted:OGR Webmaster posted:That kind of running was not "allowed." It was REQUIRED.
At our initial meeting, one of the first questions Metra asked us was how fast we could run. When I told them we could run 65-70 mph, the VP of Operations said, "That'll work."
Metra runs commuter trains even on the weekends. We had to fit in with those trains and not delay them even one minute.
I'm uninformed about the aspects of running diesels with steam engines. Running the two together requires a lower running speed than can be achieved be running the steam engine separately?
Not really. Usually, the steam locomotive is capable of higher speeds than the average freight diesel. It also helps to remember that the steam locomotive INCREASES horsepower as speed increases, while the diesel electric is a constant HP, from say 1 MPH to its maximum of 70 MPH. In fact, the average diesel electric starts to REDUCE its HP, after 65 to 70 MPH.
On the other hand, the Amtrak passenger diesel electrics are good for about 102 MPH, thus when either 765, MIL 261, AT&SF 3751, or SP 4449 are MUed with an Amtrak unit, the steam locomotive can perform excellently, throughout its speed range, while the Amtrak unit is providing 480 Volt, three phase HEP for all the passenger cars.
breezinup posted:I'm uninformed about the aspects of running diesels with steam engines. Running the two together requires a lower running speed than can be achieved be running the steam engine separately?
Not quite correct. The running speeds are whatever the host railroad wants them to be, whether the steam engine is running alone or with a diesel MU'd behind it. Running them together makes no difference in what speeds we can operate.
When diesels are used with a steam locomotive today, it is typically used to stretch the coal, not for 'helping" the steam locomotive. On a long deadhead move with a diesel, we will get the train up to speed quickly using both the diesel and the steamer. Once at track speed, we can set the steam loco to just "drift" with a very light throttle while the diesel does most of the work of maintaining the speed. This allows the steam locomotive to get much better coal and water mileage. Instead of burning a ton of coal over 10 miles, we will achieve 15-20 miles per ton when drifting. That extends the mileage between coaling stops to the point where a 350 to 400 mile day is possible on one load of coal.
OGR Webmaster posted:That kind of running was not "allowed." It was REQUIRED.
Thanks very much for the very interesting information about running diesels with steamers. Thanks to Hot Water as well. I enjoyed reading the discussion.
Perhaps it was answered and I missed it, or misunderstood it, but I'm still don't quite understand why running 765 without a diesel was "required" on this trip.
You misunderstood. What was REQUIRED for operation on Metra lines was running at speeds that would not delay the commuter trains. This meant being able to go at least 60MPH. Metra didn't care whether there was a diesel or not, just that the scheduled commuter trains would not be delayed.
