Why are some steam engines so loud

The size of the exhaust nozzle and the way the engineer is running the locomotive.

 

The smaller the exhaust nozzle, the louder the exhaust, the higher the back pressure and the stronger the draft pulled on the fire. If the engineer is working a heavy throttle and also has her hooked up a little longer than she should be, that will make the exhaust louder.

 

Frisco 1522 was notorious for having a very LOUD exhaust. It was due to the design of her front-end and the size of her exhaust nozzle.

thanks for the great answer rich.

Burlington 4-8-4 5632 was loud, too

Yes she was, VERY LOUD. Probably the loudest steam locomotive I have ever been on. However, the old heads on the Burlington will tell you that, the absolute LOUDEST steam locomotives on the Burlington system were the S4 Hudsons! 

Had the opportunity to ride a Burlington fantrip pulled by Hudson #3001 on 08-31-58. As was standard for all fantrips, we were gigantically late, and arrived in Mendota, IL at about 1 AM. The town was all but deserted, street lights burning dimly, a lone automobile pulled up to a flashing crossing gate (with a rather surprised couple seeing a steam locomotive!), as 3001 stopped at the station. Whisteling off and pulling away, the sharp, booming exhaust riccocheted from the buildings on one side of the street to the other! Truly dramatic!

I should append, that is pronounced "Three Thousand One", not "thirty-oh-one"!!  That was a locomotive with a personality, not just a bland numerical statistic!

Workin hard! Listen to 611 climbing Irondale Hill in this video. Go to the 3:00 mark and  crank it up!

 

Of course, Rich is no stranger to "makin some noise".

 

 

Did anyone notice that the engine, tender, canteen and eight cars go by the clear signal before it drops to Stop (about 10 sec.)?

Wow.  Simply wow.  Even though the steam engines I ran were no where near as big as those... the sound in those videos brings back wonderful memories.  Simply put: There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like steam power... nothing.

 

Re: the 611 slipping...

 

I'll bet that Engineer was sh*ttin' little green apples when he started slipping his drivers like that!!!  He almost stalled it.

 

Terrific stuff, both of the vids.

 

Why are they loud? So old guys can enjoy the sound too!!!!

 

Gilly

 

WHAAAAAT???!!!!!

At about the 2:26 mark, what is that thing on top of the baggage car?

Not a baggage car. It's an exhaust muffler.

They are mufflers for the generators in the car used for head end power. 

Actually brings upn interesting point:  why was this car used on all the deadhead moves this year, but not on any of the excursions (EAS or Public)?  Were one of the new NS cars (NS 42 "Tennesse") equipped with a generator to provide power to the whole train?

That is not a baggage car, it is a Head End Power car. The "thing" on the roof is the muffler for the diesel generator.

 

This car, the "Thunder Bay" was along as a back-up power car, should the NS power car car fail. The NS car performed just fine and we did not need to use the Thunder Bay on any of the moves...but we still had to move it along with everything else on the deadhead moves.

Well, fellas, 611 and 765 were indeed impressive, but they don't come close to a Pennsy K4!  Despite the loudness, those engine still CHUG! 

 

Under hard acceleration, each beat of a K4's exhaust was an explosion!  It was as though you had lined up a string of 12-gauge shotguns and fired them off in succession.   

 

Kent Loudon

quote:

I'll bet that Engineer was sh*ttin' little green apples when he started slipping his drivers like that!!!  He almost stalled it.

No, he was probably cussing the rail greaser for that curve!

If I remember correctly it was a pretty cold and frosty morning when 611 was climbing Irondale in the video...very impressive.

 

Chris

Loud steam....had an experience as a young kid, with a PRR 2-10-4 J1 at the Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Co. picnic that remains the all-time loudest chooch experience ever!  Not even the big UP Turbines a few years later could eclipse this outrageous event.  Probably didn't help that the young Dieselover thought the highly offended steam monster wanted to eat me for lunch !!!

In my time, I would have to say the loudest locomotive I have ever run into was the Reading and Norhtern 4-6-2 No. 425. (Somethings known as the 4 and a Quarter). In Jim Thorpe, one time a few years ago, I saw (and heard) as Andy Muller himself was at the throttle for a light engine back up move.

 

"BOOM!" "BOOM!" "BOOM! "BOOM!"

 

I swear you could also hear the boiler plates rattle!

 

Loudest loco for me that is for sure.

 

Hopefully, we can hear that again soon.

My gosh, I sure HOPE the "boiler plates" didn't rattle! Nor even the boiler courses!

He was probably referring to the boiler SHEATHING.

I'm not familiar with that "SHEATHING" term. Do you mean the sheet metal jacketing that holds the insulation against the boiler?

Yes, the correct term is Jacketing.

Theres always this one ( one of Hot Water's favorites), it at least desrves some "honorable mention". While 3985 is not necessarily working all that hard and not quite as noisy as those above, its making quite a raucous as Steve Lee has to make it s^&%, and git.

 

Actually she IS working pretty hard as this scene is shot on the east side of Archer Hill, i.e. the westbound grade is pretty long, and over .75%. You can here Steve advance the throttle to WIDE OPEN, as we accelerate up the grade.

 

Thanks for posting this one.

Hot,

 

You are such a DB.

 

But we love ya anyway.

 

Dennis

OK then, but just what is a "DB"? I've been called a lot of things over my career in the railroad motive power industry, but I sure can't remember "DB"!

Gee Hot,

 

I can't say on a family forum. Not if I want to stay that is!

 

I am sure in the course of railroading, you have heard or even used the expression that uses these two letters in two words.

 

I know I have been called that a few times!

 

Dennis

 

Dead Beat???

Dumb Bunny???

Dog Breath???

Dirt Bag??? 

The old glass relays in the signal instrument case were talking to each other, clicking and clacking as fast as they could. 

Tom,

Glad top see someone paying attention!

On the flip side of all this noise-making, I was about to walk down the steps to the Call Office at Shaffer's Crossing with the just inbound 611 sitting on the main line waiting for a signal to go to the house. When the signal did pop up, 611 silently moved away toward the motive power ladder. Maybe I should capitalize, italize, underline and boldface "SILENTLY" as you actually couldn't hear it moving until the wheels went through the crossover frog a couple of hundred feet ahead.

I was so used to steam locos of the 60's and 70's clanking and banging that when I chased 611 in 1981, she snuck up on me a couple of times and I was totally surprised. Roller bearings and great running will do that with 611.

 

Not until you pointed it out, I was too fixated on listening to 611. 

 

But, now that you have brought it up, I am kind of curious if that is a delay is built into the circuitry in order to avoid false signal trips (possible leakage between rails due to moisture?)  I know slightly more than nothing when it comes to signal circuitry, so you have my curiousity up.

 

Regards.

GNNPNUT

Almost forgot, 765 can s#$% and git too ,this ones audio nirvana........I'm done now

 

 

quote:

I know slightly more than nothing when it comes to signal circuitry, so you have my curiosity up.

I don't know much more than that and I have seen some odd signal operation over the years. While this might be completely normal for this area, it does seem a bit out of the ordinary. I'm going to put some feelers out and see if I can get a good answer.

 

The following was provided by one who worked with this type of signal system on the NS/SOU, supporting what Number 90 has posted above:

 

A Reading T-1 Can be a very loud loco too