WMSR #734 Photo Charter

Nice photos !!   Love the Wild Mary !!

Over ten years ago, Jeff Rayner and I shot video on the WMSR trail before it was done.

With permission, we shot this, I drove Jeff's car, and he made the video. Not very sharp,

but the sound is good. Crank it up!

I forgot to add..Mike, loved the video you posted!

Ed

I've only seen 2 vids from Saturday, 4/9/16, but it was in the 30s with snow flurries, making our day on the 2nd appear tropical.

Reportedly 7 flues were replaced on 734 after our trip.

Now we wait to see how long until 1309 operates, and the track issue near Frostburg gets resolved.
WMSR is apparently getting the $$$ they requested from the new state budget (400K).

Ed, that's a nice video! It was shot when the valves were badly out of time. The exhaust beats are not evenly spaced. It's a  "chuff-chuff-----chuff-----chuff"  kind of rhythm with two exhaust beats in rapid succession followed by two at a normal spacing. They fixed that, but the 734 ran like this for a long time.

Now about the firing...wow! WAY too much smoke! I'd hate to have to clean that fire at the end of the day. 

You are right, Rich. But for this old man, it was Great Fun!

And will go down in my many memories of 734  and that time in my life.

Ed

That was awesome!

Interesting how the valves have to be timed like in an auto.  It seems the crews running a tourist train love to make smoke-not my cup of tea. a clean stack is the best !!  I always look for that with a steam engine.

Ed, thanks for the compliment! The photo charter was fantastic even though our day was cut short. You're video is definitely very unique! I definitely understand now why they call the 734 Mountain Thunder. She is by far one of the loudest steam locomotives I've ever heard. But I have yet to see how loud the NKP 765 and N&W 611 is!

Borden, I saw that same video too! I guess a week's difference allows for temps to go from the 60s to the 40s. Even though our day was cut short I like our weather better.

Jim, one of the volunteers there told me for years the 734 was "missing a valve" causing the terrible out of balance chuffing sounds. I don't know how valid that statement is, maybe Rich could chime in on the validity of that statement. To me it would seem kind of hard to operate a steam locomotive that's "missing a valve".

Concerning the excess smoke; I seem to remember that over the years, the WMSR folks, have gotten some batches of "bad coal", making 734 VERY difficult to fire. In some past cases, she has even stalled and the crew had to clean the fire, blow her hot, and restart the train. Of course, incorrect valve set tis do not help performance either, causing increased use of water and coal.

Ed may have more details.

Yep that has happened. I was even aboard once when we had to stop.

Now, good coal, and the "missing valve" was repaired. Now this is an example of how

expensive it is to maintain a steam loco. The "missing" was a ring on a piston valve. It

was completely gone, Kevin made a new one, the material was $1600!  But boy, what

a difference.

I put comparison videos up in May of last year, maybe a search will recall them.

Ed

I recall during the 2011-2012 season that the 734 had a valve setup of "chuff...chuff...chuff...chuff................". About at least a second before the first beat picked up again.

I do have to say though since her restoration in the 90s, the fine folks at the WMSR have gotten every bit of usage out of her. Like one volunteer on April 2nd told me "she's been beat to hell and back" and he wasn't saying that in a negative way like the WMSR neglected her.

I rode on some Cass Photo specials run by Carl Franz.     The crews made smoke for the photo run-bys because the photographers wanted to see it and whistle steam to make the photos more action packed.    I can't disagree.      It is not so good for the engine and fuel consumption, but on that trip we were paying 125 per day and there were 80 of us.    So that was 10,000 per day.    I guess they figured they could afford to give us a little smoke to generate a little income.    The prices for photo freights have gone up since then too.    It was great and I got some great photos.

prrjim posted:

I rode on some Cass Photo specials run by Carl Franz.     The crews made smoke for the photo run-bys because the photographers wanted to see it and whistle steam to make the photos more action packed.    I can't disagree.      It is not so good for the engine and fuel consumption, but on that trip we were paying 125 per day and there were 80 of us.    So that was 10,000 per day.    I guess they figured they could afford to give us a little smoke to generate a little income.    The prices for photo freights have gone up since then too.    It was great and I got some great photos.

Looking back on the April 2nd charter, they really didn't smoke up a storm. I didn't mind it one bit either way. If a couple of flues hadn't burst (which is a chance event in itself) my $200 dollars was well spent. Regardless, I had a good time and will definitely do it again at the WMSR with the 1309.