Operating a Vulcan Iron Works 0-4-0T Steam Locomotive
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Come along for a cab ride in the Georgia Museum of Agriculture's 1917 Vulcan Iron Works 0-4-0T Steam Locomotive! We will go through the process of firing this tank engine as well as tell you the history of this operational narrow gauge steam locomotive.
Music License for Intro/Outro Music - "Better and Better", by Joel Hunger granted through MelodyLoops.com. License #: 42949643994
![Steam Locomotive Controls [4K]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UrV8x01LLNo/mqdefault.jpg)
For a self-shot "amateur" video, this is extremely good. You are clear spoken and articulate. I've seen many professional presentations that are not this good.
Thanks Mr. Rucker. My happiest days were when I was one of the engineers at Kings Dominion near Richmond, VA. I worked for around 10 years on weekends and holidays firing and driving one of two 3 ft. Crown Locomotive Works engines. Generally our routine was similar to your's. We pulled 5 steel passenger cars with knuckle couplers and Westinghouse air brakes. It looks like you are as proud and happy as I was to do that job. Every day I would give thanks to God for the privilege of being paid to do exactly what I wanted and to seem the looks of wonder on the faces of young and old alike. Best wishes to you and if I'm ever near Tifton I'll stop by and say hi.
Well done Keith. Brings back lots of memories of when my grandfather was an engineer on the Northern Pacific. Got to ride one time in the cab on a short trip between Auburn, Wa to just outside of Tacoma. He retired along with his locomotive in the early 50's but that single trip will remain fixed in my mind forever.
*****
"Bad things can happen..." he could do a whole segment on that statement when it comes to steam locomotive boilers.
That was fun and informative. I am so glad there are folks like Mr. Rucker to maintain and operate the great old machines of yesteryear. Thanks for the ride.
I totally agree.....Nice video...
One of the best most informative steam engine programs ever. Very well done.
+Scott C Thank you!
Keith that is a top little video. How can you not love steam, its the only machine that comes alive and takes on a persona.
Hi Keith, thanks so much! I've been looking forward to this ever since you mentioned it... You did a great job with this whole video.. The history lesson on the train was as enjoyable as the ride, and the awesome camera work. You put a lot into all of it... It's going into my favorites, and I'm sure going to watch it some more, and show it for some more of my family! Thanks again! :o)
O,
One more thing. Have you noticed, No matter how good your video is, there is always two guys that have to give it a thumbs down? I wish these trolls would get a life :-)
Love your videos. Keep them coming.
Excellent video with clear explanations plus an interesting ride. Takes me back many years when these engines were in common use.
Great video! Very informative. Im sure converting it to burn oil/fuel makes being both engineer and fireman together a heck of a lot easier. Would be a really cool engine for a "hands on the throttle" experience!
Steve ????? wasup!!!! keep up good work with trainz love your engines you make
What a great video!! Now we all know the REAL reason Keith works at the museum, he gets to drive the train! Particularly liked the shot of the train shadow on the field, nice touch. It was very interesting for someone on the west coast to see a little bit of the scenery too.
Thanks so much for sharing, Keith!
great fun and really all around excellent presentation. Looking forward to a visit !
That is one of the best videos I have ever watched on TH-cam and I bet I've watched 5,000. All of your videos have the same tenor and flow. You are so descriptive and methodical. Combined with your naturally patient style, it makes for great teaching. I hope you know how gifted you are as a teacher and I hope you will continue posting videos on TH-cam.
God damn I miss this era of locomotives. They were alive, more so that other machines out there. They eat, drink, run, and even have a voice. Just nothing like the sound of a steam engine to me, such a powerfully beautiful heartbeat, that I'm happy to know is well preserved here. Thank you so much for making this video.
You must be old...
So true,honda can make plastic robot after plastic robot and nothing will have more personality then a steam locomotive.
+Walkertongdee I'm only 58 but on some of the spur lines you could still see steamers pulling freight in the early 60s by 1970 the were all gone.
I'm fascinated by steam power as well.
And they won't last more then 10 years, but that locomotive was made in 1917, and it still works great after 100 years.
Im glad to see an operational steam locomotive in Georgia. I'll have to get down that way sometime to see everything!
Your a very busy man: engineer, fireman and brakeman. Great video
Thanks for all of your content Keith. I am sure it's more work to create than all of us watching know.
My nephew and son really like this video!
Great stuff... As a side note I work in an area where we run today on the Winding Gulf sub in WV.
Vulcan - may steam live long and prosper
Thank you very much for this video I really enjoyed it. I hope lots of people who have never seen a steam engine run will come and visit your museum. We have the Strasburg RR close to use so there's no shortage of steam engines in this area.
This is an amazing knowledge dump. Thank you for sharing that Mr Rucker.
Always love the vids from the train projects, just never knew so much history.
So awesome to see one actually running All the pipes and valves! Put together so carefully.
and now running this legend around... Hopefully that ol' gal will live many more years.
Thanks for the ride Keith!
I just grinned the whole time watching this. :)
I grin every time I get to run her! From ear to ear!
A mill here in Cleveland County N.C. had 2 of those Vulcans they operated until 1943 when they sold the engines and took up the line,a few of the boxcars still survive.
Hey, Cleveland County. I know that place. Boiling Springs is where I call home
Im between Shelby and Boiling Springs. I wonder if anybody really knows exactly where the 2 Lawndale dummy locomotives ended up.
Keith, it's 2 Am here in Adelaide South Australia and I'm off to bed with the biggest grin on my face. Thank you so much for the ride. Love that whistle.
Cheers Eric
*****
Keith, just for grins get you a whistle off a Mikado loco and all of Georgia will know when you are running.
Excellent ride Mr. Rucker!
Greatly enjoyed your video! I would love to come down and see your little Vulcan in person. I spent summer weekends from 2006 - 2013 running a 15" gauge Crown steamer at Little Toot Railroad in Flora, IL, so I share your passion for steam railroading.
Enjoyed watching this video Keith, we had very similar loco's in our sugar industry in South East Queensland, Australia.
I really enjoyed that Keith!
Lots of great information and clear videography. I'll have to stop by the next time I'm in that part of Georgia.
+Peter Tuohy Please do stop by if you are in the area!
Thank you for taking the time to make this and your other videos. I enjoy them very much.
My pleasure!
Very cool , so awesome to see You keeping history alive.
A fascinating video. Thank you so much.
You lucky son of a gun!!!! I am very impressed with your knowledge of this locomotive. Keep her running.
Keith you have one hell of a job.
Come and ride in the cab with us this Saturday when it is supposed to be about 100 degrees F. It will feel like hell.......
That was so cool! I played the video on my living room TV and the kids loved it!... and my son and daughter liked it, too :-)
Man you really have a knack for video making. All the different angles and perspectives, inserts of clips here and there, motion of even still pictures.. very well done, Keith!
Hi Keith
Super video...great info and video production!
The shadow video was outstanding....
Chuck
Thanks Keith enjoyable ride on the steam engine. I especially enjoy it because in the neighborhood I grew up in there were several people who worked for the Santa Fe Railroad, a couple of engineers and a conductor. One guy named Wallace, an engineer lived directly across the street from me and he would be dressed exactly as you were in the video so that brings back old times for me of my youth in the 1940's and 50's. Then there was the spooky old conductor who we kids called "Gruesome Grover", a dead ringer for Boris Karloff.
I came to the museum sometime in the mid 2000's. I got to get into the cab. I also got to walk down to the train house and look and take some pics of the locomotive from the toy museum. However I did not see you, it was a younger man with long black curly hair and beard and a older gentleman with white hair and white beard smoking a pipe. Very nice fellows. Talked to them for a while. I was by myself. Can't wait to come back one day with my wife. Off topic spoke to a older lady in the schoolhouse ( school teacher) for a long time. Her first gift from husband was an iron. Such a lovely lady. Love the museum. Hopefully the train will be around for a long time. Do not know of any "working" steam locomotives in Georgia anymore. Keep it up PLEASE!
At the Texas Transportation Museum, we are nearly done restoring a 1925 Baldwin 0-4-0 tank locomotive!
Great video... very informative. Thank You.
Years ago when I worked for Northern Indiana Public Service Company, I maintained the GE remote radio control electronics links at the Dean H Mitchell Electric Generating Plant in Coal Handling.. And was taught how start and to run the tandem dual 100 ton diesel locomotives. These were used to move the unit train car by car to dump coal in the dumper shed. With Radio control, only one man was needed to run the whole operation. What a thrill and can imagine you feel the same, AND, you get to work on the mechanics too...!!1 WOW Lloyd - DigiTek
It is quite a privilege to get to sit in the cab of this locomotive and serve as its engineer!
Ok Keith. Perhaps I should have read down a few more comments before submitting mine. Your explanation of the "fine tuning of the valve gear" clears up my confusion.
Gary Carpenter No problem - yes, the timing was off a bit. It is running much better these days.
Love this video! I wasn't lucky enough to be born in a generation to work with steam, but I hope to at least get to see one in person soon. One question that popped up for me is why does the exhaust sound like it has three compression strokes on only two cylinders? Thanks again for the videos, and keep up the great work you do!
Brilliant! Loved the details about the controls - would've been nice to have some commentary while it was running too. Like the reversing lever operation , and the regulator. But, terrific. Thanks for posting and good luck with your museum. Nice bit of photography too, great shots of the shadow of the train and the smoke and steam.
Just got around to watching this. Nice video Keith and your narration/demonstration was really great. Thanks.
What a great toy you have to play with - me, I never even rated a Lionel...lol
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for taking the time to put it together.
Were the Vulcan Locomotives from Birmingham, Alabama? The statue named Vulcan is there and has 2 lights, one red, one green. At days end if no one was injured in the mills the green one was turned on otherwise you talked to the local grocer/neighbor, gin mill operator to find out if the person is/was your kin. My grandfather lived on the east side in Irondale. Lots of iron mongering in that area.
Great video! Just wondering why is it puffing in threes not fours? Is the slide value not moving far enough to uncover one end on one of the cylinders? It's going 123 123 123 123. Might need adjustment.
I would love to see another video detailing the maintenance items on an engine like this.
How often do you replace the tires on the drivers? What's that process like?
What other mechanical maintenance doe this require and how often?
I thought I might as well watch this one too. You make a fine engineer, pal. Right at home. I also saw the 2-banger Deere John that you were pulling the Vance with. FINE video!
Thanks!
IOf you just had a mill and a lathe in there you could do projects on the fly!
love old steam locomotives i live in the birth place of steam engines in the northeast of England where locomotion number one was made and also George Stephenson's rocket was made
A good informative video
Good old British 'two toots' for go ! However, the one toot is for 'stopping' not stopped !
Keith- Probably your best video yet! Camera angles, editing, shot length, sound and content all outstanding! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank You for the great video on the train.. I learned alot how the engine operates and the ride was so much fun to see
Absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much for taking me on this ride and sharing the history of this little locomotive. Excellent video!!
Dear Keith. This is the most informative video on basic steam loco's I have ever seen. Informative succinct and interesting. You pack a lifetime of history into a a few minutes. As as British steam buff I still learned a few things. Look forward to meeting you and "Vulcan" some day. In the UK we had hundreds of 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 std 4'8" saddle tanks of this design for coal mines, power stations and docks etc. This design looks looks likes the British Hunslet design, is it related to the Manchester Vulcan Co?
The ultimate Hunslet 0-6-0 was probably the "J94" used by British Railways and many were sent to Europe after the war under the Marshall Plan. These could move a passenger train in a yard, and are often seen on preserved railways with maybe 6 coaches doing up to 25 mph.
Thank you so much. David Shaw. Leicester UK.
That is a wonderful piece of machinery, I wonder if the people who made it could ever imagine that it would still work 100 years later. I admit I am fascinated by steam. It just seems more interesting then modern internal combustion engines. Perhaps its because everything is mechanical and there is no electronics. I don't know.
I found this video very satisfying.
Ever since I was a small boy I've loved steam powered things. In fact I even liked my mom's steam iron a bit. In any case, steam engines, especially in a train, are more than just power plants, they seem to me to almost be alive and breathing with all the heat, bellowing and breathing.
I complement and congratulate those folks and organizations that take the time and spend the considerable funds to restore steam powered machinery.
Thank You!!!
Thanks for posting ! wonderful presentation and history, also the ride-a-long was fantastic. I just love those little "tea kettle" locomotives. thank-you!
Great video! Thank you for sharing! Very detailed, it was awesome!
Take a shot everytime he says locomotive.
Why, you a sniper?
Nope, he died of Alcohol Poisoning.
Rip lol
I died at 14:00
I was just about to say that.
So few historic railroads run steam anymore it seems and they instead run "historic diesel". If I want diesel, I'll ride Amtrack.....glad to see this vid
Thanks now I’m jealous. Amazing video though!
Had missed seeing this Keith - thoroughly enjoyable for this old fella who has always loved steam. Great job and fascinating to hear the history - I rather envy you having that beast to tend to.
Super job on the video Keith and lovely track... bet (in truth) you are a little kid driving that loco!! :)
My fave always used to be the classic 4-6-2 which IIRC was called the Pacific config.
+ChrisB257 Running the steam engine is a lot like a little kid playing with his toys. Always a lot of fun! As much as I like operating it, I think I enjoy working on it and making new parts for it even more.
Keith,
Thanks for the tour of the 0-4-0 steam locomotive. Among machining, etc, I am also a train nut. I'm not really into steam. My main interest is the first and second generation diesel locomotives. I like the units made by EMD and GE, but also the "Big 3" steam builders: Lima, Baldwin and Alco. They were forced into the diesel business when the death knell to steam finally sounded. I do have a couple of favorite steam locomotives: the "Big Boy", the Challenger . . . big steam! My favorite diesel is the EMD DDA-40X -- the largest diesel locomotive ever built. It has 2 prime movers (diesel engines) for a total of 6000 hp. It boasts an 8000 gallon fuel tank. Each truck has 4 axles, each driven by a traction motor. The forward prime mover drives a generator (800 volts at up to 1500 amps) for the forward truck traction motors; the rear prime mover powers the rear truck. The trucks were not articulated, so it could not run on track with tight turns. I could bore you for hours, but I won't. Thanks for the train ride!
Regards,
Dave
VERY well done video! Just what any tech savvy person of interest wishes for. No BS, just what a mechanical student would wish for.
***** I think even the larger ones are toys too - if you get to work on them and play with them. I'd enjoy working on it. Does she have a name?
Stupid question.....why the bell VS whistle sometimes? Do you have some set patterns that you use on either for crossings and station entering and leaving, etc.?
Glen Darcey I'm not sure but I think you normally start ringing the bell before moving, it's a warning that you are about to move. Then you use the chime or whistle to communicate different things like three blasts mean you are reversing, two short one long and one short means you are coming up to a crossing.
The bell should be constantly ringing as you are starting or stopping the train - usually at a station and sometimes at a crossing. The whistle was used to communicate what the train was doing - there is a code of different things that are meant by different whistle blows. For example, one short toot means you just came to a complete stop. Two short toots means that you are about to begin moving forward. Three short toots means you are about to begin moving in reverse. Two long blows, one short, followed by one long means that you are approaching a grade crossing. You can google whistle commands for more....
Huh, so trains can talk. :)
That was amazing....:-)
You guys use diesel oil as a fuel source for that engine?
Ohh the irony.
Any kind of oil would work. Here where I live, diesel is the cheapest and most available option. We don't use a lot of fuel oil in these parts as our winters are just not cold enough for people to have that kind of furnace in their homes.
Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Okay then. That makes sense.
TB7 Productions some use old deep frier oil and they smell like nice French fries.
Eric Brooking I didn't know steam engines can run on any type of oil.
Yes, steam engines can run on any type of liquid fuel.
And a properly outfitted diesel can burn any type of solid fuel including agricultural waste, yard waste, waste biomass, even cow shit! Steam engines are now a renewable energy technology.
Talk about irony.
Hi KeithI would like to know what when you blow the whistle is there any reason to the number of blogs o we.Lou
I can't wait to see the N&W J611 return to the rails. As the last representative of the peak of steam locomotive engineering it is a masterpiece of design. This is one of the best videos on steam engines I have ever seen! Thanks for sharing. Ever turned a loco wheel?
Diesel fuel - I assume for ag use so no road tax. Would home heating fuel oil be less expensive?
+mike klaene Yes, it is off road diesel. In your part of the world, heating fuel would probably be less expensive, but down here where I live we just don't have very cold winters and nobody uses heating fuel. We are either electric or they use natural gas or propane. You just cannot find heating fuel.
+Sean Drakes Actually Sean, lots of old locomotives ran on various types of oil as well as coal and wood. Particularly out west in the Rocky Mountains, nearly all of the old locomotives would burn oil instead of coal because they could get more BTU's out of the oil and convert water to steam faster than they could with coal, which was greatly needed chugging those loads up steep grades. Our locomotive was converted to oil some time back because we cannot find a reliable source of coal in our area and while it will burn nearly any kind of oil, we typically use diesel fuel because it is readily available.
Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org
No bunker oil or even waste motor oil available? I know a lot of historical sites and museums have their engines burning used motor oil.
It's great that guys like you take the time to make vids like this, of machines that are very rare these days, so we can see how they operate. But before you make a 40 minute video, it would be a good idea to make a 5 minute video, then watch it yourself. Then you'd see what you need to do differently.
Your voice keeps fading in and out when you turn your head. Then I noticed, it's because of where your mike is placed, AND the fact you keep TURNING your head. Think of it this way: You don't need to look at the camera at all to explain what everything does. But what you are saying IS pretty important. You gotta be cognizant of where the mike is in relation to your mouth, and a short test video would've enabled you to see that.
Otherwise, cool vid.
frrrtjjolkp of town for the delay but t y email 📧 x,
+gr8guitarplayer I used to think that perfection was a nice goal too. Now I don´t :) I just enjoy and thank :)
I've watched a lot of your videos and somehow I just found this one and it was truly a joy to watch. These locomotives have always been the interest to young boys and men for years, as you probably know. That's probably why we still have so many HO scale train setups. Being the engineer on one is probably the dream of just about every young boy who grew up during the time that these things were created and even many after. Great video and great museum. Also, as a wheelchair user, I was happy to see that your loading platform was ramped and accessible. I will have to come visit someone when I'm down south.
at 24:54 you said about temporary tracks. Temporary being very interpretable. hahahaha I'm from the rust belt in Altoona pa, our town was built on the main lines heading from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. The current maintenance shop for all of Norfolk Southern is still located here. Anyway, My grandmothers property runs parallel to the main lines 8 miles or so north east of Altoona. There at one point was an small earth reservoir built up to provide water to east bound steam engines before they hit the mountain. Anyway, there are out of service tracks everywhere. Many are smaller like you said this Vulcan engine would run on. Some are full size with cars left to there own devices. I have pictures if your interested.
Excellent, I enjoyed that! Thanks Keith! Nice job on the filming too!
Every video you make is teaching the next generation how to make those next new parts. Keep going, and thank you very much. Well done.
+Servo Engr. Thank you!
I was quite surprised to hear that a locomotive built as late as 1917 had a lap seam boiler. In my years of operating and maintaining steam locomotives I came to rely on a book titled "Steam Locomotives, Their Break Downs and how to Repair Them". The copy that I had was printed around 1910. A very good reference book for those inclined to follow this nearly dying art. It looked to me that you might have to remove the blower and nozzle to punch the tubes. I made a handy tool for that from tubing with a tube brush mounted on one end and a vacuum on the other. As one of my mentors said "Steam Forever".
Love the old steam engines. I had a great uncle that was an engineer years ago on a steam engine. Love those whistles!
You always make great videos but I think this one tops them all. Really well done Keith. Thank you!
Wonderful job. You are blessed to be running a steam locomotive. I hope you have people a who can take your place when you are on vacation. Crew change over! is what i mean. I wish i could spend even a day riding on that train
Great Video!! I could really see the effort you made to make this video enjoyable. Thank You!
Looking at this world from the cab of a locomotive is a view few men have been blessed with and even fewer will ever see.
enjoyed the explanation and the ride in the cab and the videography especialiall the shadow on the ground of the engine and steam etc exhausting in shadows
There were quite a few Vulcan Iron works,in different countries, None of therm related to each other.I suppose it was just a great name for heavy engineering shops. A couple of years ago I was involved in the restoration of a Vulcan car,built in England in 1913 and while doing a bit of research on the brand name I found all these other Vulcan companies including a Vulcan locomotive company in England.I had worked on a Vulcan Diesel shunt loco about 40 years ago too.Powered with a Gardner diesel and a manual gearbox.
www.enuii.com/vulcan_foundry/photographs/Pre%20EE%20Diesel/vulcan%20drewry%200-4-0%20shunters.pdf
***** The Vulcan car i worked on was built by the Vulcan Company in the UK, and they built trucks right into the 1950's before being bought out by Tillings-Stephens who in turn were bought out by the Rootes group and the Tillings stephens engine was used in their Commer trucks, a 3 cyl,6 piston 2 stroke, a deceptively powerful little unit. Eventually Rootes was bought out by Chrysler.
I love steam and miss the days when I wad fireman on a coal fired steam locomotive. I literally had tears in my eyes. Thank you Keith.
I just joined the North Georgia Live Steamers club Keith-this is the best video on the net for learning how steam creates motion...thank you for creating it! I will have to come down from Atlanta one of these days to ride it and meet you! I appreciate you using a lavalier mic-that firebox makes a ton of noise along with the blower. LOL
Will do Keith Rucker!!! We will plan it one of these weekends! Soon!!!
Love this video, you explain everything very well.
We also run 2 Vulcan steam engines at the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, OH, however, we converted them to 2-4-0s with a separate tender, no saddle tank. Our engines tend to run best at 100 pounds, although I have run once as low as 50 pounds, but that really scared me, and only happened because my fireman misjudged the fire (we run on coal by the way.) Our safeties pop at 142, though the boilers are rated for 180. We also do not have air brakes, although we stop our trains with the johnson bar or just friction. I know it can wear out tires by using the Johnson bar, but it works very well in our case. Another thing that I've really ever noticed with our engines is that for the injectors, gauge cocks, and steam brake lines we use ball valves. I'm not sure if it's really an improvement over globe valves, but in my experience they seem to work better than globe valves and are easier to open and close.
So cool, I've always wanted to know how a steam locomotive was operated. I did get a cab ride in a 1950's era diesel once and that was cool but I have a fondness for steam. Thanks for all the work this must have taken to produce.
So where do they put the oil? In the locomotive or in the tender?
Ah. That's what I thought.:)
Keith Rucker for President!
does your whistle have a hick-up? Some day, I would love to visit with you . I live in Birmingham, Al. and have a Maximat 7 with the mill attachment. with 4 jaw scroll chuck and 4 jaw independent chucks. Lots of extras. Really enjoy watching your machining vlogs.
If you are ever in the area, come on by the museum and check things out. The locomotive usually runs on Saturdays, but always check the museums web site before making a trip.
Nice looking locomotive after wash please somebody wash me
Awesome video! I love the Agrirama steam railroad, my grandpa took me there in 1990 when I was six and I had a blast. One of the first steam engines I ever saw. This is a video I took in 2003 of your other engine running. th-cam.com/video/zkSYyyrjCdE/w-d-xo.html
Quaetion: What is the problem with this locomotive? As one can hear - and after 35:15 see - every fourth stroke is missing?
I heard that as well! He did post a vid back in August of a good size steam leak on the front of the fireman's side cylinder, maybe that was causing enough lose of power on that one stroke?
That would make sense, when the piston rises, it might push all of the steam out of the leak instead of out of the smoke stack. The engine has two cylinders, and each piston has two power and exhaust strokes per revolution, that means a total of four power and exhaust strokes from both cylinders. If steam leaked out of one of the cylinders, one stroke would be missing, as it would only be acting on one side of the piston.
You can see it. Look at the shadow of the exhaust.
3 puffs of steam, then nothing for the fourth puff.
Keith?
steve
seems the engine must've literally blew a gasket :)
Seriously though, all the steam could easily blow out through the hole between the piston barrel and cap without a gasket.
The Little Engine That Could.. ;) That little engine did a lot of hard work over it's life. Take care of her buddy !