N&W 611 - Cab Ride in 1986
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ธ.ค. 2024
- Departing Jacksonville, Florida in the cab of N&W 611 on a 1986 excursion of the "Suwanee Steam Special". The video begins during the brake test and features the departure northbound out of Norfolk Southern's Simpson Yard.
Part one of two. Be sure to watch part two, featuring faster running on the mainline towards Valdosta, GA and the Florida/Georgia state line at Moniac.
This is pure art here folks. Watch Frank Collins hands. He's looking outside with his right hand out the window to gauge speed. His left hand is flying over levers almost subconsciously making adjustments. This is real "seat of your pants" operation...gauges and indicators be damned.
They need Frank, out there in Cheyenne... instead of that Ed Dickens !!
@@Romans--bo7br Ed Dickens is the same caliber of Frank Collins. Both Mozarts of stem engine operation
Truly a lost art and Frank Collins is a damn legend, my grandfather worked with the NKP berks even the 765 back in the late 40s early 50s
A really nice piece of Rail-fanning! A classic Locomotive, and a beauty to behold.Sorry folks-Diesels just don't cut it! A great video and I'll be sure to watch the others. Thank you for sharing. The Engineer was so comfortable doing what he does, but there are days, when the trip is not uneventful!Please keep them coming. Long live the N&W 611!
@Jaiah Hazelnut Brown - Great video of Frank and Dwight running the Mighty J! In July 1984, (as new member of the NS SteamTeam) I got my first firing lesson from Dwight _at night_ on a run North to Alexandria VA. When we were rolling good, I glanced back in a curve and saw a halo of fuzzy orange fire streaming along all the wheels of the entire train. When the exhaust eventually became a continuous roar, I had to see how fast we were going. I climbed over to Frank's side to peek at the speedo... 84 mph and steady. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. He gave me a _big_ grin and a single, dismissive, "pay no attention to that" flick of his hand at the dial. Frank was the absolute master of 611, and I learned a LOT watching Dwight keep her hot like a real pro. 611 is a beast, I think she was pulling about 26 loaded coaches that night plus tool car and A-tank. When I told Dwight, he said that was the fastest he'd ever gone while firing steam, his previous "record" was 83 mph (also on 611). _Not bad for my first trip!_ Thanks again for joggling those memories!
tomtroszak sounds like you might have seen some cast iron shoes throwing sparks. When I worked from the Cumbres & Toltec we’d occasionally run at night and one time we had about 30 cars coming down the pass late at night and they all had cast iron shoes and you could see all kinds of sparks looking back up at the train. Neat memory.
Awesome story 👍
@@JaiahHazelnutBrown Yes, exactly! But not from braking, just incidental shoe contact at that speed and from the rail itself. And I could definitely see a continuous twinkling of brighter "flashes" of sparks every other car or so as the axles were "hunting" side to side, and the wheel flanges would occasionally peel off a bit of the inner edge of the railhead. There was also a faint orange fuzz streaming back *above* the train from the stack. One way to visualize 84mph is the loco and tender are traveling a bit more than their own length every second. Thanks again for the video, and for the great comments. And man, I'd LOVE to look "back up" and watch 30 cars coming down the Cumbres and Toltec pass at night. Must be a heckuva hill if you have to look "back" and "up" at the same time. :-) :-) :-)
@@tva429 Thanks! In full disclosure, there were two others in the cab that night - a NS Road Foreman of Engines and his lovely wife. When Frank released the air to pull out, the Road Foreman said "OK, FRANK, LET'S SEE WHAT SHE'LL DO." Haha, I thought he was just being jovial! Frank did not react, or appear to have heard. But later, when the throttle was out in the last notch, the Road Foreman was grinning like a madman and we were flying low - I realized they were in cahoots the whole time...
It's official - that kid riding in the cab was THE luckiest boy in the world. I'm sure he'll never forget it.
Awesome! The engineer smoking the cigarette at the end is just classic. Definitely wouldn’t be allowed by today’s standards.
I rode both 611 and 1218 when it was Norfolk Southern the prices were very reasonable too the new people running her have made it very expensive also many others during the 28 year steam program .
My uncle actually saw 611 in 1986 and took a photo of it and gave it to me in June 2016 and as of now it's hanging on my wall right next to a picture of 4014 I bought at the railgiants train museum I got back in February along with a picture of southern pacific 2248 aka fort worth and western 2248 and a small picture of Fillmore and western railway 14 that I got to see in person and ride back in late April 2019 and across from all the photos is my oldest one I own of the replica built steam locomotive union pacific 119
Schon alleine der Lokführer wie cool der da sitzt einfach Spitze tolles vidio💓💓😊
@Jaiah Hazelnut Brown - here is that "roar" I was trying to describe - which kicks in around 70 mph, which is about how fast 611 is going in this video (which is not mine). And hey... this was filmed in August1984, just a few weeks after that Virgina run! - just awesome! th-cam.com/video/JuTlIH6c75E/w-d-xo.html
This is AWESOME I was on that train!
What if 1551 can triplehead with 765 and 611 on an excursion from Sugarcreek, Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri one day?
I've always wondered what the two levers to the engineer's left do. I believe it's locomotive and train brakes, but the engineer is always adjusting them. One appears to be spring loaded. Then there's the row of buttons right below them. It's amazing! Throttle, reverse gear and whistle are obvious. Maybe someone will see this comment and explain it to me.
g bridgman the larger one higher up is the train air. The one with the spring is the locomotive and tender, and when you push it down it releases the engine brake manually because when the train brakes are applied it also applies air to the engine. The buttons are sand and bell.
@@JaiahHazelnutBrown Thank you for the information! :-)
Are you still planning on posting part two?
DWEFB yeah I’m just totally backlogged on videos. I’ve got a bunch of stuff from back in the day my dad shot to get through as well as some stuff happening at work and over the years. I don’t want to just post a video without it being cleaned up just a bit. Sorry it’s taking so long.
1986 before the accident.
NICE RIDE VERY,VERY COOOOOOL
Where's part 2 at?
Dylan Watson I’ll have it up at some point in the future.
Did you get in?
2:20
Super Dampflok film bei den Amis sieht das immer super cool aus Klasse
Interesting
I had a cab ride in the #611 what a thrillI hope thre ca be some made in HD well Ihave seen an hate these train simulation s there is no reson why it can,t be the real thing but has anyone made a simlation of the wrecking and rerailing of the 611 in a wreck that acord in Jan of 1956 it killed the engineer it took a curve to fast and the road did not have recorderding speed opitors threre is a photo of3 or is four UGE big hooks gettin ready to lift could some one do the reachurch and acuraate simulation if this has nevver been done
Is the 611 really hand-fired? Good lord.
no, its stoker fired but that being said, the automatic stoker cant get all of the corners and small places and such, sometimes a little hand firing is required to get all of the small places the automatic stoker cant get to.
thats my interpretation at least.
CA1CWilliams I'm fairly certain they have steam jets inside the fire box to blow the coal around as needed. That being said.... sometimes a shovel is just needed from time to time
CA1CWilliams Actually, there's nothing automatic about the mechanical stoker. In both parts of this video, the fireman is seen adjusting the valve for the stoker engine and those for the steam jets.