![[dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv8/S5hAR2x0JVI/AAAAAAAACVo/caHZJMX-j9o/s400/dan-truett-mcwhorter.jpg)
Today's picture shows the steam locomotive ,"The General Haupt". The picture was taken in 1863 in front of the roundhouse at the Alexandria, Virginia train station. This is a lovely locomotive, and to me it is the classic steam locomotive. after this period they started getting bigger and more streamlined. I wonder if any of this specific look are still operating.
I love the old steam locomotives too. When I was a small child living in western Pennsylvania, we rode on several old trains. The East Broad Top comes to mind, I remember sitting in the open air smelling the smoke and feeling the cinders hit my skin.
ReplyDeleteI believe we also saw the Seldom Seen Vally Mine with a ride on the little train- like cars into the mine,
We also saw the Portage Railroad, which was important for opening up the Northwest as Ohio,and that general was called in those days.
Also of interest was the Johnstown Inclined Plain, not a train, but it does run on tracks.
That engine sure had a long, narrow boiler. It also has that BIG smoke stack that you liked.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when they started to just use coal instead of wood for fuel
i love the train but that is a beautiful building.
ReplyDeleteAs PJM wrote it's a roundhouse. The roundhouse was a big turntable used to switch the locomotive to any number of tracks. The tracks converged at the roundhouse like spokes to the center hub of a wagon wheel.
ReplyDeleteJohn
You have a fantastic blog! I´m lookig forward to see your pictures!
ReplyDelete//Jenny from Sweden
The almost lacey iron feature between the two drive wheels is a strong artistic touch in the mass of heavy iron frame , wheels and boiler. I have never seen the use of any non-functioning metal on these locomotives and it is refreshing to see a little culture in with the hard engineered steel.
ReplyDeleteA very good picture, PJM
There are two of these old classics that have been fully restored and on display at Promontory Point, Utah. they are at the location of the driving of the golden spike that completed the cross country railroad. During season they run this trains out everyday for all to see.
ReplyDeletegoogle "Promontory Point, Utah" to see.
Another wood burner...I wonder if they were "cleaner" than the coal engines. Less "clinkers" or what??
ReplyDeleteRailroad week is fine business!
ReplyDeleteI collect antique glass insulators that from the late 1860's on suspended telegraph wires along rail lines everywhere. Some pieces in my collection still have black soot deposites from the passing locomotives. Some collectors remove the soot but I leave it on. A neat link to those bygone days.
I hope to see a Shea type locomotive this week. They were a unique breed very different from your favorite style PJM.
My wife and I visited the railroad museum in Altoona, PA a couple of years ago. It's a work in progress, but well worth the visit as is the historic Horseshoe Curve National Historic site. See http://www.railroadcity.com/
ReplyDeleteWe were in the area to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater -- Altoona was a nice balance.
A lumber company in Long Leaf, LA used steam locomotives to harvest long leaf pine. They shut down abruptly in the late 1960s. The engines were left on the tracks through out the forest and not rediscovered for over 25 years. Some great photos came out of their discovery.
ReplyDeleteMachines of all kinds back then were works of art: trains, cars, buildings.
ReplyDeleteNow, things are just cheap and unattractive in the name of efficiency.
I liked looking at this one..on the side it says US Military RR very interesting :)
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