Steam & Excursion > Sight and sound of three cylinder steam engines

Three cylinder engines were relatively few in the US, so to give a flavor of the distinct sound, I have uploaded a digitized super8 movie with stereo sound from the German class 012. This were three cylinder oil fired heavy pacifics in the last few weeks of regular passenger service in north-western Germany between Rheine and Emden in January of 1975.

Thomas Eckhardt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/14 19:14 by Krokodil.

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Sehr interessant! Vielen Dank.

Wow, that's impressive. The engineer doesn't waste any time easing it up to speed.

Absolutely SUPER stuff! I have seen the former East German 3-cylinder 2-10-s0s during various Plandampfs (sp) during the winters of 1995 and 1998, and those sounds are truly memorable.

Thanks a bunch for posting.

Terrific video. My first acquaintance with these engines, and it was very worthwhile. Thanks so much for your work to digitize and post this film.

MC
Columbia, Missouri

Many of the locomotives in the UK have 3 cylinders as well. LNER A4 4-6-2's among them. 60007 was out on the Dawlish Sea Wall today, by the way.

Excellent video. #VOTD nominee for sure.

Most Impressive. Last bit reminds me of Lackawanna Steam on the NJ cutoff. Well Done!

Wow. What great footage - with sound! Priceless now.

They sure didn't care about packing leaks did they.

Sounds like a 3-cyl Shay, only much faster for the same # of strokes!

Really enjoyed that one.

-M

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

Thanks for sharing so much great footage, the audio is great !

Mike,

Remember, this film was shot only a few weeks before the end of steam. I doubt if the engines were receiving much maintenance by then.

Also, German steam locos do have some drains from the feedwater heater that are always emitting steam underneath the front end as well as possibly a continuous blow down. China and South Africa had the same situation. Also, if you look at the going away sequence leaving the station, the big cloud of steam comes and goes, so it's not cylinder or valve packing leakage. I think it may be related to the feedwater heater in some way.

Michael Allen

Thank you so much. Curious, the exhausts sounded pretty even. Are they 'quartered' at 120 degrees or what? What was the normal US practice for three cyl steam?

Yes, they are offset 120 degrees, this provides a nearly perfect balance and a smooth ride, in comparison to their two cylinder sister (class 01) which were real bone busters at high speed.

Thomas Eckhardt

I notice in the first shot, they apparently do not blow the whistle when they approach a grade crossing.

Jim

Interesting about the whistle. As I recall, whistles are rarely used in Europe, then it is just a short "Tweet", with no pattern such as two longs, a short and a long, etc. I hope someone can explain this.

In Germany, as in other European countries a whistle signal is only used for unprotected grade crossings without crossing gates, typically a single hoot without any given pattern. The red and white crossing gate is barely visible in the first sequence.

Thomas Eckhardt

Thank you! Great stuff.

I also think it is interesting that much like 2 cylinder engines, there is one stronger pulse ever 6th chug in this case. Clearly a different cadence with a triplet feel.

Mike ONeill
Parker, CO

poultrycar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting about the whistle. As I recall,
> whistles are rarely used in Europe, then it is
> just a short "Tweet", with no pattern such as two
> longs, a short and a long, etc. I hope someone
> can explain this.

When I got to Germany I was surprised to hear nice sounding Hooters instead of peanut whistles like in France.

We Americans would not exactly follow German whistle practices. There has been two longs a short and a long sounded at German road crossings.

They would say here comes the louden phiffer. Had a good time working with the Germans on their great railroad for 25 months.

I liked the Hooters and the shop guys traded one for two half gallon bottles of whiskey.

Thanks for sharing your video.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/14 08:53 by ATSFlocal73-74.

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No need to imagine the sounds of a UP 9000. Google Folkway recordings (a branch of the Smithsonian) and search for Sounds of Steam Locomotives. There are 4 or 5 albums by Vinton Wright, late ofd Omaha, and at least one has several tracks of UP's big 4-12-2s.

Fantastic sound and video. I caught my self counting cadence, 123,123,. Thanks for posting……Swede Albany,Or.