Steam & Excursion > Riding Along on the SP 4449 Holiday Express

The SP 4449 is back together and pulling the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) Holiday Express.
Here is some video from the first weekend. Trips continue each weekend until Christmas.

Bruce

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Nice clean stack! The way it should be done!

Very nice. Who is the Fireman? I'm curious as to why he constantly watches the peephole in the firedoor?

Jack, I'm sure you remember Mike Warren? This was his first time back in the seat since the 1984 trip. I'm not speaking for him but I'm guessing he simply found watching the fire rather than the stack to be easier under the circumstances. As you know, the Holiday Express run, for the most part, is under very light throttle at low speed, so the reactions to firing changes can be seen sooner at the peephole than at the stack, compared to when running on the road.

flash34 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jack, I'm sure you remember Mike Warren? This was
> his first time back in the seat since the 1984
> trip. I'm not speaking for him but I'm guessing he
> simply found watching the fire rather than the
> stack to be easier under the circumstances. As you
> know, the Holiday Express run, for the most part,
> is under very light throttle at low speed, so the
> reactions to firing changes can be seen sooner at
> the peephole than at the stack, compared to when
> running on the road.

Thanks Scott. Boy, I never would have recognized Mike. He looks even older than me! Tell "Micky the Slime" I said hello!

I will.

Its sure great to see the old man back in his office where he belongs.  He needs to hit the gym and work on his upper body throttle pulling strength.  Hope the '49 is in fine form.  Good to see good news for a change.
Congratulations guys.

I wish one of our firemen would have learned to look at the peephole and actually know what it was telling him.  He had his own notion of how to fire and nobody could break him of it.
1.  You gotta make some smoke to make steam.  No. 6 oil.  What is smoke?  It's UNBURNED FUEL.
2.  Should never run the atomizer over 5PSI.  No matter what.
3.  Keep the water high in the glass because when you start the train it sucks all the water out.  He never understood the theory of momentum where the water sloshes back
     when you start moving forward.  And yes, it does suck the water.  Into the dry pipe.  Anyone who knew us could tell when he was firing.  About 8 good exhausts and both
     the automatic blowdown and the engineer's blowdown were going full blast, the whistle was gurgling.
4.  No need to watch the peephole unless you're worried the fire went out.   Never mind that dull red color because you gotta make smoke you know.

Some people are hard to convince.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Its sure great to see the old man back in his
> office where he belongs.  He needs to hit the gym
> and work on his upper body throttle pulling
> strength.  Hope the '49 is in fine form.  Good
> to see good news for a change.
> Congratulations guys.

I noticed that too Don. The front end throttle was completely rebuilt, but I'm wondering if the packing gland on the main throttle shaft might be just a tad tight? I'll have to ask the boss next week.

Indeed a mighty fine video.    Hopefully we'll get to see a version at track speed next year.

Great to see her out on the road again. Congratulations to everyone involved. And thanks, too, for the video. d

HotWater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Frisco1522 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Its sure great to see the old man back in his
> > office where he belongs.  He needs to hit the
> gym
> > and work on his upper body throttle pulling
> > strength.  Hope the '49 is in fine form. 
> Good
> > to see good news for a change.
> > Congratulations guys.
>
> I noticed that too Don. The front end throttle was
> completely rebuilt, but I'm wondering if the
> packing gland on the main throttle shaft might be
> just a tad tight? I'll have to ask the boss next
> week.

It's not the packing. We started playing with that immediately. But as you can see the throttle comes out a little ways and then gets real stiff in a certain spot. I'm wondering if it's something not quite right on one of  the cam lobes. We checked the blue prints to make sure we got all the heights correct, and when we assembled it everything moved well and all the valves appeared to open at the correct intervals.  But something obviously isn't right under 300 lbs of steam. I'm guessing we'll live with it until after the Holiday Express.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/15 15:10 by flash34.

And yes Bruce, awesome job on the video. You must have charged the batteries in your drone this time?

HotWater Wrote:

> Thanks Scott. Boy, I never would have recognized
> Mike. He looks even older than me! Tell "Micky the
> Slime" I said hello!

There's a lot of 'older looking' ex-Brooklyn guys around now...  And a bunch of kids too!

Thanks, Bruce....very nicely done from beginning to end!

Hey Chief...You and Mikey sure looked good, so did she...PB

Excellent video, the cab shots really give you an idea of what it was like to run a steam locomotive.
 

Something is right with the world again, looking and sounding great boys!

Posted from Android

Thanks for posting...Fantastic video........Swede......Albany,Or.

Congratulations to the 4449 team! Very enjoyable video.