Steam & Excursion > Hard To Imagine A Yard Filled With More Impressive Steam Power!

Certain steam locomotives, even when parked, were still awe inspiring, even more so when they were parked by the dozens together.

In Northern Minnesota the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad rostered the most impressive fleet of Yellowstone Class steam power for a single purpose line ever.  This railroad was tasked with hauling enormous amounts of iron ore during those times of the year that it could be mined.

In this fine view we see rows of parked steam power during one of the shut-down periods for the line.  There are still loaded ore cars by the hundreds waiting to shop out when work resumes.  Most notable in the photo are the huge Yellowstone class engines built by Baldwin for the DM&IR in the early 1940's.  These beautiful beasts would continue in ore hauling service until the early 1960's.

What a scene of railroading in the days of steam!

Martin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/16 03:47 by LoggerHogger.

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Notice the centipede tenders parked at the left.  The Yellowstones would not fit into the Proctor roundhouse with a tender, so if they were in for any major repairs, the tenders had to be disconnected so that the roundhouse doors could be closed against the cold winters when ore hauling was shut down because Lake Superior froze over.  

Very, very impressive and thank you for sharing.

Jim
Hatboro, PA​

Wow.  What a great photograph!  Thank you Martin for our daily dose of extraordinary steam photography!

Thanks, Martin, for yet another fascinating post.  Do we know where this is?  Do we have any general idea of when?

There are three of these magnificent beasts on display. One in Proctor, MN; one in Two Harbors,MN and the best at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth.

And to think they all run on water!

During World War II, several of the Missabe Yellowstones were assigned/leased to the D&RGW to help alleviate its wartime power shortage.  Surprisinsly, they not perform well on the D&RGW and were used there only for a short time.

WW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> During World War II, several of the Missabe
> Yellowstones were assigned/leased to the D&RGW to
> help alleviate its wartime power shortage. 
> Surprisinsly, they not perform well on the D&RGW
> and were used there only for a short time.

Maybe not "suprisingly" (sic), since the DM&IR locomotives were NOT equipped with the water brake (can't remember ho to spell the Frenchman's name who developed it) commonly used on the very steep mountain grades of the D&RGW. I believe one of those DM&IR Yellowstones was involved in a disastrous run-away wreck that killed the crew.

> Maybe not "suprisingly" (sic), since the DM&IR
> locomotives were NOT equipped with the water brake
> (can't remember ho to spell the Frenchman's name
> who developed it) 

LeChatelier

The reason they didn't come back was the air powered reverse. DRGW used steam. That's why the wreck happened as they lost their air and couldn't get it in Reverse to help slow it. Forget where I read that.

SD45X Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The reason they didn't come back was the air
> powered reverse. DRGW used steam. That's why the
> wreck happened as they lost their air and couldn't
> get it in Reverse to help slow it. Forget where I
> read that.

Don't think so. Pretty much ALL modern steam locomotives had air powered reverse gear, with the ONE TIME OPTION to emit steam into the power reverse air cylinder in the case of a dire emergency, i.e. total loss of air pressure. However, using steam in the power reverse cylinder was strictly a "one-shot" deal, as all the packing and rubber air cups would be destroyed by the steam temperature and pressure.

The D&RG steam locomotives used the water=brake, by piping a small amount of boiler water into the valves/cylinders, which was controlled by the Engineer, and along with using the power reverse in "reverse", and the cylinder cocks open, the locomotive would brake the train on long steep mountain down grades

HotWater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Don't think so. Pretty much ALL modern steam
> locomotives had air powered reverse gear, with the
> ONE TIME OPTION to emit steam into the power
> reverse air cylinder in the case of a dire
> emergency, i.e. total loss of air pressure.
> However, using steam in the power reverse cylinder
> was strictly a "one-shot" deal, as all the packing
> and rubber air cups would be destroyed by the
> steam temperature and pressure.
>
> The D&RG steam locomotives used the water=brake,
> by piping a small amount of boiler water into the
> valves/cylinders, which was controlled by the
> Engineer, and along with using the power reverse
> in "reverse", and the cylinder cocks open, the
> locomotive would brake the train on long steep
> mountain down grades

I learn something every day on here.  I'd never heard of a water brake until I saw the phrase used a few posts above.  I'm glad this device was elaborated upon, because I sure didn't have the faintest idea of how it was used.

Pump

Ironically, the Duluth, Missabe & Northern (50% of the merger that created DM&IR) had used water brakes as early as the 1890s on their 2.18% Procter Hill, but gave them up long before the Yellowstones were built.

-John

WW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> During World War II, several of the Missabe
> Yellowstones were assigned/leased to the D&RGW to
> help alleviate its wartime power shortage. 
> Surprisinsly, they not perform well on the D&RGW
> and were used there only for a short time.

Very surprising, if indeed they didn't perform well, since they were an L-131 with a larger cab, trailing truck and tender. Could this be "We didn't design it here" mentality?

Also, those engines were brand new when delivered in the wintertime. Spring opened up Lake Superior, there was a war going on, and the DM&IR needed them!

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/16 13:33 by LarryDoyle.

LarryDoyle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > During World War II, several of the Missabe
> > Yellowstones were assigned/leased to the D&RGW
> to
> > help alleviate its wartime power shortage. 
> > Surprisinsly, they not perform well on the
> D&RGW
> > and were used there only for a short time.
>
> Very surprising, if indeed they didn't perform
> well, since they were not in L-131 with a larger
> cab, trailing truck and tender. Could this be "We
> didn't design it here" mentality?
>
> Also, those engines were brand new when delivered
> in the wintertime. Spring opened up Lake
> Superior, there was a war going on, and the DM&IR
> needed them!
>
> -John

John,

It was all about the lack of that French designer's "water brake".

I love Proctor Yard, I was there last July.
TAH