Steam & Excursion > 80 Years Ago Railroads Showed This Nation's Pride In This Event!

It was 80 years ago that Hitler was closing his grip on Europe with his rhetoric about his "superior white Aryan race".  Needless to say, this type of talk did not set well in this country and the fear of another war in Europe was growing.

It was August, 1936 and Berlin was host City to the summer Olympics.  Hitler had boasted that his superior people would dominate these games.  Hitler had not counted on a single African-American to upset his entire plan.  That man was Jesse Owens.

Earlier in the day that Al Farrow took this great photo, half a world away on August 9, 1936, Jesse Owens had just won his 4th Gold Medal in Hitler's Olympic games.  A sense of national pride swept through the U.S. and this country's railroads got caught up in the celebration of this historic event.

Milwaukee Road #9601 is seen here at the head of her train in the Auburn, Washington yards with her hastily applied red-white-and-blue bunting and American flags put in place to celebrate Owen's incredible achievements in far off Berlin.

It was this very pride shown by American Railroads that would ultimately work to defeat Hitler 9 years later when this Country had to mobilize and go across the Atlantic Ocean to rub out Hitler once and for all.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/16 06:55 by LoggerHogger.

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A grim reminder of a dark time the worlds history but there were some bright spot as you noted.  A very handsome steam engine captured in that photo!

Cheers, Jim Fitch

What's going on here: The front engine truck is set in
reverse, and the rear is set in forward...

John.

Not uncommon on compound mallets.

Why a 2-6-6-2 on a passenger train?  Why is the train in the freight yard (the mainline is electrified, and there is no catenary in sight)?

Is that a "Slobber Stack"?  

jkh2cpu Wrote:
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> What's going on here: The front engine truck is
> set in
> reverse, and the rear is set in forward...
>
> John.

The rear (high pressure) engine has "inside admission" piston valves, as indicated by the cylindrical valve chamber above the driving cylinder, and the Walschaert valve gear is set up for "direct drive" with the radius rod in the lower half of the reverse link for forward movement.

The front, low pressure engine has outside admission slide valves, indicated by the rectangular box shaped valve chamber. Since the operation of the valves, inside admission vs outside admission, is reversed, it is necessary to set up the front Walschaert gear as indirect drive, with the radius rod in the upper half of the link for forward movement.

You have a sharp eye to notice that. Perhaps you also noticed that the combination lever (that vertical link connected to the crosshead right behind each cylinded) is also connected differently to allow for proper "lead" on inside admission vs. outside admission engines.

John Stein aka Larry Doyle