Steam & Excursion > Frisco 1630 pulls longest revenue freight this century

Last night at the Illinois Railway Museum, the Frisco 1630 decapod pulled a train consisting of 135 empty coal cars which had been stored at the museum since late last year.  Apparently, this is the longest steam powered revenue freight in 25 years.  The train was transferred to the UP on the former CNW line adjacent to the museum.  Congratulations to all who made this possible.  It is great to see a real show of steam-power to perform necessary work.  Video can be found on the Frisco 1630 Facebook page and at the link attached.

https://www.facebook.com/irmsteam/videos/687000938134395/ 

Fantastic. Just for the fun of it, why at night?

Posted from iPhone

Alright - who's going to top that?  Calling Andy Muller - once your T1 gets restored, I'm sure there are plenty of coal cars you could use with 2102 and the Reading & Northern... :D

Jim Lipnitz
Morrisville, PA
Big Jim Video Productions

CPRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fantastic. Just for the fun of it, why at night?

Well, doing this in the middle of the public operation on a holiday weekend would have completely disrupted things, so UP agreed to call their job for 1600 hours at West Chicago, which under *ideal* conditions would have had them arrive just after the public rides concluded.

Anyone who has worked for a railroad knows the odds of ideal conditions being in place are less than winning the Powerball. Turns out a regular Belvidere train wound up bringing two extra units to Union and set them off on the IRM connection for an extra crew out of Belvidere to use. Then it was discovered neither crew brought an EOT, so one had to be driven to the Museum.

Meanwhile, the 1630 moved the cars west from the east end of the railroad up to Karstens, the private crossing about a half-mile east of the Museum. This was done to permit at least some photo opportunities while there was still good light. The train held there clear of all crossings until the Belvidere crew had their motors set up and a new warrant behind the auto rack train.

At 8:44 PM, 1630 was cleared down to the UP connection at Schmidt and started pullin' on 'em. Hearing her start that train out of Karstens was absolutely magical.

As happened when the first set of coal tubs left, CB&Q 504 (SD24) was used by the UP crew to pull the cars out onto the Belvidere Sub and get them on the west end their power for the trip to West Chicago. Some fans were clamoring for the 1630 to do it, but IRM was not about to jeopardize its excellent relationship with UP over what would have been a cheap stunt.

With that, the "winter occupation" of IRM's main line officially came to a close. While the Museum very much benefitted from this project, the Superintendent of Operations was glad to finally have his entire railroad back with the peak season starting this weekend.

NZ  

CPRR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fantastic. Just for the fun of it, why at night?
>
> Posted from iPhone

My guess would be that that's when the UP wanted to make the move.

Empty or not, that was a good haul for that small engine.

tomstp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Empty or not, that was a good haul for that small
> engine.

Aluminum coal gons tend to weight about 21 tons empty, so that works out to roughly 2835 tons.I wonder how well 1630 handled pumping air into all of those cars?

Wonderful sounds!

John.

Andy Muller actually did something like that years ago, moving about 80 empty hoppers out of Reading with the 4-8-4.  If I recall, it was on a Sunday, and despite the day, very few fans were following that train.  Fellow TO poster "detiley" and I were among the fortunate few.  It was quite a show.

Bob

All these records will be broken when "DL" has 4014, 3985 and 844 triple heading a 600 car freight.

LarryB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All these records will be broken when "DL" has
> 4014, 3985 and 844 triple heading a 600 car
> freight.

With 8 diesels scattered through the train.

Of the diesels, three will have to be at the head-end, behind the steamers ---- account of connecting up to the diesel control boxes  in the steamer cabs --- to the trailing power.  844 could be fired-up and live steam piped to the other two,  for whistle effects.
.But otherwise, the two articulateds could be all shiny and pretty, appearing 'LIVE', .....  all the while the diesels doin' the haulin'.  ...
The engines won't get all dirty, no boilers to blow down, no pesky details to be bothered with..

( Although, on the other hand,.... Maybe that's why he cut the 'box cables on the 844?,,,, so they wouldn't for get confused again?)

W.

PatternOfFailure Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> tomstp Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Empty or not, that was a good haul for that
> small
> > engine.
>
> Aluminum coal gons tend to weight about 21 tons
> empty, so that works out to roughly 2835 tons.I
> wonder how well 1630 handled pumping air into all
> of those cars?

A Westinghouse cross coumpound air pump will out pump a diesel locomotive any day.

Moving empty coal cars, not that impressive to this rail.

Cool to use a steam engine though.

Posted from Android

That's a lovely sound on that video! The valve rework sure sounds good, the exhaust is square and it's lovely to hear her work! Thanks for sharing!

SRK

steamfire Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Last night at the Illinois Railway Museum, the
> Frisco 1630 decapod pulled a train consisting of
> 135 empty coal cars which had been stored at the
> museum since late last year.  Apparently, this is
> the longest steam powered revenue freight in 25
> years.  The train was transferred to the UP on
> the former CNW line adjacent to the museum. 
> Congratulations to all who made this possible. 
> It is great to see a real show of steam-power to
> perform necessary work.  Video can be found on
> the Frisco 1630 Facebook page and at the link
> attached.
>
> https://www.facebook.com/irmsteam/videos/687000938
> 134395/ 

Steve Krause
Chillicothe, IL

So cool! My dad was up there to watch it and he was thrilled too. My hat it off to all involved!

- Jeff Carlson

Posted from iPhone

On a couple of trips going up to Galesburg RR days and other places on the K line to W Quincy, we took freight for some tonnage and brakes.   I tried my best to get 100-120 empty hoppers to take north.  1522 would have rocked and rolled with a train like that on that line and it would have been fun.  She thrived on working!

Head over to youtube and search "SLSF 1630 hauls 135 empties at the Illinois Railway Museum" it's a great video shot from the doghouse on the tender