Steam & Excursion > Rods Down??

I have seen mention in several recent postings about getting pictures with "the rods down". I have not heard that this is a preferred situation. I am just happy to get ANY pictures of steam now-a-days. The least of my worries is trying to get the rods down.

Is this new, or a long standing tradition from the steam era? Not growing up in that time, or being very familiar with steam operation and photographic etiquette, I am really curious!

I may have gotten lucky on the attached, it is from last summer's 765 excursion on the NS Youngstown Line. (Actually the positioning move the Thursday before, crawling up Carson Hill) 

Thanks,

Rob Bennett
Fairview, PA

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This was the classic photo angle from the 1930's, 40's and 50's and the era of Lucius Beebe railroad books.  3/4 angle, rods down.............

     Rods down was a classic steam photo as it was 'cleaner', that is it had the rods down out of the way so you could see other items as well as the rods were low and lined up pretty closely to journal boxes on the locomotive and tender . . . . . usually. That made a clean photo.

That is a stunning photo of the magnificent NKP 765.
Beautiful!  Thank you very much for posting this gem.

Rods down just looks better -- that's' all.  It is a matter
of aesthetics.

*FWIW, and BTW -- She was popping off when you snapped
that gorgeous photo.  Meaning one of her safeties was
lifting -- releasing a bit of extra boiler pressure.  That is what
ism making that tall plume of white condensing steam.)

The August 1942 issue of Trains included prize winning photos from the first Railroadians of America photography salon.  The three judges included only one out-and-out railfan, Freeman Hubbard of Railroad magazine, the other judges being Beaumont Newhall, curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and Norris Harkness, photography editor of the Evening Sun.  There were three categories: still (i.e. roster shots), action, and "fine photography embracing composition, quality of work, or pictorial effects."

The "still" views all show engines with their rods down, and the caption to the third place winner comes right out and says, "Notice that best engine pictures have rods down."

That said, the first place photo in the "action" category went to this Otto Perry photo of a C&S narrow gauge train in Colorado where lead locomotive 69 has her rods up:

http://cdm16079.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15330coll22/id/42568

Lucius Beebe came in third in that category with a rods-down, smoke belching, tighter-than-three-quarters shot of "two Santa Fe 4-8-4's on Cajon Pass."  Good old Beebe...the first locomotive is AT&SF 3738, a 4-8-2.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/16 21:00 by Evan_Werkema.

Ihad always heard that rods down signified the point of greatest thrust - like catching a batter at the end of a full swing.

As I understand it, Europeans often prefer "rods up" signifing the start of the power stroke.

I like the cleaner look - though rods up is the way to go - when shooting a steam engine on a girder bridge!

/Mitch

Posted from Android

"Up for a Racer, Down for a Dragger"......is the quote ai remember.

> Ihad always heard that rods down signified the
> point of greatest thrust

Looking at the right side of a right-hand-lead
2-cyl engine, peak thrust will be when the
right crank is at 4:30 and the left is at 1:30.