Steam & Excursion > 765 - Loud and Proud at Mokena Part 2

So on Sunday, my son and I decided we had to go see 765 again. He wanted to see if we could catch it twice so we headed to Mokena and set up at Wolf Road for the morning train out of Joliet. While we were waiting, he actually figured out a way to clamp my iPhone between the parts of the tripod I was using with our Sony camcorder. It worked out pretty well.

We did make a valiant run to Tinley Park but since there was no runby, we had no luck with a second shot. Really nice curve east of Oak Park Avenue would have been a great shot...

Anyway, here is Sunday's eastbound run at Mokena:

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Could have been a cleaner stack. Lol

Posted from Android

nycstl Wrote:
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> Could have been a cleaner stack. Lol

Right. I was watching from the Mokena commuter "station", such as it was, and you could see the heavy smoke to the west as she raced eastbound. Finally lifted the safety.

Nice video. It's too bad three out of the four runby's got scrubbed. I was the guy with the video camera who joined you and your son at the curve east of Tinley Park Sunday morning (waiting for a train that was long gone...). At least we both got to see 765 tear through Mokena. And thanks for posting your video the 1st day. After seeing it my friend and I decided to shoot in that same area (video in the thread above).

-James
http://www.steamtrainvideos.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/17 14:13 by typebangin.

James- it was good to meet you as well. That was a sweet spot. I hope someone got the train there and posts someplace.

Here's some photos of the morning the run, the afternoon run along Front Street in Mokena and the neat way my son figured out how to mount the iPhone to the tripod.

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That's a still camera tripod! Tough to do smooth moves with that kind of tripod.

Rich_Melvin Wrote:
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> That's a still camera tripod! Tough to do smooth
> moves with that kind of tripod.

I normally just set the video camera up (and in this case the iPhone) and just hit record while I take pics with my DSLR. I have done pans with this tripod and it works okay as long as you have time to set it up so it's level through the pan.

Back in the day the engine crew would have gotten their personal parts ripped off for showing all that smoke at that speed.

bayview_boy Wrote:
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> Back in the day the engine crew would have gotten
> their personal parts ripped off for showing all
> that smoke at that speed.


These comments kind of crack me up. Back in the day, those crews ran the same route, the same engine(s), the same district, the same grades. They had years and years of experience doing the same thing every day. While our crews no doubt have years of experience on the locomotive itself, they don't have the benefit of knowing the lay of the railroad or the particular train until typically the day of. I fired the 765 over Horeshoe Curve three times between 2012 and 2013 and at 50MPH on the Iowa Interstate in 2011 with almost no issues, but one of my first times over another railroad with speed restrictions hidden among higher speed stretches, undulating grades and an engineer still new to steam was a different story - it was embarrassing! But what counts is being able to recover and understand what's happening in the machine, which is something that can only be speculated about on the internet much later...

The comments about "inexperienced fireman" on the 765 and 611 are really egregious because it completely omits the reality of actually running a mainline steam locomotive on a route you've never run before. The engineer makes one change and the situation in the boiler and the firebox changes dramatically. It's striking the number of people who think they know better - but even more striking that some of the folks who DO no better neglect to include the reality in their critique but instead use terms like "inexperienced fireman." (Side note, I did not fire these trips -- too busy running the customer service end to run the scoop, but I and others among both locomotive crews have taken a little umbrage at these types of comments on TO lately...)

I've seen people with 30+ years of seat time struggle and make mistakes on the road that rookies could make - you don't get to doing it well without doing it "wrong" a time or two, either. And sometimes you have to do something "wrong" like blacken the stack and crowd your fire in anticipation of a hard pull.

Hell, even a clean stack can mean you're in trouble.

Your friendly neighborhood fireboy...

KL

Amen Kelly. Well stated.

Chris Bost
Leesport, PA

nathansixchime Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bayview_boy Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Back in the day the engine crew would have
> gotten
> > their personal parts ripped off for showing all
> > that smoke at that speed.
>
>
> These comments kind of crack me up. Back in the
> day, those crews ran the same route, the same
> engine(s), the same district, the same grades.
> They had years and years of experience doing the
> same thing every day. While our crews no doubt
> have years of experience on the locomotive itself,
> they don't have the benefit of knowing the lay of
> the railroad or the particular train until
> typically the day of. I fired the 765 over
> Horeshoe Curve three times between 2012 and 2013
> and at 50MPH on the Iowa Interstate in 2011 with
> almost no issues, but one of my first times over
> another railroad with speed restrictions hidden
> among higher speed stretches, undulating grades
> and an engineer still new to steam was a different
> story - it was embarrassing! But what counts is
> being able to recover and understand what's
> happening in the machine, which is something that
> can only be speculated about on the internet much
> later...
>
> The comments about "inexperienced fireman" on the
> 765 and 611 are really egregious because it
> completely omits the reality of actually running a
> mainline steam locomotive on a route you've never
> run before. The engineer makes one change and the
> situation in the boiler and the firebox changes
> dramatically. It's striking the number of people
> who think they know better - but even more
> striking that some of the folks who DO no better
> neglect to include the reality in their critique
> but instead use terms like "inexperienced
> fireman." (Side note, I did not fire these trips
> -- too busy running the customer service end to
> run the scoop, but I and others among both
> locomotive crews have taken a little umbrage at
> these types of comments on TO lately...)
>
> I've seen people with 30+ years of seat time
> struggle and make mistakes on the road that
> rookies could make - you don't get to doing it
> well without doing it "wrong" a time or two,
> either. And sometimes you have to do something
> "wrong" like blacken the stack and crowd your fire
> in anticipation of a hard pull.
>
> Hell, even a clean stack can mean you're in
> trouble.
>
> Your friendly neighborhood fireboy...
>
> KL

Even the most seasoned railroaders have told me they learn something new every day! I know that is the utmost truth that I apply in my career. Well said!! Sad that most people don't get it...

-MCH

Kelly, I couldn't agree more. Some of your crew, but not all, had the advantage of a head-end ride prior the excursions. While it is uphill from Joliet to Mokena, the grade varies from 0.15% to 0.6% with a few flat spots in between. Being in MOW, I have no idea how to properly fire a steam locomotive, but given the crew were unfamiliar with the territory, with its undulating grades, I'd say they did a great job. And as MOW, I was impressed with the ride quality of our track.

Tim Pitzen
Roadway Engineer
Metra Engineering Department

Very well put Kelly. It can be somewhat of a challenge to fire a coal burner in this day and age with varying crews, railroads, and even the grade of coal that you can happen on.
I remember when I fired a couple of trips around Cincinnati in '84. One day I could do nothing wrong, the gauge stayed at 240 regardless of what we encountered. The next day I fell flat on my face with different crew, different railroad, and what I was later told was a grade of coal one-step below that of Ohio dirt.
In steam days when they had the same route and same coal, I often heard the comment "He's a good guy to fire for" which, of course, implied even that was a constant variable when they did it every day.
Jim Kreider



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/17 18:46 by jimeng.

And for what it's worth, I heard no complaints from trackside about the smoke!