Steam & Excursion > More Magma

Earl's comment about the Magma got me to digging though some of my old largely forgotten stuff.  I came up with two more pics that I kinda like.  The first is a morning blowdown leaving Superior, and the second an Ektachrome of an afternoon return that looked a lot better after a trip through Photoshop to deal with the fading and grain.

JBWX

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Spectacular.
Bob

Beautiful images !
I wish I had seen this operation out west but at least I got to see #5 working on short trips out of the Galveston Railroad Museum in the 80's and 90's.
Gary

If I have my info correct, Magma #7 went to the Texas State Railroad as their #400. In 2015 it was restored to its Magma appearance as #7. 

Here it is at Rusk in 2014 as #400

Here it is again at Rusk in 2015 being re-dressed as #7

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Awesome photos.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Love Magma's copper firebox, smokebox and smokebox front.

Like this #1 photo of the "blowown".  It takes me back to my juvenile age in seeing the Rock Island's 4-8-4's often "blowing down" their engines following reaching the top of a small grade about 1/4 mile west of my then 1950 trackside home.  I always wondered the actual reason for this "blowdown" process.  Once an engine was readied for and was enroute with its train, how often might this be performed and what would be the true purpose?  
All I remember is it was enough to scare me off my perch of our adjacent barbed wire fence corner post brace where I viewed passing trains.

jbwest Wrote:
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>  The first is a morning blowdown leaving
> Superior, and the second an Ektachrome of an
> afternoon return that looked a lot better after a
> trip through Photoshop to deal with the fading and
> grain.
>
> JBWX

 

When were they taken?   Quality is terrific.

Tominde Wrote:
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> When were they taken? 

Sorry for leaving that info out.  The first picture was taken in January 1967 and the second in April 1961.

JBWX

The 2014 shot on TSR was taken just as the engine was coming out of the shop and was in the garb that it wore for an episode of the short lived TV show, Revolution.  The 2015 photo in the shop was during its annual, probably in either January or February, of 2015.   The smoke box shows the effects of a year of running.   

The first photo in my post was taken on 3-25-14, during the time they were filming the scenes for Revolution. Here is the depot they erected, taken on 3-27-14.

The second photo in my post was taken 12-15-15

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rrman6 Wrote:
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> Like this #1 photo of the "blowown".  It takes me
> back to my juvenile age in seeing the Rock
> Island's 4-8-4's often "blowing down" their
> engines following reaching the top of a small
> grade about 1/4 mile west of my then 1950
> trackside home.  I always wondered the actual
> reason for this "blowdown" process.  Once an
> engine was readied for and was enroute with its
> train, how often might this be performed and what
> would be the true purpose?  
> All I remember is it was enough to scare me off my
> perch of our adjacent barbed wire fence corner
> post brace where I viewed passing trains.
>
> jbwest Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >  The first is a morning blowdown leaving
> > Superior, and the second an Ektachrome of an
> > afternoon return that looked a lot better after
> a
> > trip through Photoshop to deal with the fading
> and
> > grain.
> >
> > JBWX
>
>  I thought you would have a lot of answers by now, When water is boiled away to produce steam, the impurities & solids in the water stay in the boiler. They settle to the bottom and the blowdown process flushes them out. I suppose the quality of the water would have some effect on how often blow down occurs, but the scale & minerals that are left after water is turned into steam, cannot be allowed to accumulate.