Here in simple recognition of all the brilliant work done by so very many, many railfen, here are some links to even MORE of their valuable sites online.

*****

Aaron C. Jors Photography-link — 033111:

http://www.aaroncjors.com/Trains/Steam-Locomotives/5065223_ERWGt#970884590_hthiA

CLC link & pix — 032711:

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CLC/steam3.htm

FIRST 100 MPH STEAM LOCOMOTIVE-link — 033111:

http://www.germansteam.co.uk/Tonup/Tonup.html

Great Northern steam locomotives roster-link — 033011:

http://orion.math.iastate.edu/jdhsmith/term/slusgn.htm

J D Smith’s M A I N  S T R E E T-link — 032911:

http://orion.math.iastate.edu/jdhsmith/homepage.html

JeffPo’s Universe-link — 032911:

http://www.jeffpolston.com/home.htm

last NP steam-run-link — 032911:

http://www.pacificcohistory.org/sw2004_2.htm

Livio Dante Porta, David Wardale, Phil Girdlestone, Nigel Day, Shaun McMahon, and Roger Waller — read more:

http://scienceray.com/technology/classical-and-modern-steam-locomotives

Milwaukee Road steam locomotives roster-link & text — 033111:

http://orion.math.iastate.edu/jdhsmith/term/slusmilw.htm

National Research Council Canada steam-link — 032711:

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/research/discoveries/transport/steam-locomotive.html

home:

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/index.html

paleoferrosaurus-link — 032711:

http://paleoferrosaurus.com/

peterboroughimages.co.uk-link — 032211:

http://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/blog/

railroad heritage.org-link — 032911:

http://www.railroadheritage.org/SPT–Home.php

Railroads of Madison County-link — 032211:

http://madisonrails.railfan.net/big4memories2.html

Steam locomotive wheel configuration-link — 032811:

http://www.freebase.com/view/rail/steam_locomotive_wheel_configuration

Sunday Streamline #10 LNER W1 Hush-Hush – link & text — 032211:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-10-lner-w1

The Delaware & Hudson Canal Co Gravity Railroad-link — 032811:

http://www.waynehistorypa.org/htopics/gravityrr.php

The Franco-Crosti Boiler System-link — 021511:

http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/francocrosti/francocrosti.htm#p

The Terminal-link — 032911:

http://orion.math.iastate.edu/jdhsmith/term/term_index.htm

wn.com-link — 032711:

http://wn.com/tank_locomotive

www.steamLocomotive-link — 033011:

http://www.steamlocomotive.info/index.cfm

*****

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[1 April 2011]

The posting below, in dieselpunks.org, caught my eye:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/profiles/blogs/sunday-streamline-10-lner-w1

Also, here is their home page:

http://www.dieselpunks.org/

The first write-up is about the type of twentieth century steam locomotive design that is actually completely late-modern and in which the smoothness of form is integral to the function.  That integrity, in this case of Depression-era English LNER experimental and A-series steam locomotives, is completely unlike most contemporaneous American “streamliners”.  The latter, at a second glance, were mainly of sheetmetal cladding, “added on” as an afterthought and that often took visible running-ripples from the wind.

The industrial-design work of undoubtedly gifted artists such as Raymond Loewy, for the Pennsylvania RR, and Henry Dreyfuss for the New York Central, was also harnessed to an emerging consensus omnium about the role of design in 1930s American national economic recovery.  The ideological underpinnings of the American industrial-design “streamliners” (there were many of these workers besides Dreyfuss and Loewy!) caused workers self-consciously to reach for “modernity” as a kind of ding an sich.  This quest, potentially at least in conflict with performance goals, would go far to carry design as such away from strictly engineering criteria.  The story is comprehensively set forth by Jeffrey L Meikle, in 1979.  *

However, if you will take the trouble to do for yourself a Google image survey of the American streamliners of the 1930s and 1940s, and compare it to work abroad, then this English stuff on the other hand looks strong, tight, and it is convincingly all of a piece:

Now arguably the actual integration in to function of streamlining is a precarious attainment at best.  The London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway, Princess Coronation Class No 6229, Duchess of Hamilton, shown above, followed the lead of the speed-record setting LNER.  She was built as a streamliner in that annus mirabilis, 1938, in a blue and silver livery, and exported to the United States (painted as class-sister No 6220) for a 3,000 mile tour and visit to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, before being returned in 1942.  The shrouding though obviously not flimsy nonetheless did not favor function in all cases; the streamlining was removed in 1947 for ease of maintenance.  This was the common fate of most shrouding, well-done or not.

In closing, then, I must first acknowledge that the LNER Gresley-designed engine described in the dieselpunks link was in any case a fraught experimental venture; notably, the undue rigidity of the Gresley boiler proved insurmountable.  However, the formation of the engine certainly played its part in the design of the LNER A-series, most notably the A-4 “Mallard” record-setter of 1938.  Now it is also so that speeds in excess of the Mallard’s in 1938 would routinely, but unofficially, be claimed for the PRR 4-4-4-4s, speeds it was said of up to 145 mph.  Also, streamlining drew the attention of other nations’ industrial design-engineers, as may be read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamliner

How much streamlining may in fact have created vortices of turbulence and drag beneath and around engines and trains may well be moot, and if high speeds were routinely achieved, it likely had as much to do with steaming-rates as sheet-metal work

I only want to note that I perceive that among American steam locomotives that achieved an — again — integrated smoothness of finish as such, there was the B&O “Lord Baltimore”, for example, and again some of the locomotives of the Delaware & Hudson (especially under the admittedly “anglomaniac” President L F Loree). Interestingly, these engines were built before the “streamlined” era.  You may look up these for yourselves if you don’t already know them.

However, the great steam locomotive on the order of a happy marriage of huge potency and practical finish, and one that didn’t descend into any sort of slickness as an end in itself, is to be seen in the picture above of the brutally powerful and yet visually smooth NYC FEF Niagara; this engine was designed by Paul Kiefer who created also the 4-6-4 Hudson at the end of the 1920s. I think, at least for now, that the LNER Pacifics of 1938 and the NYC 4-8-4s of 1945 ca must surely set the endpoints on any hypothetcal “core-era” of true steam streamlining.

–

* – Meikle, Jeffrey L;  Twentieth Century Limited :  Industrial Design In America, 1925-1939  (Philadelphia, 1979)

–

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[23 March 2011]

*****

[with a tip of the "Down East" tile to Oz Pete, Down Under!]

*****

This is a 1974 documentary about steam railroading from Australia; it is a cut above most of the here-and-now footage of vintage steam being operated today.  Most postcontemporary footage, for instance of UP Challeneger 3985, shows mainly WalMart postmodern people with no real technical knowledge, oohing and aahing along the right of way and fidgeting with their digital cameras.  One suspects in not a few cases, of course, that these “heartland folks” are just fresh from making naked movies of themselves in bed with each others spouses after church, for YouPorn.  Or something.

This Australian Film Board movie, however, features actual trainmen, it is the real thing and it shows, especially interesting to me and first of all in the bloody morning (!), the impression of an ashmonkey actually firing the girl up.  The locomotive is an ALCo designed 4-6-2, with New South Wales RY tweaks. 

Part one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j27iDy0KJa8

And two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Js_tB2ZDs&NR=1

OZ Pete, an oldtime NSW railyman and who sent me these links for Xmas, last year, says that the part II safeworking bit is exactly how it was done.  In aid of all that, once you log on, you can have a look at the other five parts or so, also.

Wikipedia says:

“The opening sequence is a 1943 black-and-white Cinesound newsreel Monarch of the Rails showing the locomotive being built. The film then changes to colour and shows the locomotive at the Enfield locomotive depot, then the home of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum. The fireman lights the fire and the driver inspects the locomotive. When ready the locomotive is turned on the turntable.

“The main part of the film shows the train travelling through the New South Wales countryside through disparate locations including the Sydney suburbs, Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge and Picton loop line. These scenes are interspersed with vignettes of life the 1940s including a travelling salesman, a country wedding and soldiers in a pub, all linked to the train journey.

“Most of the audio is live sound of the train, with some overlayed with original music by George Dreyfus.”

More may be read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Steam_Train_Passes

*****

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[19 March 2011]

Columbus Railroads.com is a detailed regional rail history down there in Ohio:

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/index.htm

They also have a “Sights & Sounds” category:

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/sounds.htm

The one that catches my ear is “PRR J1a 6410 and Santa Fe 5035 at Bellevue, Ohio”:

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/6419%20&%205035.htm

In it you can hear and compare both the PRR’s own 2-10-4 J1 and the PRR-leased AT&SF 2-10-4 5000-class as they each pass by the recording equipment along the Sandusky Branch track.  The sounds of PRR 6410 and PRR-AT&SF 5035 are from the LP album “Power of the Past! The Working Sounds of Steam 1954-1957″ by Howard Fogg, OWL Records ORLP-17, monaural, Boulder, Colorado, 1971. Needless to say, this vinyl is probably pretty hard (!) to track down, so you can just click on the supplied button to hear this track for yourself.

[Bodwyn Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[7 March 2011]

*****

THIS Is the works for February as to my online findings; each site speaks for itself…a GOOD thing, too, as I don’t have time just now to chisel out any synopses (hehehe) — EPW

*****

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields-link — 021411:

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/

Ball Railroad Watches-link — 021211:

http://www.worldtempus.com/en/brands/partner-brands/ball-watch/history/born-with-the-epic-of-american-railroads/

Bigger Than Big Boy-link — 021511:

http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2005/12/4/12543/8286

Columbus Railroads-link — 022111:

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/

Cruising The Past-link — 021611:

http://cruiselinehistory.com/

Dark Roasted Blend-link — 021411:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/

DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS-link — 020711:

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/

European locomotive design engineers EuroTrib-link — 021411:

http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2006/1/22/151854/230

James Mack Lehigh Valley Railroad website-link — 021811:

http://www.enter.net/~lvrr/

LeNox’s pastime — 021411:

http://lenoxsthesaurus.blogspot.com/

Old Time Trains CPR-link — 020611:

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_steam/2800.htm

PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHS-link — 022111:

http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/

PRR J1a 6410 and Santa Fe 5035 at Bellevue, OH, audio-link — 022111:

http://www.columbusrailroads.com/6419%20&%205035.htm

RonaldV.nl- link — 021411:

http://www.ronaldv.nl/

ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM-link — 020811:

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/

Rutland RR-link — 021211:

http://www.greenmtnflyer.com/welcome.htm

Science & Society Picture Library-link — 021411:

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/

Streamlined locomotives of the world-link — 021411:

http://freddo.110mb.com/trains/

or:

http://www.streamlinedtrains.co.uk/

telefunker Urban exploration-link — 021411:

http://telefunker.wordpress.com/

The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust-link — 020811:

http://www.bentleypriory.org/home/home.php?page_id=1

The Franco-Crosti Boiler System-link — 021511:

http://www.aqpl43.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/francocrosti/francocrosti.htm#p

The Spitfire Link-link — 020811:

http://spitfiresite.com/

The Steampunk Forum-link — 021111:

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php

Thoughts on Military History-link — 020811:

http://thoughtsonmilitaryhistory.wordpress.com/

Treadway Toomey Galleries-link — 020711:

http://www.treadwaygallery.com/index.html

WORLDnews network-link — 021611:

http://wn.com/

*****

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[26 November 2010]
 

Alright, you bandits (In England they would say, ‘very well, you devils!’) here is the NEW Douglas Self homepage-link:

http://douglas-self.com/

This should ensure, er, insure reliably being able to continue to get at Mr. Self’s inimitable pp devoted to unusual steam locomotives:

http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/locoloco.htm

We are glad to spread the word because this is a valuable online resource, to the intricate history not least of late-modern steam locomotive experimentation.

This D&H girl shown above is a fair example, #653 built in 1931 with Uniflow cylinders and 325 psi on a conventional stayed boiler; here shown with Dabeg poppet valves and (presumably) non-Uniflow cylinders.  Read more at:

http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/uniflowloco/uniflowloco.htm

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[10 February 2011]

[Here are the rest of what I rooted out, last month.  As a precaution, I am shoving in as well my findings through 020511 --

[EPW]

ALCo Photos-link — 020211:

http://alcohistory.blogspot.com/

Bennie Railplane-link — 012611:

http://dieselpunks.blogspot.com/2011/01/bennie-railplane.html

BILL SELLER’S HISTORY OF THE LOCAL RAILROADS-link — 012511:

http://www.beaufort-county.com/sellersrr/

CGW Depots Along The Corn Belt Route-link — 012211:

http://www.trainweb.org/ucgw/depotpg.htm

CGW Structures Along The Corn Belt Route-link — 012211:

http://www.trainweb.org/ucgw/structurepg.html

Leith-Built Ships-link — 020511:

http://leithbuiltships.blogspot.com/p/tugs-built-in-leith.html

London Lighterage Tugs-link — 020511:

http://www.lighteragetugs.co.uk/index.php

Missabe Railroad Historical Society-link — 012111:

http://www.missabe.com/cms/gallery/

Paleoferrosaurus-link — 012211:

http://paleoferrosaurus.com/index3.html

RAILROAD.NET worktrains-link — 020211:

http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/worktrains/index.php

The Golden Age of Aviation-link — 011911:

http://goldenageofaviation.org/

Trolley and Trolley Stations-link — 020111:

http://trainstations.blogspot.com/

World Steam-link — 012211:

http://worldsteamsite.wordpress.com/

*****

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[05 February 2011]

[Following are my gleanings as of 17 i 2011; needless to say, doubtlessly I shall add to these before month's end.  Meanwhile, you will notice this month a number are to do with the air races of the 1930s.  I picked up a big fat softcover catalogue of information on the great age of 1920s and 1930s air racing, at the ongoing "Friends of the Library" booksale in the library, down in Indian-draped & 1862 Hanging-Accursed Old Mankato, MN, this month.  It is the 1991 EAA Aviation Foundation printing, of The Golden Age Of Air Racing: Pre-1940, by S H Schmid and Truman C Weaver, and it is a vast and well-illustrated treasure, 554 pp.  The ISBN is:  0940000008, and there are reprinted, as well as many other original documents of the day, technical articles on design and flight by, among others, U S Army Air Service then-Lieutenant "Jimmy" Doolittle and Gee Bee race-plane design-engineer Zantford "Grannie" Granville.  These boys back there in late-modernity were no dubs.  It is the real mathematical stuff, as solid as brown bread and a boiled New England cod dinner!  Hence, like Mr Toad, I am "done for" and off on a new fad!  s/Engineman Preserved Wook]

Aerofiles.com-link — 011211:

http://aerofiles.com/

Classic Airshows-link — 011211:

http://classicairshows.com/

Flying The Hump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcC_BKSRv54&feature=related

Gee Bee 1 cutaway view-link — 011111:

http://geociti.es/CapeCanaveral/lab/4515/picture.html

Holcomb’s Aerodrome-link — 011211:

http://www.airminded.net/

Mid-Atlantic Air Museum-link — 011211:

http://www.maam.org/

MPLS Air Crash History-link — 011411:

http://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+minneapolis+plane+crashes&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=utf8&oe=utf8#q=history+of+minneapolis+plane+crashes&hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&tbs=tl:1,tl_num:100&prmd=ivns&ei=nbgwTaO8AoqCsQPesvSIBg&ved=0CF8QywEoBA&fp=4ed60dfc8c66eaca

You can see all comments on this post here:

http://bodwyn.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/here-is-the-rest-of-the-story/#comments

National Air Race Project-link — 011211:

http://www.nationalairraces.net/index.htm

Parks’ Passenger Railroads of the 1930′s-1940′s in North America-link — 011611:

http://www.r2parks.net/rail.html

RCGroups.com forums-link — 011211:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/index.php

Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum-link — 011211:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/

Society of Air Racing Historians-link — 011411:

http://www.airrace.com/index.htm

Thompson Trophy & Other Air Racing History-link

Air Racing History-link:

http://air-racing-history.com/index.htm

Thompson Trophy & Other Racing Aircraft Pictures-link

1000aircraftphotos.com-link — 011111:

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/

x planes-links

x planes Gee Bee racer-link — 010611:

http://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/156588098/in-1932-jimmy-doolittle-won-the-thompson-trophy#

and x planes-link — 010611:

http://xplanes.tumblr.com/

*****

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[17 January 2011]

[Following are my finds this month online while rummaging for late-modern high-industrial steam locomotive age information -- PW]

Bridge Line Historical Society-link — 112710:

http://www.bridge-line.org/

Chicago Nostalgia And Memorabilia-link — 120810:

http://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com/

flickr dok1-link — 113010:

/http://www.flickr.com/photos/dok1/

flickr vistadome-link — 112810:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vista-dome/with/4139880208/

Jerry Huddleston CGW-link — 122410:

http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/index.html

John Elliott PHOTOGRAPHY-link — 112710:

http://johnelliottphotography.com/

la signalisation des chemins des fers canadienne et américaine par Martin Lévesque -link — 122110:

http://regle105.quebectrain.com/

P&WV history-link — 122210:

http://www.thepwvhiline.com/index.htm

&

http://www.thepwvhiline.com/PWVHistory.htm

Railroad Signals of the U.S.-link — 122110:

http://www.railroadsignals.us/

&

http://www.railroadsignals.us/rulebooks/rulebooks.htm

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad Historical Society-link — 122110:

http://www.rfandp.org/

The VA Railyard-link — 122110:

http://www.thevarailyard.com/

West Virginia & Regional History Collection-link — 112810:

http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/wvcollection/

WVRailroads.com-links — 121510:

http://www.wvrailroads.net/index.php/Main_Page

&

http://gallery.wvrailroads.net/

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[1 January 2011]

(With a tip of the wookean lid & striped engineman’s cap to Doc Z, up there at the VoTech in Indian-draped & accursed Old Mankato, MN!  EW)

As gothpapa says in his voiceover to this interesting video made by him from home movies made by his father, of the Chcago Railroad Fair more than sixty years ago, it was the swansong of the American railroad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIm9yOt9nU

The 1948-49 Chicago Railroad Fair…

…was supposed to herald a great new breakthrough era in North American railroading. 
     With the benefit of hindsight, of course, we now know that the US railroad, especially, was just about to go straight to Hell! 
     It was because of the huge increase after WW II of car sales, and the “Eisenhowser” Interstate Highway legislation of the 1950s.  The excuse for the later was “defense”, and this lingo in turn was a cover for government subsidy of the new focus in American industry.  The American railroads it must be remembered had long suckled at the federal nipple of prebendary subsidence and theft.  Now they were about to be cut off from the graft, O-U-T.
     This post-war market shift is also just how Tee Vee sales in the same period wrecked the American movie, except in the porn-o and Sam Peckinpah slow-motion-violence thriller genres. 
     The pleasures of American cinema and travel in America both were now completely, well, derailed.
     But we do have the rich and wonderful archive of all the memories of our Old Atlantic western greatness…and so — in our Absolute Knowledge, after all, we do have no doubt of this — one day steam locomotives will boil, rumble and thunder over the land again.

Thank you, gothpapa, for reminding us all of this.

[Engineman Wook

[all rights revert to holders

[15 December 2010]