A great history of the ol virginia railroad! -- those old electric choo- choo trains with their connecting arms shure make then look half steam locomotive!
It's a true shame that the Virginian rr didn't preserve a single example of their AG class 2-6-6-6 locomotives for future display as only 8 of these locomotives were built. The Virginian was the only other railroad besides the C&O to own a fleet of 2-6-6-6 articulated type steam engines, I wish that the VGN did save one example of the AG class type engines series (900-907).
Nevermind the supersized steamers and weird electrics, it was nice to see some good footage of local Pacifics and Mikados. Hopefully this film can be preserved and cleaned up digitally (and most of the soundtrack replaced).
Enjoyed seeing the 2-6-6-6 Allegheny in action. I would like to see someone, with, trillions of dollars, build and operate a new one. Although I won't hold my breath.
@@ThomasELeClair The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad's 2-8-4 Berkshire A-2A steam locomotives (last steam locomotives built by ALCO in 1948) actually had a form of smoke arresters in their fireboxes to help meet the strict air pollution laws in the Pittsburgh, PA area.
The siderod electrics were ghostly beasts, noted by several period railway photographers and authors as downright eery, coming up nearly silent, low growling motors and clanking rods.. Do any good recordings exist?
@@nazareth978 That changed in about 1927 when Westinghouse developed a motor that fit between axles. VGN waited about 20 years to get the EL2B units that used those motors.
I keep looking for the 2-10-10-2 but I never see it. I enjoy watching the video so it's not a total loss. It would just be a treat if it was in the video. If anyone can find this elusive locomotive please let all of us know
Wow, there is a good amount of H8 2-6-6-6 footage in this video. The most powerful steam locomotive of all time. Footage of this monster is rare. Love seeing new content being uploaded.
That may be true, but tractive Effort isn't everything. Especially if they cannot produce enough steam to carry the load over a mountain. The H8 in it's original design had one of the trailing truck wheels working as a booster to increase tractive effort if needed. But, it was never needed :-) @@obsessivecorvid
There were some duplexes that were (just a little bit) more powerful, but nowhere near the numbers of them. Also the duplexes were too slippery to be really useful, and the Allegheny / Blue Ridge locomotives were possibly the least slippery ever, with enormous weight on their drivers. Only the N&W class A's had more tractive effort, but were thousands of HP less.
@@paullangford8179The N&W class A has 114,000 pounds-force of tractive effort, the VGN class AE 2-10-10-2 had 147,200 pounds-force while in compound and 176,600 while starting trains in simple(delivering steam straight to the front cylinders)
I sure do love to see a cabooses and helpers in action. I wish they were still required. It would mean more employment. I always did want to see a steam double-header working. It would require the engineers to coordinate with one other. It would be a big thrill to be the lead locomotive engineer on 729. A huge train to take the point on.
I think the railroad would be the happiest if they didn't have one employee. I always thought the railroad would be the first to go completely automated
I remember the Virginian trackage in southern Virginia on trips to my wife's folks home back in the 1970s. We passed through Meherrin and Virso, VA. Crossbucks were still painted on US360 at Virso but the interchange track with Southern that crossed the highway was long gone. Only the ROW was still visible. There was also a wye at Meherrin which connected to the parallel N&W. Virginian trackage East of Meherrin heading to Victoria was still operated as a branch and the trackage West of Meherrin was used as a storage track. The East leg of the Meherrin wye was used to access the active branch trackage and the West leg accessed the storage track. The old Virginian straight through track at the wye was abandoned and disconnected, but still in place. Usually in the Winter months a long string of hoppers or piggyback flats were stored which disappeared in the Summer. After the Southern/N&W merger, eventually all the ex-Virginian trackage through Meherrin was pulled up, even the formerly active trackage East of there. Never saw any trains run on the active trackage. Just saw strings of cars being stored on the storage part of the line. Sad when I see on this video how busy and well maintained the trackage was in that location not many years before.
#432 was later the last MB in revenue service as well as the last steam locomotive on the Roanoke theater of the railroad. Retired in September of 1956.
The VGN was quite a railroad! The footage of the big Alleghenies is very cool. Some folks like to argue the that the monstrous 2-6-6-6's out of Lima, OH were a foolish investment cuz there was no where to use their potential combined power and speed. I beg to differ. The VGN was the perfect place for those monsters of rock with their long, gentle, high-speed curves and the most modern and best-laid rail in all of North America from 1907 into the 1950's. Wikipedia has some great background well worth reading on how the VGN came into existence in spite of concerted efforts by both the C&O and N&W rail giants to squash the upstarts. Joke was on them, in the end.
Absolutely! At age 10 in 1956, My father took my sister and I on the last Virginian passenger train run (which I believe may be shown in the color footage of this video). The train left Roanoke for Norfolk on a Sunday morning and returned that night. We got off at Brookneal in order to find a church (we had a perfect attendance streak going). After finding a welcoming congregation, the pastor invited us to a fine dinner at his house. That evening we caught the return train. It turned out that my physician father had operated on either the conductor or the engineer (can't recall which), but we got to ride in the locomotive. I can remember the fireman stepping on a pedal to open the clamshell doors to the firebox. That blast of heat and the glow of the fire was quite impressive. The coolest thing, though, was being allowed to pull the cord to blow the whistle! It's one of the best childhood memory I have. The Virginia Tech medical school is located on the site of the Virginian roundhouse and shops in Roanoke, now. The old VGN passenger station suffered a fire, and stood as a ruin for many years before being restored. I think a business or non profit organization is in it, now.
I love the electrics. Too bad the Great Depression got in the way of a more widespread electrification of our national network. They could burn coal near the mines to generate electricity to power the trains, massively more efficient than steam locomotives when looking at the huge maintenance requirements for steam power.
The Pennsylvania Railroad took advantage of the Depression to electrify its mainlines, including the NYC-Washington "Broad Way", and developed the 90-per GG1s.
But they needed federal aid (in the form of loans and guarantees from the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration) to finish the project, which illustrated the difficulty of implementing electrification in North America. Its very expensive, because all the infrastructure of an electrified railroad, from the power stations to the overhead lines has to be installed AT THE SAME TIME. And there's the ROI: how fast the line can pay back the amount invested, plus interest, within a reasonable amount of time. These are some of the obstacles to electrification of railroads in North America.
The Baldwin 2-8-8-8-4 Triplex was a failure. It was intended only for heavy pusher service but it had insufficient grate area to keep steam pressure up long enough to push a train over the crest. The locomotive was split into a 2-8-8-0 which served for many years. The tender engine became a 2-8-2 which also lasted to the end of steam.