This is a wonderful example of mechanical ingenuity, showing that marvelous wonderful things can be done without modern technology. It's a shame we don't have any video records from the thousands of years ago when the ancients made so many great structures, some made down to hundredths of an inch, and perfectly round and straight, too. It's funny, we tend to think of all those men in the video as just manual laborers; yet, they had the skills to make all those parts exactly right down to fractions of an inch, and curved juuuuuust right to fit where they had to in order to make leak proof seals, metal to metal. Wow. Just WOW!
Brings back great memories...I am a railway Blacksmith in New Zealand, I did my apprenticeship at NZR Workshops Woburn 1980 - 1984, even then we did big forgings of the same size as shown here. Double arch power hammer, jib crane with endless sling, huge tongs etc. just great to see small snippet of hammer work..necking in..drawing..cutting with sett, hammer operators also were very very skilled men. Thank you for great post.
Most excellent. I myself back in 1993-94 worked on repair of overhead cranes here in Missouri, Illinois, etc. Similar to the ones used to lift the pieces into place for final assembly. The most poplar brand we serviced was "P&H" (Pawling and Harnischfeger).
OSHA inspectors would have a heart attack if they visited a construction plant like this. No respirators, safety goggles, hard hats, leather gloves, safety barricades, yet these old artisans got the job done with precision and efficiency.
+Heffo and puff - Likely OSHA is why we can not do things like this today. To many regulations and too little common sense to keep safe, out of harms way. These were woprkers, craftsmen, skilled machinists, forgers, molder makers and designers. Where is 3101 today. Likely got rid of in the dust bin.
@@organbuilder272 Both locomotives were preserved, 3100 at the National Museum in Ottawa and 3101 at IPSCO in Regina, Sask. Also, railroading in all its aspects was dangerous and many men died young because there was little thought to safety.
There's no doubt that those steam driven locomotives had a beauty and romanticism of their own which modern diesel and electrics lack. I loved seeing them when I was growing up - they almost had a life and personality of their own and seemed to be much more than just a machine. Thanks for sharing this wonderful film with us.
To continue: Strangely enough, both #3100 and #3101 were saved from the scrappers' torches. The former is on display in Regina, SK and the latter, the subject of this film/video, is on display at the Museum of Science & Technology in the nation's capital, Ottawa. Regardless, thanks for sharing this video. It was a great find on your part.
Great grandpa worked for Baldwin. I always wondered what his day was like. Now I can see. I don't know exactly what he did, all my dad told me was that he 'made trains' there. I'd like to think he was one of those types of craftsmen like the Canadians in this video.
Fantastic John Cole! Eu trabalhei durante 10 anos em uma ferrovia no Brasil (Rede Ferroviária Federal) e o trabalho era grande. Imagine para esse homens em 1928?! Good Jobs!
I don´t agree with you. I like to see each process in as much detail as possible. Maybe it´s because I´m a metalworker too, I somewhat feel connected with these people although much has changed ofcourse.
I think the music you chose for this film is just fine... thanks for sharing this great footage on the construction of a steam locomotive... I'm especially impressed with the very fine, precision work that was accomplished on such gigantic components... thanks for sharing.
Can't add much to what's been said already (trolls apart) except I did notice the absense of H&S. Seriously though, having worked on modern locomotives for a few (ahem) decades, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what our predecessors achieved as engineers. Still, my first reaction was 'wow! that thing is huge!' Glad to know it hasn't been cut up. More importantly, thanks to all those who post these films, they were meant for the public domain.
It was interesting to see the building process at the old Angus shops. To RAILFAN BROTHERS; The CPR only had TWO Northern type locos; 3100 and 3101. Both are still intact as well! 3100 in the Museum of Science & Tech here in Ottawa, 3101 is - sad to say - rusting away in Regina. The CNR had the most Northern class 4-8-4 locos (U Class) with over 200 members of the class; more than any other railroad in N. America. The CPR's main steam loco was the H1 4-6-4 Hudson of which there were a few sub-classes: the semi-streamlined Royal Hudson, (preserved and operatational) in N. Vancouver BC, and 2816 'The Empress'; part of the CPR steam program.
well thats good at least they had the forsight to save something they knew was rare and as the size goes noteworthy, even if its rusting away a little rust can be fixed there are still people that know how to rebuild beasts like this as long as money and time can be had, that means as long as its not compleatly, rotted out and the parts to put them back togather are still able to be found, restoration is not impossible, just expensive, time consuming, and hard, but there are still people that know how to fabricate, forge, and boiler make, and there are still pipefitters, after all there are powerplants and various industries that need pipework for hot gases like steam, so there are people that can do the job just not as many places with the stuff to do it nor as wide of a knowledge base like back in the day and age she was built and every machine almost was steam powered. I cant say the same for some of the larger usa classes though, the railroads were not always so judicious about saving the examples of engines they made, like the nyc niagra and dryfuss hudsons as good, pretty, and effecent as the niagra class were, putting out almost 6000 hp on a single set of drivers, and turning around miles almost as many as diesles, they cut all of them up, :{ and all of but one of the norfolk and western northers like 611 those were some of the most modern made steamers from the era, 611 is the only survivor. it sure is nice though to see what the old angus cp works looked like, that they talked soo much about in shop current from 1907 that I am using as a referance book for shop sizes and hights from the era when we also had locomotive shops in Garrett Indiana on the B&O that closed in 1926 and the machine mills were sent to willard ohio and chicago, but we still had a roundhouse set off yard, and servicing facillities till the end of steam, today we have a crew termanal, some local freight trains, a car repair track which is the same one in the same spot the old 318 foot car shop one sat over, and we have a mantainance of way department for this csx area, so we still have our role its just far smaller then used to be, even though we are on the main on the way from ohio to chicago well anyway they really talked up the modern shops of angus in the book at the time. they sure had a pretty good run though, and they save a handful of the buildings of the angus shops, though too bad they are not used in production anymore, the place was quite massive from the read on the history I am looking at as I write this comment, its more then I can say of the shops we had in garrett or even the great altoona of the west on the pennsy in fort wayne, its still railyard there and there are some things like an old water tower, the old trainstation, hump tower and signal bridge and pipework that was not dug up, all the actual locomotive shop buildings were torn down and remade into the base for the street dept of fort wayne, the central post office, and a few other industries along the way between the three streets the shops stretched, though at the end of the enterance of the old pennsy yard there is the chicago fort wayne and eastern rr that has a two bay engine repair house, a crew depot, and a fuel up point, so there is a little bit of a shop there for that regional gennese and wyoming company railroad, heh and there is the old nickle plate yard that is a car repair shop and mechanical division and maintanance of way dept for norfolk southern in fort wayne, even still has the turntable for the old enginehouse which was just a straight building but converted to house the railroad managment offices for the termanal and division, there, its also where the ledgenary NPK 765 would have been turned around when she worked the lines in her first life heh.
Royal Hudson 2860 is in Squamish with locomotive 374. Not N. Vancouver close but no quite. It is getting the drivers rebuilt aswell as the main bearings. Not too sure where they are on the rebuild though. One of the most beautiful engine I've ever seen . So mad nobody told me 2816 and 2860 still ran. And in my backyard aswell.
Wow, fantastic! What a fruit of the Industrial Revolution. 1928 wow. It is truly amazing how many gadgets they had to form the metal, and other devices to help with construction.
Spectacular, what an amazing and beautiful piece of machinery. It is a shame that they are almost all gone. There is absolutely nothing like the sound and smell and site of a working locomotive in action and to see it built from scratch,what a treat !!!
Wow! Thank you for posting this. This was some really neat stuff, too bad they were obsolete in only a couple decades. I was never really that impressed by trains that much when I was a kid, but the more i learnabout them the the more I want to know. Never got to work on steam much, just remanufactured EMD power packs and stuff for a while. Strange about how strong they were built while the helicopters I worked on were built from pretty much aluminum foil!
I was actually thinking about the same thing. We're only seeing a half (or a third) of the building process. It must've taken equally hard work to build the production tools, AND lots of work to make the tools they used to make the production tools... And before all that, we have all the planning, drawings, financial calculations etc etc .. .they migth even had to build some of the buildings. Huge project.
Imagine no App to tell them what to do nobody with a smart phone in hand zoning out. These men were hard working and ingenious my hats off to all of them for leading the way.
I have many pictures of CP3101 but never saw her "being born." As a boy, I made the trip from Toronto to Montreal on the overnight train in 1954. CP3101 did service on that very train but I never actually saw her as we did not walk up to the head end. So, maybe I rode behind her. I'd like to think so but can't say for sure. Thanks for posting this video.
I used to run a 1.6 scale Pacific locomotive for a club that I belonged to and I can assure you that these engines DO come alive once they generate steam. You have to push them around to the steaming bays, then fuel them, water them and fire them and run them on air, then they come alive and then they pretty much run themselves. Remember always that a steam engine only requires clean water, heat, and a little bit of oil, and they run for years and years without any trouble. Long Live Steam!!
Yet there are those febel men who would destroy what time could never replace.... Anybody can scrap machinery. Preserving the industrial past is only for the truly gifted.
3101 currently sits at the steel plant I work at in Regina Saskatchewan and I get to she her everyday, so awesome to see her being built and under steam however she is weathering pretty bad and a few things have been stolen off of her over the years, on a positive note she has been bought by Canadian Pacific for restoration and static display as there were only two of this type ever built....
Amazing. We've lost so much of that technology that we couldn't go back if we wanted to. We'd have to re-learn the basic trade of the blacksmith and rebuild our technology base from there. If our civilization collapses, we have a LONG way to fall.
Notice the lack of head, ear and eye protection too! These were the Angus Shops of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the east end of Montreal. They could build steam locomotives and all kinds of freight and passenger cars. My late father, his brother and their father were CPR employees in the shops and on the trains too. They and these shops are all gone.
Railfan Brothers said: "Original 1928 film (with music dubbed over) of the building of one of CP's many Northern type locomotives." Actually no, the CPR only built/ran 2 Northern type locomotives class K1a they were engines number 3100 and 3101. CNR was big in this class and they had many Northerns.
Amazing! We couldn't build one of these locomotives today if we wanted to. The technology no longer exists. We could make a microchip that sounds like one!
CPR's decision to not continue with Northerns had more to do with a change of management. C.H. Temple, who was Chief of Motive Power & Rolling Stock, retired in September 1928. His successor, H.G. Bowen decided to go with H1 Hudsons for passenger service and T1 Selkirks for freight mountain work, built at MLW instead of CP's Angus shops. The CP Northerns were only used on the overnight passenger trains 21 and 22 between Toronto and Montreal.
Well, I will have you know, I am not a child! I have plenty to do owning & operating a metal scrapping service. It is a very busy job. But I do thank you for the very flattering compliment. I sincerely appreciate it!
No intelligence required in scrapping metal. The intelligent part comes in deciding what to save. Seems from your many comments here, you want to scrap everything.
Sequence at 13:00 is actually backwards, this is shot out the back of the train, the guy in the coat on the platform on the right is clearly walking backwards as is the guy on the left the other side of the fence ad 13:12. The cab sequence at 12:18 is also in reverse
They definitely had power tools didn't you see the big hammer machines molded the metal into shape and the huge roller along with the machine tha shaves metal.. But I know what you mean their best tool back then was a hammer and wrench
Nevertheless, with amenities such as lunchrooms and indoor toilets it was considered a good place to work--and the pay was good. The Angus Shops and yards, of course, were closed years ago and the site redeveloped in the 90's. Some of the old buildings have been partially preserved and incorportated into the new structures. The Cirque du Soleil used one huge building as a rehearsal and performance space for a while.
Cool, thats one of the very few Canadian Pacific "Northern type" steam locomotives CP only built two of them 3100 and 6101. Both of them are saved, but 3101(the one in the film) is in bad condition stored outside in Regina, Sask.
Part of the film was taken from the back of the train, then played backwards ,to make it look like it was taken from the front of the engine. During these shots everything else will be seen going backwards.
Para el protagonista que hizo posible que este vídeo este en RU-vid le envío mi mas sentido agradecimiento por compartir esta hermosa joya, muchas, pero muchas gracias.
As a Montrealer I'm tickled by this great footage of the old Angus Shops in their heyday. However, like DRH199 I was struck--indeed, found myself feeling a bit queasy--at how little safety equipment the guys were wearing: gloves, sometimes a leather apron, goggles for the welder, that's about it. The men who worked in the forge must all have ended up deaf. I wonder how many injuries (even deaths) happened in that place in the course of a year.
Very impressive to see these engineering techniques, whenever I see forging I can't imagine that they were capable of producing identical components for a series of locomotives.
Each engine was unique but many parts - wheels, pumps, springs, brakes, etc. were interchangeable between locos in that class. In this case the K1 type.
Amazingly enough, this is probably the only film/video of a CPR loco being built back in the day and yet, this engine and its brother #3100 were the only 4-8-4 Northerns built by the CPR. For whatever reason, the CPR never built any more after these two examples. The CNR had lots of them and so did many American roads....but not the CPR. They were in love with Pacifics which, I guess, is only natural.
There is noting great about this video or it's subject. The best thing about this video, it shows us what the target is when looking through the scope of something like either a Barrett or Browing .50 caliber weapon. The beauty of the Barrett is that unlike the 16" naval cannon or the A-bomb, this weapon is in the hands of the public & more so in the hands of people who know how to use it! In those hands, the end of the steam locomotive is possible when holes are blown though the steam chest!
A cockroach and you have equal intelligence. Just enough to get by. This comment has to be your dumbest yet. Not a clue and no point. Your .50 cal is a useless weapon only meant for killing humans. Melt them down!
Please Note @12:56 Is at the time town of Oshawa? The bridge is Simcoe street. The station was on the North west side of the simcoe/cp bridge. To this day in age the bridge is still in use. The station is no longer around. Some time soon a little ways south east of the bridge will be go train services. Little ways North East of the bridge is some cp mobile buildings, Radio tower and un used rail sidings. Might have been for city rail use or cp lines? Oshawa back in the day had three station for rail cnr cpr gtr beside street rail service.
Nobody can convince me that these engines were not alive once they first fired them up...I can not imagine the bonds the mechanics and engineers had to them.
So Cockroach2008 is a scrap merchant. Concidering his attitude to historical technology he is in the right trade. Also the attitude he has for weapons is why I will never live in certain parts of the United States. I hope he also scraps tanks. PS. I am also a member of the Toronto Artillery Association.
If you look closely at the drive rods (the "side rods" or "coupling rods") on a locomotive with more than two connected axles, you will see that the rods are always jointed at each wheel. This allows them to bend vertically when a wheel passes over a bump. I'm not sure how lateral flexing is accomodated: there might be a little horizontal play in the joints, and the rod structure itself may be flexible enough to withstand a small amount of lateral motion or twisting.
another great train video,thanks. things that came to mind while i was watching were the huge amount of team work involved and although the parts were massive the tolerance between them were minute. i wonder if at some point in the future videos of the clean rooms where they make the Mars Rovers will be seen as quaint.
I worked as a head end brakeman on the CPR in the mid-80's out of Toronto...a couple of the senior engineers I worked for had fired the 3100 and 3101 as firemen in their early days on the railway. They both commented that the engines could pull like the dickens up until 50mph and then ran out of steam...big disappointment for CPR at the time.
I didn't know that the CP even had steamers on their fleet. I thought that they had diesels only. This seems like a great documentary on how it tells about the CP steamers.
I was born and raise montreal my grandfather work for cprail.i hear stories when they pull trains house vibrate near 1/4 to 1/2 miles away.cprail have upgrade some bridge due weight on cprail systems don't forget this is 1928 you figure today.
The footage of the iron workers, not a one with goggles, most bare-headed, and some without so much as thermal gloves. Incredible. It's a wonder they were not all killed in the line of work.
+Cyclist0623 All that equipment cost money, and workers were more easily replaced than equipment! But yes, there were lots more industrial injuries back then.
I'm the one who posted the Jupiter & 119 video. Chadwell O'Connor quoted me $2.1M per loco but that was 20 years ago. There's also a stigma that anything connected with Southern heritage smacks of slavery. It's very sad really.
DA VONTADE DE CHORA. coisa lindaaaa, coisa mais linda do mundo inteiro depois da minha mamãe. kkkkk Caraca em 1929 minha cidade natal estava nascendo. Muito lindo
