The WEIRDEST steam engine at the Colorado Railroad Museum - Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Engine! 

One thing I forgot to mention when we did this is, some of the engines did later receive a shield that went in front of the cylinders on the coach end, the water brake if overused could result in water building in the cylinders and blowing cylinder heads off. It was a common enough occurrence that they installed the shields to prevent pieces from flying into the coach if they blew a head off.

Almost as complicated as the engines i fire on the Furka line in Switzerland. These are made for mixed use in adhesion and rack sections, the adhesion being a pretty normal engine and then having a Low pressure engine between the Frames to power the coqwheels. Also the automatic brake is Vacuum, and when going downhill we use the engine like a aircompressor to break, also using boiler water in the cilinders, but here it's to cool them, because air gets hot when it's compressed to 8 Bar in one stage

Oh my god. That would be PERFECT for railroads online! Just imagine if you had that train with cog rails on that new route up to the iron mine. I could see them implementing it but having cog rails cost money.

Worked for the Cog Railroad maintenance crew back in the early 90's, one of the hardest jobs, manual labor for all tasks - rail, cog, tie, spike, ballast. Replaced a switch at Windy Point 12,000ft, that was an education in working at altitude! Thanks for a great memory and one of the best jobs I've ever had.

Someone's probably already mentioned this but the thread you were trying to think of is 'acme' thread. Commonly used in vices or lead screws on lathes. Thanks for this very educational video. Very entertaining!

I love the little pop-ups in the top corner filling in the less-experienced railfans with the definitions of technical terms, they're very well done

I love how EXTREMELY specialized these locomotives are.

Its nice to see how your channel has grown from playing a games and instruments to answering our questions and having a members system.

Check out the Mount Washington Cog Railway. This is a much older cog railway on the east coast located in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The Mount Washington Cog Railway was opened in 1869 using a vertical boiler locomotive called Old Peppersass. This loco ran until 1875 when it was replaced with a more traditional-looking locomotive, the Ammonoosuc. This loco gained a partner in 1908 named the Waumbek. Due to the steep grades, the locos have tilted boilers that are actually level when they are on the steep slope. Both of these steam locomotives ran until 2008 and they have since been replaced with bio-diesels. Old Peppersass made a countrywide trip in June 2016. I saw the locomotive at a train fair in North Adams, MA. Compared to locomotives today, this small steam locomotive was very tiny and was carried on a standard landscaper-type trailer!

I like the editing on this Really makes it feel all the more polished

It's the Cog!!! Always fun to learn about new Railroads :)

Hey Hyce, this is before the 40,000 subscriber point but you deserve all of that and more and I wanted to say thank you for all the content. It is always fun watching your videos and learning from and along with you :) I can't wait to see what comes next and more :)

This is a surprisingly wholesome and heartwarming video(even _if_ the grounds look like Permafrost took a sickleave due to the cold). I remember Cog trains from my childhood, as a passing glance and peripheral mention, never saw one or touched on the topic since my childhood.... having a whole video that touches on some of the finer mechanical details nigh-thirty years later really perks me up. Thanks! and have a like.

I remember seeing a picture of this engine years ago and noticing the weird cylinders. There used to be a few Vauclain compounds here in New Zealand, including a one-off 2-8-0 from Baldwin (OA 457) and a ridiculous 2-6-6-0 tank engine built at Petone Workshops in 1906 (E 66).

12:18, I think another thing is that you'll notice the pin is below center, so I think another part of that was to reduce strain on the rods and valve gear

I believe you were talking about trapezoidal threads. So interesting to see this unique loco! If only you and Kan could get this for RRO.

Hyce, if you ever get a chance to come out to NH, absolutely spend the time to take a ride on the cog railway that goes up to the top of Mt. Washington. They run both steam and bio-diesel.

Thats what you guy's need for Kan's iron/coal run

I love cog engines… ever since my first trip to the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire. It’s so cool!

Reminds me of those trains that go up Snowden in Wales they use rack and pinion to get up the mountain. They are utterly amazing

Man this thing is so weird, but so awesome. Shout out to Jimmy from The Cog!

I love your videos. That's an interesting point about slower combustion and the limited coal bunker. The compound system on such slow work would also have saved significantly on coal.

11:30 if you look at the big lever that reverses the directions of the rods, the bottom length of the rod is significantly shorter. I think this allows for more torque/power per piston stroke.

Here in Queensland, Queensland Railways (1067mm/3'6" narrow gauge) had an ABT rack railway in place at Mount Morgan southwest of Rockhampton from 1898-1952. However, the line itself from Rockhampton to Theodore was mostly adhesion based at 241.2km/149 miles long, but with 2.3km/1.5mile long rack section on 6% gradients. So they built their rack locos with standard chain and hook couplers and buffers and would mount them to the rear of the adhesion train as a banker to push the train up the slope, or provide safe braking and assistance to pull a train back down the grade. These rack railway locomotives were able to still drive properly on adhesion rail which made it cheaper to build and maintain yards and sidings because you could just run them through standard railway switches and easily just build a dedicated siding for the loco and couple it up to the next train. Really ingenious system and set up, but sadly the locos have all been long lost and scrapped after a bypass was built in 1952 with a 2% gradient to avoid bottlenecks on long coal trains and the still used original locomotives being due for replacement. They did use Garratts for a while on the line with 750t coal trains which would later be diesel hauled. The line itself also has since closed due to declining traffic and a faster, heavier and more modern line via Gladstone for coal and grain trains (Moura Shortline). If you're really into narrow gauge railways, I really recommend you check out Queensland Rail! At its peak it had about 9-10000km of track and to this day you can get 2km coal trains running on it and long distance passenger tilting trains regularly in some sections hit up to 160km/100 miles per hour.

This is cool, we lived outside of Victor for 3 years and rode the narrow gauge in Cripple Creek a few times, never went on the cog but that might have to change. PS the thread type you are looking for on the handwheels is "acme Thread".

I've heard from someone that 4 may never get to run again. Pikes Peak replaced the rack so only their new trains can run on them. 4 would need new cogs to run.

Hey Hyce, would you be interested in seeing a video of the MT Washington Cog Railrmway, which is in New Hampshire (I don't know what I was thinking saying Vermount)? I'll go up there and put something together.

The rack/cog system certainly makes a lot more sense than using a Fell system for going up a steep hill. Certainly a cool little engine

Hey Hyce, rather new to your channel, I have been watching your Railroads Online stream with kAN, Anyway, just wanted to say that my Grandfather, Rudolph Pleger, was a machinist and I believe engineer for The Mount Emily Shay. It is currently being restored by the Oregon Rail Heritage Center and will be doing holiday Christmas runs in Portland OR, hopefully next year. To the best of my knowledge, it is the same engine. Grandpa worked at the Mt. Emily Mill for 27 years at Starkey and LaGrande machine shops and on locomotive repair. He retired in the early 60's but the engine itself was retired in 1955 and moved to Portland in 1957, where it became the property of the Oregon Historical Society. In 1972 it was leased to Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia where it was damaged in a fire that burned down the roundhouse, and became the object of a court battle when Cass refused to return it when it's lease expired in January of 1993. The fight over the train began in August and the engine was returned in May 1994. It was then leased to the city of Prineville where it ran for a number of years. In April of 2022 the OHS put out a request for a new owner when Prineville informed them they no longer wanted to run the engine. On August 24th the Oregon Rail Heritage Center was selected as the new owner and on September 1, 2022 they signed the paperwork. My understanding is that they hope to have her ready to run as one of the Holiday trains next year. 🚂🎅

The Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales has some great looking rack engines, and a maximum grade of just over 18% (1 in 5.5).

the purpose of the bell crank is to reduce the stroke of the piston and increase the torque combined with the compound pistons makes it pretty torquey

Rod system seems pretty normal for a compact B1 gear engine. But everything else, brakes, "couplers", exhaust pipe, are just wild.

I'm totally on a Hyce binge right now and I swear your production quality increases with every video. Very much enjoying the great work! edit: just finished the video, wow what an interesting little loco! Shit, now I really wanna see one running...

Hey Hyce, first off I want to say, I'm glad you are shining some light onto the Cog engine from the Pikes Peak RR. Secondly, I currently live in Durango, are you ever going to do a video on the engines/ Rail History of Durango in general? Because I can only learn so much from the museum curators here in town. Could you also come down and take a tour of the RR its self?

I’ve been to the cog railway, nice and short line. Lovely place. Cannot wait to go back again!

The "thread-that-isn't-Ajax" is an Acme thread. Lead screws, jack screws: if it turns rotation into linear motion, it's likely to be an Acme thread.

I remember riding the cog train on pikes peak when I was a boy in 1950 I was 8 years ago at the time I never forgot it .

Thanks Hyce, & Jjmmy. I really enjoyed the video of this unique piece of railroading history!

Love it. Would love to see a cog engine in a sim

During construction of the Mount Washington Cog Railway, workers would often ride down the tracks on sleds and would compete for the fastest times. I think one worker managed to get to the bottom in 5 minutes.

I'd actually like to come down to the museum and learn about this loco.... an interesting piece of equipment, that's for sure.

Great video! The name of the thread shape you were looking for on the brake handwheel is "acme" threads.

I studied this locomotive quite a bit when I visited a couple years ago and it is a very interesting locomotive!! Thanks for doing this video!!

I remember riding on the Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway when I was a wee lad. We rode on the more modern locomotives and I kept falling out of my seat since I was facing downhill. I still have the 100 year poster in my room.

The threads on that hand brake are square thread most likely since they looked like they didn't have any taper. If there was any taper in them with a flat top they'd be Acme.

Funny how a simple idea becomes complex in making it work. Learning something new every day. 👍

Im converting an Empire Steam Engine from single to 2 cylinder. The brass frames I silver soldered yesterday. Cool video fellas.

Cog engines are something I didn't know I needed to learn about... but I'm glad I did

The reason Coal bunkers were small on mountain engines is that you only need a fire to go up the mountain. You just ride the breaks down!

that was pretty interesting and i cannot wait to see your polar express train. and good luck with all your projects on your Guys's trains in the museum

In New Zealand we had 3 lines that used the fell centre rail system

Really cool info! I never knew about these locomotives.

Rode with one of these in 1952 or 53. Ticket agent recommended steam if you wanted to take pictures since it stopped for water. I mostly watched the engine work and tried to figure out what a " water brake " was. In high school.

This thing proves that trains really can go anywhere.

Mt. Washington steam cog is also great

Very cool how the engineering of this locomotive is done

Came over from Kan. Love the content! Cog trains are fascinating

It's a little hard to pick out the detail of those threads but they look like "Square Threads" or they might even be an "ACME Thread".

Wow, Very cool information. I had no clue about these. Fascinating, thanks for shooting this.

Such a treat of an episode. Thanks!

Hey, I know that engine! It was the first time I saw a steam engine in person! Also, the M&PP was the very first railroad I ever rode on, years ago, even though that was a railcar.

The interesting thing with a Cog Vauclain compound is that the high/low pressure layout is inverted, with Low over High, as distinct from the large cylinder under the smaller high pressure.

What a beauty despite her rough exterior! love it.

I remember reading somewhere that the rod arrangement was like that because it gave it more leverage, aka torque or tractive effort. Since the top one’s longer than the lower one, which is the one actually connected to the cog wheel, I’m pretty sure it was right.

Thank you for what you do. Keep up the good work and great content!

13:20 i think the term you might be looking for is "acme" thread

I really enjoy your railroad videos. I hope you can keep them coming.

Grew up there. Use to go to the museum all the time. Miss it.

What a funky machine.

he should check out the Mt Washington engines in New Hampshire. they're also cog railway engines but they work slightly differently than this one. but alot of the steam ones are retired. with i think 2 still in service and quite a few diesels running now. he might also get a good kick out of Old Peppersass and her odd but reliable design.

Iv seen 2 of the 5 of these locomotives!

One hand firing. You see that on Mt. Washington too. Good stuff.

are you... are you kidding me right now?! I just finished watching your little uphill adventure with Kan, and commented something like "get a rack (and pinion) railway and train", that video ended and... I see this in the recommendations?! What the _donk_ is this synchronicity?! (>x'D) (it's not the weirdest, it doesn't have a vertical boiler)

In Switzerland there's a lot of COG trains at least for passengers because of all the really steep mountains. In some cases the hills are so steep that u can't even be standing up while it's moving up/downhill those, some of them go up to 48º

Screwing hard grease into #4's rods was always SO MUCH fun....

There's an old locomotive over here in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada in need of at least a semi proper restoration. It's located in the Stellarton-New Glasgow area at, I think, an automotive museum.

Hyce if you looking for a really strange cog railway look at the Mt. Washington cog railway in New hampshire the locomotives have some really odd looking features and I'm fairly certain they are the only locomotives of there type

One of the sisters locomotives sits in Williams AZ at the Grand Cajon Railway depot

Beautiful machine. I'd love to see this in operation.

Acme threads. And another thing I heard a startrek the next gen door chime as some ones ring tone, pretty cool.

There goes my do nothing Sunday. Learning stuff again. Thanks. Lol.

ACME Threads also used on some air brake systems on trucks years ago.

imagine adding this to railroads online

I had never heard of these things before. After hearing the % grade they would run on I nearly spat out my drink 😂

The L.A.D.A.S incident wasn't caused by the engine pulling the train. It was most likely due to the weight because it was pulling 2 coaches down the mountain. It happened on the opening day and was the first train to go down the mountain.

can't be as wierd as the swiss electric steam boiler

Thats cool i lived in Colorado Springs for 5 years before moving back to my hometown of williamsport pa

When are you doing the video on peewee your yard train? I would really enjoy learning about it.

2:50 ‘aaaannd that exhausts’ 😏 *LIMES*

oh i saw that one earlier this year.. i saw a few while i was in CO, very cool.

I went there a few months ago and then went there for day out with Thomas about a month later

I see a couple beautiful UP passenger cars in the background

Is that an ACME thread on the handbrake?

Come visit us at The Mt. Washington Cog RR in NH, where mountain climbing locomotives were invented. Two steamers remain and seven diesels are in service. All rolling stock is built on site for the world’s second steepest railroad. This is the 155th anniversary in 2024.

Quite the interesting piece of metal. It’s a shame that none of these are still operating. At least to me knowledge.

After rewatching this I realized that this locomotive has the same type of handbrake that is standard on all Swedish rolling stock.

Come for the cool locomotive, stay for the Dad jokes. Awesome video.

Acme threads is the word for the (semi) square profile threads on the brake mechanism. They aren't a true square thread for manufacturing reasons, but close to it.

Nice video, those square type threads are Acme threads

It's Betsy! LMAO! Jokes aside that's a very interesting locomotive.