This country was built on steam. Ships, trains, shovels, drills, excavators, cranes, and more were used to build the infrastructure that we enjoy today. It's a shame the trains that represented the pinnacle of steam power, had such a short lifespan and were relegated to the scrap pile.
I would say you need the Milwaukee Road class F7 Baltics on this list! These locomotives could very well have been the fastest locomotives ever built! Few official records were ever attempted because runs over distances longer than 20 miles had to routinely be made at average speeds of 120 mph in order to maintain the schedule in the published timetable! These locomotives ran with the needle pegged at 120 every day both up and down grades pulling full 16 car 800 imperial ton trains! I would say it is extremely lucky for the Mallard that the Milwaukee Road never put much effort into officially trying to determine the true top speed of these locomotives both sending every last one to the scrappers. Another interesting note when researching these locomotives was the reaction of speed record “hunters.” Back in the 30’s, there were journalists traveling around Europe and the Eastern US looking for the “World’s Fastest” steam engine. They would attend every one of the special highly publicized record attempts. Every once in a while, one of them would wander out to the American Midwest to investigate a “rumor” there might be a fast train out there. Of course they didn’t believe it because there were never any huge public events announced. Then, they would be flabbergasted when riding in the cabs with these railroaders whose job it was to haul hundreds of passengers everyday at speeds often averaging in excess of 115 mph for hundreds of miles! They would be watching the blur outside the cab, see the needle hovering above 115 and the engineer just sitting in total silence watching the track and his cab signals. Often the only time they would back off was to reduce speed to 90mph to go through the Rondout interlocking. And their engines, after making one of these 400+ mile runs, most of the way in the triple digits pulling a 16 cars train, would load up and immediately do it again! For men and machine, record attempts was their job, not a special occasion.
The Niagaras retired by 1950? Nah, the S-2a Poppet Niagara wasn't even retired that early, though it was retired earlier than the other Niagaras (in 1951) due to being a Hangar Queen as a result of the Poppet Valves. The rest of the Niagaras were retired by 1956. Also, one thing to note on the PRR T1, there are two main reasons for their tendency to slip. One was bad spring rigging, but that was fixed by 1947. The other was inexperienced engineers. They were used to the less responsive throttle application of the famous K4s. Opening the throttle as wide on the T1 as you would a K4 would result in slipping because the T1 is a much more powerful locomotive. And actually, less than half of the S1's weight was on the driving wheels, only 46%.
My grandfather operated a 440 steam engine locomotive from Steven's Point, Wisconsin to Duluth, Minnesota from the very early 1900's thru the mid 1910's. He hauled logs and freight mainly, only rarely he hauled passengers. A photo of him and his 440 taken in 1907 is on my wall at home.
@@bricktrooper8236 ya I wish I could have ringed the bell to the 2156 and I noticed the 2156 has its whistle and the 4006 has its whistle too one of the questions I wanted to ask Ed Dickens is. Can you take the other big boy locomotive whistles and put them on the 4014 so we can hear what the other big boys Whistles sound like?
Since the British were able to build a brand new steam engine of their own I think there should be an effort to rebuild the Hudons and Niagras so we can see more of the history of the New York Central in the present.
The triplexes were experiments which failed. Not a top five steam locomotive. 2156 was preserved.2174? Don't blame me for it's being scrapped. The Roanoke Chapter NRHS could have tried to lease it with rights to restore and operate it. They we're only interested in this fan trips. I heard no mention of any attempt to save the 2174 at any business discussion at any chapter meeting.
Nothing from the West? This video is warped. The Northern Pacific railroad invented the Northern. And yet not a single NP Northern exists. What about the Milwaukee Road F7 Hiawatha? What about the Chicago & Northwestern H class Northerns? They were the biggest Northerns in the Midwest. Your list is lacking.
Good lord! A train is a group of cars being pulled by engines. Stop referring to engines as trains. It makes you seem less knowledgeable about the topic...
