What is a STEAM DUMMY? 

“Mom, can we have Toby?” Mom: “No. We have Toby at home.” Toby at home:

Great collection of footage and nice editing. I love the fact that some of these steam dummies actually carried a few passengers, as they would make quite the interesting railcar for transporting a handful of people on a solo run.

goofy trainz

I have an obsession with interurban locomotives but these are not only adorable and cute with their small size but they look creative and awesome

These are some of the most compact standard-gauge steam locomotives I've ever seen and I love them.

i like how much more humorous this video is compared to other works. more vids like this, please!

Back around 2009, I rode an excursion train in central Minnesota that was pulled by Canadian Pacific 2816. The train suddenly stopped, and we were informed by the conductor that there was a horse on the tracks. The horse was curious and attracted to 2816 because it was different from the diesels the horse saw every day.

THE NOISELESS STEAM STREET MOTOR

I think the steam dummy’s look absolutely fascinating

We have one of the functional restored examples here in New Zealand! MOTAT recently started using bark based briquettes as a cleaner way to run it. Having seen it running it is shockingly quiet when not under full steam, I can see why the design was used so widely.

The town I grew up in had a railway that used these, unfortunately only one photo has ever surfaced online. One preserved one I've seen is one at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation, which I believe came from the Reading Railroad

Toby the Tram Engine in a nutshell right here

tramways and suburban railroads certainly made way for the most goofy locomotive designs back then.

The Thomas the Tank Engine stories have a steam tram engine 'Toby', based on a J70 tram engine from the UKs Great Eastern Railway (GER Class C53). The cowcatchers and sideplates allow it to run on roadside tramways, which other engines are not allowed to do for safety reasons. J70s were not used for street trams, but for rural branch line railway work and dock shunting. J70s worked on the rural and agricultural Wisbech and Upwell Tramway in East Anglia, UK, not far from where the Thomas books author, the Rev.Wilbert Awdry, lived.

So basically an American version to the LNER Y6 class steam tram

0:04 god that hurt to watch, hopefully the front of the smoke box was the only thing damaged by that

Cable operated trams/streetcars were also a option. And yes they weren't just used on hills like the servivibg lines in San Fran, there were a number of lines built on flat routes as well. And yes, the driving engines for the cable were steam powered, but those were hidden out of the way.

Your best video yet! Love the humor.

Slight clarification, "Dummy" in this case means fake, not silent. It's a definition of the word that has fallen out of use, although it still survives in the ventriloquist's dummy

If Toby the tram engine was American instead of British? 😊

It’s like Toby the Tram Engine from Thomas in the real world.

This is a great collection of films and veteran pictures - I just love it. Nice to see some preserved ones at work, too. Did you know of the German Cheimseebahn, which still has it's original, 120 year old engine that is still let out every now and then? "Dummies" incidentally, is very much an American term - here in GB we just called them 'tram engines' or 'steam trams'. (Think of 'Toby the Tram Engine', who really did exist.)

3:14 Delaware & Hudson K62 Northern! 😎 those 3 chime whistles sound amazing 😌👌

Steam dummies are the greatest piece of rolling stock ever

Toby had never seen such bull s*** before as a tram as a locomotive

in belgium steam trams' running gear was all covered up behind pannels, pedestrian safety...

Surprised to see the Sydney Steam Motor Tram (yes, that's what we called them) appear in this. These used to be a common sight in Sydney until electrification pushed them out to outer areas, even as far as Newcastle. The last retired around 1943 and three survive in preservation: -No. 1A at Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus on static display. -No. 100A at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, New Zealand in operational condition. -No. 103A at Valley Heights Locomotive Depot Heritage Museum at Valley Heights in operational condition.

It’s a good day when AmtrakGuy365 uploads

my nickname in the insane asylum was 'Steam Dummy' !!!

Good to know that a good amount are still around.

4:12 a W class tram from Melbourne next to the steam dummy

Well those are absolutely adorable little things, I wonder if anyone's made a decent model of one since clearly there are still some examples to use for reference.

"Is it electric?" -the fat hatt son

This was also when such things as cable cars were implemented. Chicago had a cable car line, long ago -- quickly succeeded by electric street cars (still powered by steam, turning generators). The reason the San Francisco cable cars endured was the hills there make electric street cars impractical.

A steam dummy is a very huggable choo, that's what it is

My favorite example of one of these in use was the Brooklyn Bath and Coney Island Railroad, a service that today forms the Brooklyn portion of the D train in the New York City Subway system.

He never disappoints

3:12 Because the Sound of pounding cylinders and Blaring of the whistle would make them jump and run

In San Bernardino we had the Southern California Motor Road that used multiple Steam Dummys to pull passenger cars. Years later it was bought by the Southern Pacific and later transferred to the Pacific Electric Railway and electricified. Same thing in several other parts of Southern California where street railways used Steam Dummys to replace horsecar lines until those same lines years later electricified and switched to electric streetcars.

I wonder how well a fireless design would have worked.

These are called 'kastenlok' in German. In the Netherlands there are currently two fully enclosed ones in running condition, one of which has even has condensor equipment fitted to further reduce smoke output.

I like the image you picked for the thumbnail, I have that exact image in a book I own "The Locomotives That Baldwin Built" .

2:36 The real reason was that regular Locomotives (Tank Engine or otherwise) were required to go no faster than 45mph in reverse (under UK regulations), so experimental engines that were theoretically able to be driven at speed both ways were trialed a lot 😉

2:21 Southern Pacific 20 is actually still around and is at the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles, California. In 2006 it was taken apart for a full restoration that was supposed to be complete around 2011. But since 2010 due to the lack of funding and debt travel town owes (about 1 million), the locomotives boiler has been left on a flatbed exposed to the elements while the chassis which is about 90% complete is tarped off. I doubt the locomotive will be finished anytime soon as only the chassis has VERY slowly been worked on since then

Let's all love lain.

They were common on the streets in Sydney, Australia.

You know, in the early days of auto mobiles. They use to put horse head to fool horses.

Now, all we need is a diesel dummy!

Bro made a Serial Experiments Lain reference. So pround i caught that.

Australia loves light rail regardless of type

I think there's one preserved at the Travel Town Museum in Los Angeles, CA, Southern Pacific 20

Ah yes, Serial Experiments Train

Never heard of them. Thanks for the education 😊.

0:28 Wait till they hear about the LNER A4

Excellent information and presentation. Thanks a lot, Colin UK

Ok props for sneaking in a Serial Experiments Lain clip.

Ah! Toby’s little cousin!

Cmon who wouldnt want a steam dummy as a pet

Brazil had their portion of Steam Dummies as well, they were called "Locobreques" (Loco-Breaks), and operated in São Paulo Railway.

I saw the 475 today, and her scars

they were also bought up and used on logging rail roads some were used as switch or shunting engines

Nice Video!

Box Car would’ve been the perfect name for these!

A steam dummy is me when I get very mad and someone pours water on me.

I’m curious now what the train equivalent of “if we were meant to fly, god would’ve given us wings” as my mum says is

Baldwin supplied more than 700 locomotives to Japan, but fascinating that a steam motor was supplied to there also! 🇯🇵 @2:26

American Toby doesn't exist, he can't hurt you. *American Toby*

Nice vid!

I just saw one running on such a tight radius curve...ouch! However, that got me wondering, can you make a video about tight curves and locomotives?

The only surviving one I know of is the one at display at Mammoth Cave,KY

Suggestion for another video American Freedom train (AFT) locomotives cars and services with T&P 610 Reading 2100 and SP 4449 and a PA-1

This short lain cut 😂😂

"they shit in the street" -I'm dead

Actually a steam dummy is Billy from Thomas & Friends

this was a intresting topic!

Ah it's brilliant I had a good laugh 🤣 NGL, it looks very interesting. In Europe the steam tramway was very short lived, but I didn't know the USA had them to such a large scale. Very interesting. Love the content 👍

4:05 MOTAT ( Museum Of Transport And Technology) Aviation Hall, Auckland New Zealand, housing the Sir Keith Park Memorial Aviation Collection. Trams go to and from the main MOTAT site to the Aviation Hall , with a stop at Auckland Zoo in between.

3:27 bro when I saw the Muni street cars in Revenue Service in the 40s the monkey neutrons in my brain went wild

Portugal used to have a few german built steam trams. They were built by Henschel and I believe they had some success.

Last place on internet I expe LETS ALL LOVE LAIN

In simple world? A cute little locomotive!

Very interesting, I'd never heard of these. 😀

Great video with great footage!

it is good to note that in other country's (mostly the Netherlands and a bit of Belgium) in the Netherlands there where 702 tramwaylocomotives (although some where also just regular cab-behind locomotives) but most where boxtrams. about 216 of these locomotives (30,8% of the total number of locomotives) where build bij Backer & Rueb. followed by Henschel at 129 (18,4%) 2 B&K boxtrams where preserved out of witch one is oparational and 4 henschel boxtrams out of witch 1 is operational and the other is being restored. something else to note is that most Dutch tramways the used steam ran between towns, hamlets, villages and city's where they ran nexst to or on top of the road in a effort to save costrution costs. thus being more of a blend of intercity bus/lorry rather than just something used to transport passengers from one bit of city to the other like in america. this is just scratching the service however and there was losts more interesting stuff to happen on them (like the pontoon bridge in Doesburg (Dutch: schipbrug Doesburg) that had steamboxtrams running on it for in 68 years or the tramway that only had 3 workers) anyway i love your video and how it shines light on a interesting part of railway history.

It looks like a average steam locomotive, converted into a street car and 80% of its materials was removed

these are always fun videos

Toby's international cousins

I’ve seen one of these at mammoth cave in static display

Steam Dummies were steam locomotives disguised as trams to avoid scaring horses. However the noises and running gears scared horses and not the shape of the steam locomotives. Some steam dummies are preserved as of 2023. Thanks AmtrakGuy365 for explaining the steam dummy more.

steam trains are dummys

Back in the day the Ludington & Northern Railroad in Mason County, Michigan used a dummy train to run passengers from downtown to the nearby resort community of Epworth Heights. The track was later used to transport mined sand to be used as casting sand.

and here I thought a dummy locomotive was just one that didn't have a motor or gear train in it

2:02 The one and ONLY steam dummy model you would ever find in Trainz. And it’s narrow gauge. I really wish I could find one for standard gauge (or whatever it’s called in the USA 🇺🇸; Loading Gauge, right?). Otherwise, I’ll have to go through painstaking research just to find a tutorial on how to kitbash this model and make it bigger just to fit on standard/loading gauge tracks.

Awesome video

1:34 Is that Alan Fisher?

Where is the footage at 3:46 from? I need to see more of steam interurbans

I love these little dudes like just look at them!!!

The lain reference was unexpected

Oh my god what is this abomonation it looks like a... oh no that abomonation looks like A Shed 17 how horrorifide is this😨 0:54

Nothing like a good old B O X