WM 2-8-0

Awesome photo! It was undoubtedly shot from the Lindy Point overlook at Blackwater Falls State Park, which provides a totally mind blowing view of the canyon.
 
Stumbled across this thread today, awesome looking engine. Just curious if you've made any progress on it or not, and is that Coal River reskin of Ben Neals 0-8-0 available anywhere? I was reading the freeware thread and the screenshot forum last night and ran across that picture too.
 
I did a Southern skin which was to be a general release for the skin and PSDs, however I decided that I wanted a different style of tender trucks on it which did not yet get updated. That will happen sometime.
 
The entire 10 mile Western Maryland Blackwater Canyon run from Hendricks W VA to Thomas W VA is available on my WM & B&O Mega Route Native Mode route. Click on my signature below to access the web site.

Joe
 
Slightly off topic question here but why would anyone put a jacket on the smoke box?

Because it looks awesome :p

I would assume the thought was that even though heat doesn't NEED to be kept in the smokebox, it still would help to keep that heat in there. That way, more heat goes toward heating water rather than being siphoned off into the smokebox as it constantly cools. Any time the temperature of the smokebox is lower than the rest of the boiler, a small bit of heat is going to be wasted in warming it. If it stays warm, that heat goes into the water/steam instead.
 
Last edited:
A lagged and jacketed smokebox also probably reduced maintenance costs, since most early 20th century paints used on a non-jacketed smokebox would burn off quickly. In an attempt to deal with the challenge of keeping paint on steam locomotive parts subject to intense heat, smokeboxes and smokebox fronts were often painted with graphite, as this excerpt from "The Work of the Railway Carman" (1921) explains. Add lagging/jacketing to the smokebox and you could then probably use (and keep) regular paint on that part of the locomotive, but the smokebox front would still probably require graphite paint (and constant touching up.)

books
 
LOL! Using special paints and/or using improved construction techniques on steam locomotives had little to do with cleanliness or being a neat-freak or germaphobe. It was simply a prudent for the railroads to commit a few dollars on things such as paint or sheeting because such practices extended the usable lifespan of equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars by years or even decades, e.g., "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
 
Did someone say "big tender"?
:)

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/thumbs/photos/NW00586.jpg
https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/thumbs/photos/NW07106.jpg
Doesnt get much bigger than those.

Also their Class Es (N&W, that is) got bigger tenders over time, dropped down from other engines which got even bigger tenders themself. If I remember correctly, the E2s started with 9.000 gallon tenders and ended up with 15.000 gallons capacity. It was a common practise to save some bucks. Cause why scrap something than can be used still? Railroads rarely threw things away. And as Lloyd pointed out, a cent saved a million times over and over......
Especially on passenger engines, you want to save time to get from A to B faster than that damned company that competes with you. Filling up a tender takes a lot of time than can be better used with hauling a**.

Looking at the WM and their nasty grades and ugly curve radii, it was probably more important for them to get the stuff up there at all! If the ROW would have allowed it, I´m sure they´d have rather used their 4664s if they only could.
:)
 
Also, to add to what you've said, Isegrinns, on the long slow coal trains of the N&W, when they double, and sometimes triple, headed, each engine would also have its own Auxiliary Tender. So on top of the already large capacity of the tenders, they also had ALL THAT EXTRA water put away to help go even farther, saving even more time.
 
Where's the pics of triple-headers? ;)

Very late in the steam era, N&W used a few aux tenders, used with some locomotives, on some trains, in some areas. They seem more commonly used west of Williamson...
 
Those "canteen" aux tenders were frequently used after 1952, with th first put into action in May 52. They were used all over the road, east out of Roanoke, too, over Blue Ridge and up to Hagerstown. No clue if aux tenders were common on the "Punkinvine", though I´d bet on it. (I´d love to see pix of a tripleheader, too! Read that it happened, but never seen any pix of it.)
:)

And sorry for kidnapping this thread!
 
Well, 1952 is the very late steam era that I referred to. The last N&W steam powered passenger train ran in 1957 and the N&W made it last steam locomotive in 1953. Baldwin had stopped making steam locos for the American market in 1949.

The N&W never owned enough auxiliary tenders for them to be truly "common." They only owned what, maybe a couple of dozen of them? I'll have to check the N&W tender roster I have around here somewhere...

Given how few N&W aux tenders there were in existence, the number of N&W trains using auxiliary tenders was probably only about 1- to 2-percent of the total. ;)
 
Well, 1952 is the very late steam era that I referred to. The last N&W steam powered passenger train ran in 1957 and the N&W made it last steam locomotive in 1953.

I can't remember if the locomotive was an 0-6-0 or an 0-8-0. Which one was it?
 
Last steam built in the U.S. was a N&W Class S1a 0-8-0 switcher No. 244, which was basically a slightly updated version of the USRA 0-8-0 design from decades earlier.

0-8-0%20N%26W%20244.jpeg
 
I have never heard of a N&W triple headed mallet, but I have seen videos with two on the front and one on the rear.
 
Back
Top