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[CNJRoss]

 

Putting you in the cab of a Santa Fe 4-6-4

 

January 30, 2018

 

 

One of the top items on any railfan bucket list is also mighty difficult to get: a ride on a mainline steam locomotive. Operators of today’s big engines don’t exactly invite people into the cab on a whim, and the occasional “engineer-for-an-hour” experience doesn’t come cheaply.

 

There are always cab-ride videos, of course, which give you a taste of the experience. But current ones are generally made under the controlled circumstances of excursions or short trips around the yard. What about riding with a steam crew under real-life circumstances, under the pressure of a timetable, sharing the railroad with other trains, at the very limit of the speed restriction?

 

I can recommend just such a video, without reservation. It’s called Operation of Steam Locomotive (https://www.youtube....h?v=DwXRylQ3BVo), a short movie produced by the Santa Fe in the early 1940s and featuring a wild ride aboard a truly elite locomotive, 4-6-4 Hudson No. 3464. 

 

SNIP 

 

The film starts right at the beginning, showing the engineer making his early rounds: checking the sight glass and the automatic train control (Santa Fe’s 4-6-4s operated in ATS territory), testing the injector, inspecting the running gear. One of my favorite scenes shows our somewhat diminutive hogger dwarfed by the 7-foot drivers, using engine-borne ladders to get to all the running gear while he’s oiling aroun

 

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