A lot of coins are being destroyed this week!
SaorAlba
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By this enormous world's largest and heaviest steam locomotive ever built that is running finally after 60+ years of sitting idle in a California park. This monster was built to pull heavy freights over the Sherman Hill and Wasatch range during WWII. 25 were built and all were retired by 1960 and hadn't run since that time.
The 844 Northern behind the Big Boy is the only steam locomotive in continuous service since it was built in 1944 - unfortunately it has a leaky right cylinder that will have to be fixed on return to Cheyenne.
And just imagine how flattened a coin could get or even how far it could have been squeezed out from betwixt the rails and the drivers.
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
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Now this could be an excellent fund raiser for some Train enthusiasts group....
let this monster flatten a limited number of silver and / or copper coins..
Stamp a number in each one and sell these "squeezers" at a charity auction......
i could imagine that the right publicity would bring some nice results...
I remember growing up being told that putting a coin on the track could derail the train!
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That’s to cool when was the last time two big boys ran at the same time? I remember watching them pull it out of the train yard in California they also have a cab forward big boy in a train museum in Socramento California
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Very impressive.... That is the Clydesdale of Iron Horses..... Cheers, RickO
I watched a few videos yesterday, very impressive.
Very nice video
I’m not familiar with this ritual. If a coin comes flying out from under a train wheel, couldn’t it kill someone?
LIBERTY SEATED DIMES WITH MAJOR VARIETIES CIRCULATION STRIKES (1837-1891) digital album
RE: "...unfortunately it has a leaky right cylinder that will have to be fixed on return to Cheyenne."
Lots of coin collectors built in 1944 also have leaky cylinders.
The cab forward in Sacto was one the SP used in the Sierra Nevada tunnels and snow sheds - much easier on the locomotive crews! The California State Railroad museum opened in 1981 and of course even though I was a kid I was there for the grand opening. It is a fantastic museum, the last time I was there Sacto was over 100' and we took that river excursion on the train.
I have some flattened quarters etc from the SP 4449 Coast Daylight. Sometimes if coins are not placed in the centre of the track and more towards the edge they can be shot out. I've never heard of anyone being injured by a flying coin off of a track - most people get hurt by being too close to the train in the first place. A lady was killed by the UP 844 last year when she stood to close for a photograph and was struck by the train.
@SaorAlba very cool museum of trains I went about 12 years ago and definitely wante to see it again!
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
You really can gauge the scale till you stand next to a drive wheels that are your height
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
I remember growing up being told that putting a coin on the track could derail the train!
You too?!
I’m not familiar with this ritual. If a coin comes flying out from under a train wheel, couldn’t it kill someone?
The danger is in the train derailing from the coin being on the track.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.---Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America, 1801-1809. Jefferson was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence.
Awesome @SaorAlba!
That engine is a beast!
A few snapshots from the vid:
Very cool thread.
On its way to celebrate 150 years of the transcontinental railroad, so here's another coin connection. Ames Monument, marking the original high point of the transcontinental railroad, near Laramie WY, with bas relief of the Ames brothers sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
Only slightly off topic, an Indian cent squished by Pres. McKinley's funeral train in 1901 sold on eBay recently for just over $100. Provenance on such artifacts is key to them having any value, and in this case the relevant details were counterstamped into the flattened coin.
Only one is a Big Boy. The other (844) is a FEF Northern. There is only one running 4-8-8-4 around.
cool I liked that video and was fun to watch. theres some good history there and a bygone era
That is a beast. Worked on a lot diesel locomotive engines (about forty years ago at C&NW, and some modifications for UP on their new engines, a few years later ), in another one of my trades, and another life.
That steam engine technology is fascinating, but EV technology is a game changer.
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The sound of a breathing steam engine is something you never forget. I remember them as a kid in the 50's. When the diesels came along it was just not the same sound.
I got to sit in the conductors lap and release the brake (with his help as I was not strong enough at age 8) and set the steamer into motion. What a thrill. My neighbor's dad was a conductor. Ran freight from SF to San Jose. The commuters were all diesels by then and we rode them too!
Had no trains in Carson City
bob
The Nevada State Railroad Museum is in Genoa, a little bit south of Carson City.
As a kid in the central valley, during the 1970s we had old rail beds behind the house and occasionally walking along them we could find bits of coal. But the best finds were date spikes that were driven into the ties - I have some still from the 1910s and 1920s.
Unfortunately there were no trains or tracks in Genoa back in my childhood. The old V&T tracks had long been pulled up and the nearest train was in Reno. We did have an engine parked outside the Museum that was fun to play on.
bob