Santa Fe How to Operate a Steam Locomotive

[ryandavis]

Thank you for removing the commercials. This is an excellent film. I have five oil burners under my belt at this point. No two fire exactly the same.
SP3420
GB&L40
GB&L 12
GB&L 14
And
AT&SF 3415
I have fired nothing but the oil burners. What a joy.

[rainriderpnw]

This was not foolproof.It required a brain to operate and maintain.

[frankmarkovcijr]

To be a steam locomotive engineer and run a big modern engine you have to have seniority. You started out as an unpaid student fireman until you booked enough trip. Then you fired for 5 or 10 years. You work your way up from switching in a yard to a local, to Mainline Freight passenger service and then up to named passenger trains you got paid by the weight on the drivers of the locomotive. The bigger engine you operated the more money you made. You had to learn steam by doing it's not something you read in a book. Steam locomotive engineers derisively call diesel engineer's motor men like it was a trolley car huge insult. If you ignored or mistreated a steam locomotive would kill you no doubt about. There was a picture in the locker room of the Pennsylvania Railroad of an I10 decapod that had exploded next to the running gear were two covered bodies. My uncle always used to say the rule book Was Written in Blood. My aunt used to say that's the only spoke with words to her husband when he left for work because if he died that day he did not want his last words to be cross ones. Steam is a man's profession

[pauls.]

Great to see this. Now I know more about my grandpa who was an engineer for 37 years with Western Pacific & operated throughout the Feather River Canyon in N. California..

[manuelkong]

3463 is a BEAUTIFUL engine....I've visited it many times in Topeka KS
GREAT proportions....HUGE driving wheels!
She REALLY should run again someday

[danielthoman]

Just as with many things, there is a lot more to it than you think. Steam locos of that era were some complicated machines.

[anthonyvallillo]

One thing that strikes me is how old these two guys look. Indeed, from what I have read about the steam era, including the outstanding "Set Up Running", engineers in the steam era were usually older than modern retirement age, and even the firemen in many eras were "over the hill" by today's standards. And for such a physically demanding pair of jobs, at that! They must have made real men in those days...

[thefareplayer]

93 mph...so faster than most Amtrak trains nowadays with a 1940s steam locomotive. 😔

[isaiahwilliams]

I wish nothing but the best for your plans on 3463!

[dustbowlhammer]

Rule number one, always have a big cigar hangin out your mouth. 😂

[johnstudd]

It's not hard to figure out why diesels were readily accepted, besides the maintenance - efficiency - availability benefits. Those steam locos were a bear to operate! Yes there was some change and something lost in the transition, but I bet the average engineer did not mind the switch once getting used to the diesels.
I don't think I heard it mentioned in this video, but would there have been some sort of steam "cut off" lever to adjust the amount time that the steam is admitted to the cylinders in relation to the travel and position of the piston? Just another lever to operate! lol

[marksman]

Damn it takes more to check a steam locomotive than a diesel.

[BeingRomansed]

You had to have 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 to operate a steam locomotive! Good thing Charley Pratt was the engineer of The Hooterville Cannonball, and not Floyd Smoot!

[cmcer]

Great video with a lot of information on how to operate. I am sure there is a lot more to it than just that. I see a lot of knowledgeable people committing on various things about the steam locomotive. Cool information esp. if I ever get to operate one.

[kevp]

I Love this YouTube Video so Much. :-D

[pravoslavn]

I can tell this is a modern narration. No one said "reverser" in steam days. It was always "REVERSE BAR." "Reverser" is strictly a word from the Diesel-age. HA!

(And yes, I go back to late steam days in the 1950s.)

[dennislivesey]

Outstanding! What a gem of a training film. Thank you for letting us this.

[galenhof]

It's no wonder that steam locomotives were phased out....extremely labor and maintenance intensive

[fiddlerpin]

It’s a wonder there was enough oil in that oil can!

[donl]

Well good. Now if see an unattended steam locomotive sitting on the track I can take one out for a joy ride.