How To Fire Up a Steam Locomotive [4K]

•A step-by-step video, with descriptions, on how to fire up a coal-burning steam locomotive. The entire 6 - 7 hour process was shortened down to ~37 minutes in this video to highlight most of the main points.

•The locomotive seen in the video is Denver and Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) mikado (2-8-2) #491, one of the largest narrow gauge locomotives ever created. It now runs at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado. It has ~37,100 pounds of tractive effort, and weighs ~150 tons or ~302,000 pounds. It was built in 1928 by the D&RGW Burnham shops in Denver, Colorado using the boiler off of a standard gauge D&RGW 2-8-0. #491 is a pristine example of a locomotive perfectly suited for rugged, mountain climbing work.

•Copyright 2017 Jeff Berrier All Rights Reserved

[JeffBerrier]

*_New videos are in the works!_*
Sorry it has taken so long, but this has been a very busy year for me so far!
*_An Update:_*
• In January, _The Walt Disney Company_ found me and presented an offer I could not decline to join their roundhouse crew that takes care of the 5 steam locomotives as well as the steamboat at Disneyland.
• The roundhouse at Disneyland is very much so off limits to the public so creating videos there is not permitted (as of right now).
• I travel back home (Colorado) very frequently to help out as well as do contract work with the various railroads in the state (Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, Colorado Railroad Museum, etc.).
• During these trips to work on the locomotives out in Colorado, I come up with new ideas for videos and collect all the footage I can to create them.

Thanks for everyone's patience and new videos will be out very soon!
-Jeff Berrier

For more content from me, see my Instagram:

Or my new FaceBook page:

[delet]

-gets straight to the point
-no clickbait
-no commentary
-no annoying intro
-is actually simple to understand
-steam locomotive

11/10

[Incognito-vcwj]

Thankyou for not adding music. This is the sound we want to hear!

[AvaToccoRodriguez]

“A manual transmission is the best anti-theft device!”

Railroad technicians: “That’s cute.”

[mtfgamma]

I was the fireman for 481 in the D&SRR for one summer back in my 20's, Loved every minute of it.

[staticalphabetsoup]

Really makes you appreciate the lads who Tokyo drifted the polar express

[austinhall]

The most impressive part was how this young engineer looks to be no more than 20... impressive to watch anyone operate one of these, but someone as young as him bring this beast to life and operate it like second nature is unbelievable. Hats off to you, my friend.

[meestahwah]

I loved that the engineer was a younger fellow. These things need new recruits to keep the knowledge alive for the next generation to enjoy. My cap is off to the fellow seen doing most of the work in the video here. Thanks for being interested!

[armchairrocketscientist]

Cowboys were cool to me as a kid... but an engineer was something even cooler.

I have so much respect for my two great grandads, and my grandpa who all worked on the railroad.

One of my great grandpas fired the UP 844.

[TheExplosiveGuy]

It's incredible how much engineering goes into these engines. I work at a machine shop specializing in big parts, and last year we spent nine months completely overhauling a White Pass steam locomotive, including boiler, wheels, brakes, steam lines, pistons, all moving parts, the whole works. Gave me a lot more respect for the people that used to make these, especially when you consider the fact it was all done by hand or in a manual machine. Sure made us feel good watching that thing chooch up and down our 300' test track after it was all said and done. Lol the entire town showed up to check it out when we were testing it, we had over 300 people in the parking lot. People do love steam locomotives...

Great video, It's awesome seeing names and functions being put to so many of the parts I helped repair. Lots of the parts we repaired we had no idea what they were, we just knew that they were broken and needed to be fixed. Good stuff.

[dhdoctor]

You don't start a steam locomotive. You bring it to life!

[RNJuiceable]

I'm overwhelmed by the attention to detail, the care and, well, there's no other way to put it-- the obvious love for a machine and a trade that I did not expect from someone so young! I'd only expect this sort of knowledge and respect from folks 50+ years older like my dad's dad who did this sort of thing! We've all been blessed by such a terrific, thorough educational video. Thank you for this.

[KameraShy]

Great to see young guys interested in preserving these. I am old enough to remember when the steam locos were in regular service. You cannot imagine how powerful these were until experiencing them rolling through town, just overwhelming the environment. My father worked locally for Electro-Motive from its very beginning in the 30's in developing and manufacturing the diesels. As always, economics ruled and the steamers faded away. But I can still remember a few in active service as late as the mid 50's.

[PierreCC]

This is the kind of video that should be added to all railway museum displays. I had no real idea what it took to start these machines from cold. Even if you chatted with those who operate these trains, you still do not get a clear idea of what it takes to fire these machines up until now! Thank you Jeff.

[insas]

Love the way he uses just the correct amount of torque while working with critical parts. The care and deliberation of his movements show a master craftsman at work.

[jonka]

Thank you for this fascinating video and thank you again to the makers for not polluting the quietness with music.

[luederkerr]

Brought back memories. Worked as fireman for CPR when I was 19. At that time (1956) about half our power was steam, some hand bombers the rest stoker fired, coal of course. When all steam dissappeared so did I.

[evanhoozier]

Looked at the time and thought "37 minutes who the hell wants to watch that" but after I was transfixed for 37 minutes I just wanted more. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

[Woody]

Now THIS is the type of video I've been looking for for a long time. Informative, entertaining, and most importantly, without the crap music background. I could almost smell the combination of smoke, steam, and grease. LOVE it. Think of all the hundreds of thousands of men who used to do this at the height of the railroad era.

Also, 6 to 7 HOURS to fire it up? WOW.

[thornil]

I was there when they were repairing an old Baldwin. Those guys are volunteers and it is a total labor of love. What they do is amazing.