Last of the private steam locomotive collections? Even had a Big Boy... the Blount collection

looks like a Big Boy http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/big-boy-used-coal-so-fast-that-shovels.html

In the late 50's a seafood company founder began collecting steam locomotives... can a guy collect anything bigger? Has anyone? I doubt it.

Anyway, he made a small tourist attraction and called it Steamtown, moved it a couple times but didn't get very close to any major cities... he stuck it in Vermont.

Anyway, he died in 1967, at the age of 47 and without setting up a modicum of management to keep the trains in good condition, so they were sold off, neglected, and falling apart. The company that ran the collection moved from Vermont to Scranton, PA in 1984 after about 20 years of barely surviving, and went bankrupt in 1986

Congress was quick to make it a national park, and the park service now runs the train attraction as a learning center about 1850 to 1950 steam locomotives.

Read a bit more about it from the souce of my info: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6160936&postcount=20825

Great photo of a neglected passenger car from the Pennsylvania line

Found on http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=1041

Russian locomotive graveyard

For the whole gallery see http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/10/15/old-locomotives-from-a-storage-facility/#more-19715

What would you make a former diesel locomotive put onto a missile launcher chassis for? Mobile KW power plant?

from the great finds in English Russia http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/11/16/fantasy-of-russian-engineers/#more-24746

Logging trucks, trains, and look at the size of those logs!

Above via http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/

Driving the model T cars onto the tree trunk is wild, but a team of horses? Did they think about how they were going to get those horses to back up the whole way off that tree trunk?

that train on top of the bridge is cool... but what the freak! How long did it take them to make that bridge? And they had to have it pretty level for that train, believe it.

from http://www.barnorama.com/big-trees/

why do trains have to stop at ever station.. what if this way of switching cars could let the train roll on, not stop, saving energy and riders time?

Just skip to the 35 second mark and watch it to the 50 second mark, you'll get the idea without ever listening to a word of it, or wasting any time
found on http://www.bookofjoe.com/2010/12/26/index.html

The Camelback locomotive design, used in conjunction with the exceptionally wide Wooten firebox, not safe though

The "Camelback" design, which straddled the cab over the center of the boiler, allowed the exceptional width of the Wooten firebox, which burned lower BTU anthracite coal from Eastern Pennsylvania.

The Locomotives in the picture were also called "Mother Hubbards" among other names. They were discontinued from freight service because if a side rod broke, it would wipe out the cab and if on the engineer's side, the engineer also. In yard service they were much safer because of the lower speed which was not so likely to break a rod and sling it through the cab.
photo from http://www.shorpy.com/node/9335?size=_original

1933, 5:54pm, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit Long Beach. Imagine what the result of that catastrophe would be today in LA rush hour?

for a photo gallery, or to read about it: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-longbeach_1933earthquake-pg,0,3546233.photogallery

The Big Boy, used coal so fast that shovels couldn't feed it fast enough, so they built a conveyor belt direct from the coal to the firebox

photos from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=927

Happy holidays, and merry chistmas everyone

I believe the above image was taken by Scooter McRad http://scootermcrad.blogspot.com/ last year, and is one of the best hot rod Xmas photos I've come across

images from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=750

Wow, lowering a train body down onto the chassis. Amazing, just one of those things I've never given a moments thought to how it was made

Does that just blow your mind and make you wish you could hang around and watch while that happens?

GM Aerotrain

one has been preserved and is at the at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, and Car Nut commented to say that one is rusting away at the National Railway Museum in Greenbay Wisconsin

These photos are from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=477

great railcars (why a bus was made into a rail car is a mystery) found on the HAMB

I've never heard of a school bus being made into a railcar... I'd love to hear why this happened

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=477

It's been a while since I had train photos to post

from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=477

Everybody looks at train wrecks, only some train wrecks make us wonder how they happened!

Wonder how these two happened!

from http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=428585&page=477

the most famous was the French train that plowed out of the 2nd story of a building to the street below http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/02/one-of-most-impressive-photos-ive-seen.html