extreme steam you gotta see

My May 2007 issue of Trains magazine has a feature on seven examples of “extreme steam you gotta see.”
I've seen three.
-One is Strasburg Railroad’s ex-Great Western decapod (2-10-0) #90.
Well, okay; it’s the only decapod running, and the strongest engine Strasburg has, but it's a teakettle.
-Another is 734 (whoa; lissen to this!), the ex-Lake Superior & Ishpeming consolidation (2-8-0), dolled up to look like a Wild-Mary consol, run by Western-Maryland Scenic Railroad out of Cumberland, Md.
I remember once returning from Cass, and we stopped in Cumberland to reconnoiter the railroads. All of a sudden I heard that whistle, and saw the cab. It stopped me in my tracks. I drove all over like a wild-man; an honest-to-God steam-engine.
Later I saw this thing storm the hill into Frostburg, Md., and it ain’t a teakettle.
The Western-Maryland Scenic is somewhat a challenge. It’s all uphill, but the line out of Cumberland is the Western-Maryland Connellsville Extension over the Alleghenies.
It twists all over, including famous Helmstetters Curve, but is fairly easy (the same as Horseshoe).
Near Frostburg it switches to a branch, the old Cumberland & Pennsylvania line to Frostburg.
It's quite a bit steeper; over 2%.
Getting up this grade means throttle-to-the-roof.
-The other one I've seen is “Big-Six,” an ex-Western Maryland shay on Cass Scenic Railroad.
It's not a typical logging shay: light.
It was built to operate a steep Wild Mary coal-branch with a grade of 9%; too steep for rod-engines.
“Big-Six” is reportedly the last shay ever built; built by Lima Locomotive in 1945.
It's so heavy Cass had to rebuild its infrastructure to support it. There's also a curve near the top it won’t negotiate without derailing.
It’s big, but it’s a shay. Yet the most impressive piece of equipment Cass has.

Yet all of these I wouldn’t call “extreme steam.”
Unfortunately I have Union-Pacific 3985 and Nickel Plate #765 in my past.
I’ve ridden behind both; and unlike the “extreme steam” engines, they aren’t tourist-line power.
I rode behind 3985 (a Challenger articulated 4-6-6-4), when it was still burning coal; but most impressive was “The Queen of the West End” — Nickel Plate 765.
765 isn’t as large as 3985, but boy-oh-boy!
About 15-20 years ago I flew to Charleston, W. Va. alone to ride the vaunted New River Train up the old Chesapeake & Ohio mainline through New River Gorge.
Slowly and majestically we chuffed out of the yard in Huntington, W. Va.
We switched onto the main, and they gave us the railroad — high green.
In no time 765 was boomin’-and-zoomin’; throttle-to-the-roof; 65-75 mph.
We’d whistle for grade-crossings; stand back; comin’ through; get outta the way.
Little kids were waving at trackside with their mothers; years ago that was me.
It’s an experience I’ll never forget — right up there with Big Daddy at Cecil-County. I was in the right dutch-door of the first car, and I wasn’t leaving.
Came home all covered in soot — looked like a coal-miner.
We passed a stopped coal-train in a siding: zoop-zoop-zoop-zoop! The hoppers flew by; I have it all on video-tape.
I timed the mile-markers: 55 seconds or less — that’s 70+ mph.
A gondola was behind the engine with a generator to power the first four cars.
That gon was a-rockin’-and-rollin’; twisting and bouncing all over. I have that on video too.

Those seven engines are all “extreme steam you gotta see;” but they ain’t “The Queen of the West End.” (SuperPower!)

“Wild-Mary” was the nickname given to Western Maryland Railway.

A rod-engine (like most steam railroad locomotives) had side-rods connected directly to the driving-wheels to power them. A shay used a geared universal shaft to power the drive-wheels with bevel-gears. It wasn’t as likely to slip as a rod-engine.

Both 3985 and 765 are rod-engines.

“Big Daddy at Cecil-County” is Don Garlitz at Cecil County Drag-o-way. I saw him race his fuel dragster during the summer of ‘65.

The “dutch-door” is much like a dutch-door; half open, and closed at the bottom. The doors on most railroad-coaches were dutch-doors.

The “The Queen of the West End” is the nickname given to 765 by Nickel Plate crews when it was operated in freight-service; i.e. before it was restored to be an excursion-engine.

“SuperPower” was the name given by Lima Locomotive Works to its ‘30s designs; the idea was to generate immense powah (steam) at speed. It was a selling-angle that made Lima. (Unfortunately, railroading is more drag-driven; but Lima sold a lot of SuperPower engines.)