“Light Pacific?”

Woo-Woo-Wo-Woo! (Photo by Alex Mayes.)

As a member of the National Railway Historical Society (I’ve been a railfan well over 60 years), I get the NRHS Bulletin.
It had a picture (above) of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s K4 Pacific (4-6-2) #1361 on the back page running an excursion on the Pennsy main near Tipton, PA, which is near Altoona — home-base of the Railroaders’ Memorial Museum.
Altoona is the beginning of the grade into the Allegheny Mountains, and was the main Pennsy shop-town. —It once had over 4,000 employees.
The picture is in 1987, when 1361 was operable.
1361 is the K4 that had been on display at Horseshoe Curve many years (see picture below). It was built at Altoona Shops.


1361 on display at Horseshoe Curve, probably summer of 1968. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the Pentax Spotmatic camera.)

Unfortunately it was a mess — the railroad didn’t do much except shove the poor thing into position at the Curve.
They didn’t even cap the stack.
When it was finally pulled out, for possible return to operation, four feet of standing water was inside it.
It gushed out when they removed the smokebox front.
Doyle McCormack (of Southern Pacific #4449 fame, a restored 4-8-4 “Daylight” steam-locomotive — many Southern Pacific passenger trains were called “Daylights”), managed to get it running, despite it being a mess.
But it soon crippled — lunched a drive-axle bearing, and drive-axle shaft.
It was in such bad shape, it was decided a complete rebuild was needed.
So it was sent to Steamtown in Scranton and completely disassembled.
And now it looks like it may never run again.
At Steamtown it’s taking up space.
It’s occupying a stall Steamtown could use.
Steamtown has other operating steam-locomotives that need ongoing maintenance. They’re also restoring Boston & Maine Pacific #3713.
The Railroaders’ Memorial Museum in Altoona, which owns 1361, hoped to get it running again.
But it needed such extensive repair they were running out of money.
I remember seeing a complete new smokebox-saddle outside, fashioned using the old saddle as a pattern.
I bet if I went back today and did the Steamtown shop-tour, I’d probably find 1361 looking the same as five years ago.
Cab off, and I’m not sure the boiler is even on the frame........ And the famous Belpaire (“bell-pair”) firebox backhead is removed. You can see all the internal bracing.
The Bulletin captions 1361 as a “light Pacific.”
Well, I don’t know about that.
It sure ain’t “heavy.” That’s the K5. Only two were built — the massive 2-10-0 Decapod boiler on Pacific running-gear.
Not very successful, but the K4 was. The railroad had hundreds.
To me Pennsy’s “light Pacific” was the K2; a Pacific but a teapot.
The K4 was much stronger, and heavier.
But it’s a late ‘teens design.
Train-weights got to be too much for it.
Pennsy’s solution was to doublehead the K4s.
They couldn’t afford to develop a stronger replacement steam-locomotive. They were investing gobs of money into electrification, which left them with a surplus of steam-locomotives anyway.
New York Central’s “20th-Century Limited” might get by with only one Mohawk (4-8-2) or Niagara (4-8-4), but Pennsy’s “Broadway Limited” needed doubleheaded K4s.
That’s also two engine-crews up front. Steam-locomotives can’t be MU-ed (“multiple unit”) like diesel locomotives — e.g. one crew operating two or more locomotives; often as many as eight or more.
But Pennsy could afford multiple crewing. They were fabulously rich — a torrent of freight was shipping over their line.
Sadly, it sounds like the Railroaders’ Memorial Museum has given up on getting 1361 to run again.
They’re only considering reassembling it and putting it on display — in Altoona.
Much like many of the displayed steam-locomotives at Steamtown, including Reading (“RED-ing;” not “READ-ing”) #2124 (a 4-8-4 used in late ‘60s excursion service), and a Union-Pacific “Big Boy” (4-8-8-4), the largest steam-locomotive ever.
Quietly rusting away.
A K4 ain’t SuperPower, but that red keystone number-late is gorgeous.

• Horseshoe Curve, west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use.
• “Pennsy” is the Pennsylvania Railroad, no longer in existence. It merged with New York Central Railroad in 1968 as Penn-Central, and that tanked in about eight years. “Pennsy” was once the largest railroad in the world.
• RE: “‘Old guy’ with the SpotMatic.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). The “SpotMatic” is my old Pentax SpotMatic single-lens-reflex 35mm film camera I used about 40 years, since replaced by a Nikon D100 digital camera.
• Usually steam-locomotives stored outside for display have the smokestack capped, to keep water from entering the insides.
• The “smokebox-saddle” was the stamping at the bottom of the front smokebox (ahead of the boiler) the drive-piston pipes attached to. Exhausts went back into the smokebox aimed toward the stack; the fast-moving exhaust promoting a draft that fanned the fire.
• A “Belpaire firebox” is rectangular in shape. The top of the firebox wasn’t the same curvature as the boiler. Pennsy was the primary user of the Belpaire firebox in this country. A few others used it, but mainly Pennsy. —Adding a Belpaire firebox on the back of a boiler was challenging, since it didn’t match the boiler-barrel.
• The “backhead” is the rear plate of the firebox; often a stamping of heavy steel.
• A small steam-locomotive is often bad-mouthed as a “teapot.”
• The “Big Boy” is an articulated. —An “articulated” steam-locomotive has one driver-set hinged to the other, so the locomotive can bend through sharp turns (e.g. crossover switches). One driver-set (the rear) is attached to the boiler, but the other (front) is hinged, so it can angle off-center.
• “SuperPower” is a concept pioneered by Lima Locomotive Company in Lima, OH (“LYE-muh;” not “LEE-muh”) in the ‘20s and ‘30s — mainly increasing steaming capacity enough to keep up with high speeds. —Prior to “SuperPower,” a steam-locomotive would often “run out of steam” at high speed. SuperPower tried to also maximize starting power. It was Lima’s angle into the steam-locomotive market; but not well suited to most railroad operation, which is slow. To increase steam capacity, Lima enlarged the boiler and firebox. It also employed other stationary boiler tricks to increase steam capacity; e.g. feedwater preheating, etc.