1218

Yesterday was December 18, 2009; 12/18.
1218 was the last of Norfolk & Western Railway’s fabulous 1200-series A-class locomotives.
It was never scrapped.
1218 was converted into a stationary boiler, and used by Union Carbide.
Norfolk Southern Railroad restored it in 1987 for excursion service.


Ker-CHUFF, ker-CHUFF, ker-CHUFF, ker-CHUFF; HOOT-HOOT-hoot-HOOOOOOOOT!

1218 is a giant 2-6-6-4 articulated locomotive.
The only remaining locomotive larger is Union Pacific’s #3985, a 4-6-6-4.
The Norfolk & Western As were more powerful.
The 1200-series locomotives were freight engines, but could boom-and-zoom.
They had incredible steam capacity, and had been designed by the railroad.
They were essentially designed for the railroad.
And per Norfolk & Western operating practice, the idea was to use as little fuel (coal) as possible.
The As powered four cylinders directly with one boiler.
This was in contrast to its Y6 class (2-8-8-2), a compound.
“Compounding” was popular early in the 20th century, but most railroads gave up on it.
What compounds they had were converted to “simple;” the boiler powering all four cylinders directly.
But not Norfolk & Western.
They made compounding work, although the Y6 was more a pusher engine.
I rode behind 1218 once, a railfan excursion from Buffalo west on the old Nickel Plate.
It was awful.
A big hand doesn’t drop out of the sky to turn 1218.
Not like a model railroad.
To get it turned around we had to back at least 15 miles on Conrail; a foreign railroad, and a competitor.
—Another problem was 1218 was big and heavy. It was so heavy opposing freight-trains had to pass 1218 and its train stopped on the main.
In other words, the opposing freights passed on the sidings.
Management was afraid 1218 would spread the siding-rails.
—A third problem was watering the engine.
There were no longer water-towers, and great quantities of water are needed to make steam. (It’s not condensed; it’s thrown out the stack.)
1218 towed two tenders behind it. The front tender was the one it was built with, and the second tender carried only water.
Both tenders had to be refilled, and all there was was a single fire hydrant manned by a volunteer fire department.
The flow was putrid.
Refilling 1218’s tenders took almost three hours; out in the middle of nowhere.
I remember watching them turn 1218 on a tight wye.
It was raining, so the rail was slippery.
One driver-set would break traction and spin, while the other didn’t.
Adhesion was at a premium.
1218 backed gingerly at about 1 mph, crewmen walking along side. If a driver-set broke traction they had to stop everything.
Just wying it took hours.
Finally, 1218 ran short of coal about 20 miles from Buffalo. It was midnight, and diesels had to be sent out to rescue the train.
From Buffalo, of course. Took about an hour and a half.
We finally returned to Buffalo around 3 a.m.; utterly blasted.
That was supposed to be my final railfan excursion — I’d had enough.
But it wasn’t.
Later I rode behind restored steam-locomotive Nickel Plate #765 up New River Gorge in WV.
It was much better.
But railfan steam excursions had a habit of everything going wrong.

611.

My brother and I chased a similar excursion west out of Buffalo with restored Norfolk & Western J #611, a 4-8-4 built in 1950.
The poor thing broke something trying to turn on a wye at its western endpoint.
611 was crippled, and the railroad had to dispatch diesels to rescue the train.
From Buffalo, of course; about 90 miles east.
We drove home on the Thruway, but those poor passengers probably sat there for hours.
1218 had a very specific sound.
Ker-chuff, ker-chuff, ker-chuff, ker-chuff.
I’ve only heard that on one other engine: #3985, also an articulated.
A typical steam-locomotive, with only one driver-set, and two cylinders, goes “chugg, chugg, chugg, chugg.”
Four beats to the bar; four chuffs per one complete revolution of the driving-wheels.
Each side in one direction, and then each side in the other direction.
(Cf: Chuck Berry’s “Strummin’ to the rhythm that the drivers made,” in Johnny B. Goode.)
An articulated with two cylinders per driver-set also does four beats to the bar.
But since it has two driver-sets, you get “ker-chuff” as each piston set works.
Often the driver-sets work together, so then it isn’t “ker-chuff.” But when the drivers aren’t together, which they usually aren’t, it’s “ker-chuff.”
I’ve seen the number 1218 many times, most often at the Canandaigua YMCA, where a cardiovascular trainer is counting down the time remaining; twelve minutes, eighteen seconds.
I always take notice of it.
It reminds me of one of the most extraordinary steam-locomotives I’ve ever seen.
1218 is now retired, at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, VA.
Roanoke is where it was built in 1943.
I should note that “hooter” whistle.
Its whistle was not the usual multiple-toned chime found on most steam-locomotives.
It was just a single-toned “hooter.”