I’ve always wanted to live the mid-20th Century experience of riding a Pullman Sleeper hauled by a steam locomotive roaring through the night and while I have been fortunate enough to ride steam excursions many times and even do an overnight ride on an original Pullman car, I’ve never been able to do them together.Is there anywhere in the world where I can actually still take an overnight train hauled by a steam locomotive? The closest I’m aware of is the modern Orient Express being steam-hauled through Hungary as a one-time thing in 2017 and the Cumbres and Toltec possessing a restored tourist sleeper coach (idk if it’s ever been used in that role).
This combination does not work and has never worked well. Sleepers have the problem of being freight-like, with many cars and complicated and bothersome servicing needs, while steam locomotives are temperamental and unreliable for regular service (hence why it's monthly for schtick and tourists)
>>2067995I imagine the single biggest issue would be the sheer amount of noise a steam locomotive generates making it difficult to sleep (in regular service, this was partially offset by placing RPO, baggage, restaurant, and coach cars at the front of the train and sleepers to the rear).>while steam locomotives are temperamental and unreliable for regular service (hence why it's monthly for schtick and tourists)Could work in modern times as a seasonal thing (2-4 times a year), and having a steam locomotive only haul the train part-way.Say you wanted to inaugurate PRR 5550 with a recreation of the Broadway Limited (albeit using private Pullman cars from different railroads because there probably aren’t enough surviving PRR ones alone to put together a full consist). You could have the train start in New York hauled by the T1 until it reaches Altoona five hours later (around 10:30PM according to the 1938 timetable, or roughly when most people start getting ready for bed), then uncouple the locomotive and have it hauled the remainder of the trip by Siemens Chargers.
no there arent coaling stations everywhere so steam trains are limited to short journeys or being cuckolded by diesel/electric locos
>>20680271. A large number of still operable steam locomotives are oiled fired now.2. Coaling stations are only really needed when you have steam trains running constantly. A truck loaded with coal driving out to a specified refueling point could do the same job for one locomotive. Same thing with water.
>>2068027If nothing else, you can literally couple a hopper car to the front of the train and have it carry its own fuel.Pic related, Niles Canyon Railway carrying its own water in a converted tanker car since they don’t have any operational tender engines right now.
>AI slop OPa Brooks thread died for this
>>2067924I must be the only railfan who detests steam locomotives. I don't like the aesthetic, they're needlessly loud, the exhaust is even worse for you than huffing diesel fumes.Electric is the best, diesel works, steam died for a reason.
>>2068071Actually not AI, op's image is the kind of material that AI slop models were trained on, you've just had your brain fried by exposure to the sloppa:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Franklin_WittmackYou can cultivate a similar disgust response with text, I did that to myself once by accident while trying to fine tune a model. For some time after, genuine human-created text read like nonsensical garbage, because my brain had learned to reject the appearance of meaningfulness and treat all word sequences as random
>>2068924>I suppose you could charter the train on the mainline of a Class IProbably not. If it has old journal box bearings, it's banned from interchange and nobody will allow it on their property
>>2068927What you need for mainline running is a lot of water and a proper bl00dy train ;)Its successor is in the shop.
>>2068932>bl00dyWhy?
>>2068933Having a mishmash of non-matching rolling stock isn't exactly a pretty sight. SP 4449 and N&W 611 used to haul their original coaches and looked better for it but the consists have been broken up and dispersed to different owners since the 90s.Kinda sad if you ask me. I'd love to see 4449 in particular pull a recreation of the original Coast Daylight route from Los Angeles to San Francisco using its original cars (or at least ones that have been appropriately repainted to match it).
