I saw a Facebook video about this engine. Zig Zag Railway in Australia. They had made mention the 'only thing American involved is the engine' when the individual that was recording reffered to them as Fireman and Engineer, but in Austalia its Fireman and Driver.
More information here: Zig Zag Railway
In reply to DjGreggieP :
I was going to say, quite American-looking power other than the couplers and buffers, and the tender trucks.
Of course, there was quite a bit of American influence down there.
New South Wales Government Railways' streamlined C38 4-6-2, like #3801 (kind of their equivalent to #611), was based directly on the New Haven I5 4-6-4s, at least stylistically.
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Also, the South Australian 520 Class 4-8-4s bore a strong resemblance to a Pennsy T1, albeit much smaller and lighter and with a more conventional running gear arrangement.
One of the weirder overseas tourist lines is the Brecon Mountain Railway, a 1-foot, 11 and 3/4 inch narrow gauge railroad in Wales that has styled themselves after the Maine two-footers. Yeah, that's an odd choice. They currrently have two operational Baldwin steam locomotives, both rather American in appearance. The #1 was a 60cm gauge 2-6-0 built by Baldwin for a Brazilian railway, regauged to 2'6" for a Venezuelan sugar mill, then again to the Brecon Mountain's sub-2-foot gauge, as well as being converted to a 2-6-2.
They also have the #2, which was a 2-foot gauge Baldwin 4-6-2 built for Eastern Province Cement Co. in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was wrecked in 1974, aand was treated as an accident write-off by the South African insurers. Brecon Mountain purchased it as salvage, shipped it to the UK as deck cargo and rebuilt it there between 1993 and 1997.
Obviously the stuff is very American in appearance, but even more unusual is that they've launched a program to construct two new locomotives. One, the #3, will be an entirely new construction from the original Baldwin blueprints of the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad #23, a 2-6-2 tender engine that was the largest in Maine two-footer power.
The second will be an exact replica of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad 2-4-4 Forney tank engine #10, again from the original Baldwin blueprints.
It's pretty amusing that a railroad in Wales has latched onto American 2-footers for inspiration, and are actively rebuilding long-extinct engines.
In reply to NickD :
They are British after all. "Give an Englishman a piece of metal and he will do something silly." seems to apply throughout the Empire.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
It's just funny that they are so devoted to an honestly pretty small, obscure footnote of American railroading in Wales of all places. The Maine two-footers were, as the name suggests, entirely restricted to the state of Maine, there was only like five "major" railroads (Bridgton & Saco River/Bridgton & Harrison, Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes, Kennebec Central, Monson Railroad, and Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington) and two of those were under 10 miles in length (Kennebec Central was 8 miles, Monson was 6.75 miles) and all were gone before WWII. There's not even any surviving 2-footer 2-6-2s in the US (one outlasted thee SR&RL by a year, just to be scrapped) and no one is working on a replica here.
The Maine Narrow Gauge Museum does make a technical claim to owning the heaviest 2-footer engine ever built, Bridgton & Saco River 2-4-4T #8. Going off of just engine weight, the #8, with it's integrated coal and water bunker, does outweigh one of the SR&RL 2-6-2s without it's tender. They are working on trying to get the #8 operational again.
East Broad Top posted these photos with the caption, "Sharp-eyed railfans in the Rocky Mountains have already spotted a narrow-gauge diesel locomotive making its way east from Durango, Colorado!" At first, looking at the three-axle truck and knowing it was coming from Durango, I was thinking D&S was already selling one of the Alco/MLW DL-535Es, but it's been confirmed that it is D&S #1203. The #1203 is a 70-tonner, end cab H.K. Porter diesel built in 1947 overseas sales, but ultimately ended up at US Gypsum's Plaster City operations. It was then sold off in 1979 and it went up to Huckleberry Railroad in Michigan, ran there until 1990, when it was removed from service. It was sold to Georgetown Loop in 2005, then moved to Sumpter Valley Railroad for overhaul and replacing the Cooper-Bessemer prime mover with an Alco 6-251, and then ran at Georgetown Loop until 2017. In 2017, it was traded to Durango & Silverton for their 92-ton GE center cab, #9. Now it's coming east to East Broad Top, with two EBT hoppers heading west in exchange.
The #1203 in work train service at D&S.
NickD said:I didn't catch the middle gentleman's name, but on the right, that's Ross Rowland, who at points in time owned and operated sister engines #2100 and #2101, as well as C&O #614. On the left is Steve Wickersham, who was notably part of Rowland's crew that did the miracle 90-day overhaul of #2101 to get it ready for the American Freedom Train.
Ah-ha, the identity of the man in the center was solved for me from a post by him on Facebook: "
An Almost 60 Year Steam Reunion! Steve Wickersham, Hank Webber, and Ross Rowland (L-R). Steve is the former C&O 614 engineer and mechanic from the early 1970's. Ross and I are former officers from The High Iron Company which he incorporated in 1966. We used steam locomotives CP 127 and NKP 759 to operate our more than 75 excursions from 1966-1973. What a gas!
This portrait was done Saturday February 8, 2025 in Reading along side engine 2102, one we were all involved with, some way or another, some 50 years ago. A great time with great friends!
Should you have an interest in my book, "The History of The High Iron Company" it's available on Amazon."
The #1203 has arrived at East Broad Top. Interestingly, the EBT plans to renumber the locomotive as #19, in line with the steam locomotives, instead of following the expected internal combustion equipment convention and numbering it M-8. Also, kind of sad to see it lose the #1203 number, which it has worn across multiple different owners since 1946. I'm hoping that the paint is either the dark green of the passenger cars, or black like the steam locomotives, with orange letttering, and not the bright red and green of the M-7. It sounds like the plan is to use this more on passenger trains during the off-peak times or when the steam engine is receiving work, while the M-7 will be relegated more towards work trains.
And they have it back on it's trucks already.
I was scrolling through YouTube and saw this thumbnail and got a solid chuckle. "Look, ma, I'm on TV." Yeah, that's me in the thumbnail in the Carhart and jeans, talking with Pete Swanson and his son Jack, who also live in NY and who I've bumped into a bunch of times (Both R&N RDC charters, the Arcade & Attica charter, the AAPRCO convention on FGLK, and the June 22nd Ramble last year).
A gentleman named Eric Jones has been making a bunch of snow sculptures out in western NY, and he made this 1000 cu. ft. sculpture for Arcadee & Attica of one of their famd orange and black center cab GEs.
Timeless Rail Expeditions, which is the railroad charter group formed by the guys that ran the Arcade & Attica charter with the center cabs, are teasing a charter with A&A 2-8-0 #18. They made a post with this caption and photo: "Things are getting a bit smokey at Timeless Rail Expeditions! Stay tuned to our Facebook page for an exciting announcement!"
I really hope it's on a day that I don't have an autocross, because I really would like to go. I didn't go out and chase the #18 last year because really there's only two or three places to catch it on the regular Arcade-Curriers run, and some of the most scenic bits of the line are north of Curriers towards North Java and Java Center (cough Ghost Pond cough). So a charter would likely get some photo opportunities at locations you don't normally get.
Ghost Pond, which I mentioned in the last photos, was the highlight location of the Arcade & Attica charter from back in 2023. This is north of Curriers, so regular excursions, never go through here, only special charters and revenue freight. But the #18 sure would look neat through here.
Nick, I've often wondered if it made any difference in a long freight train, where the cars were placed? Does it matter where the heavy loads and empties go? Seems like you wouldn't want something like 50 loads then 50 empties, then 50 loads, 
then the engines.
Does that do funny things in curves?
In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :
It absolutely matters. You get what's called "string-lining" where it'll yank those lighter cars off the track to the inside if the curve. Empty center-spine flat cars are the worst culprits for causing string-lining. It used to be when trains were assembled in yards, there was very careful consideration placed towards train composition to prevent stuff like that. Under today's "Precision Scheduled Railroading" operating philosophy though, trains are assembled in the order that cars need to be set out, tp reduce time spent switching, regardless of weights, and string-lining is now much more common. DPUs (Distributed Power Units), which are remote controlled engines cut into the middle of the train, do help mitigate it somewhat, but you still see the Class Is yanking trains off the insides of the curves fairly frequently.
In reply to NickD :
Well this is pretty crazy. Some idiot purposefully parked his pickup on the tracks before a Mardi Gras parade because he wanted to cause a disturbance. Mission accomplished.
Slidell man accused of deliberately causing train accident during Krewe of Titans parade
In reply to NermalSnert (Forum Supporter) :
Two separate photos showing string-lining, you can see how in both the cars are pulled to the inside of the curve, and in both instances empty center-spine flatcars are the culprit.
Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:Well this is pretty crazy. Some idiot purposefully parked his pickup on the tracks before a Mardi Gras parade because he wanted to cause a disturbance. Mission accomplished.
Slidell man accused of deliberately causing train accident during Krewe of Titans parade
And now he gets to learn that when it comes to messing with trains, the prosecution is on a whole 'nother level. Often it's charged on a federal level, because you're messing with interstate commerce.
In reply to NickD :
"Precision Scheduled Railroading" Real time saver, isn't it.
An interesting account from East Broad Top by Lee Rainey and Frank Kyper mentions that the EBT had two proposals from General Electric when considering dieselization:
The first one, from 1953, called for four narrow gauge units of 600hp. and weighing 80 tons each, plus a comparable standard gauge unit for service at the dual-gauge yard at Mount Union. Based on weights and capability, the narrow gauge units would have been based on the 70-tonner model GE sold, and would have been on C-C trucks, much like the Porter that's been acquired, while the standard gauge unit would have been on B-B trucks. At a price of $106,000 per unit (or $530,000 total), this would have been a serious issue for a railroad that had an income of $500,000 per year.
The second proposal was from 1955. By this time traffic was dropping off rapidly, as coal customers began buying coal from other suppliers that had better geology and more productive mining techniques, plus the general decline of coal for purposes like home heating. This second proposal, written while considering the already reduced operations, called for two 550hp 65-ton center cab units for narrow gauge service (probably on B-B trucks), and a stock 35 ton (single truck) standard gauge unit for work at Mount Union. The price was a much more attractive $175,000 for all three units, but the management decided maybe the writing was on the wall, and went in for abandonment instead.
Had the EBT decided to go with one of the GE proposals, certainly the steam engines, including the two Mt Union switchers, would have been scrapped to help pay for the new engines. What would have survived today may have been a very different narrow gauge. Thankfully that never came to pass.
Well, it was announced on Saturday that Timeless Rail Expeditions and Dynamo Productions will be jointly hosting a charter on the Arcade & Attica on May 4th. It will feature both 2-8-0 #18 and Alco RS-3u #114. The #18 will be turned on the Arcade Junction wye to face south, for better lighting, and#18 and #114 will both be featured on passenger and freight consists. It will start at noon and go until 10:00pm, with the night portion to be lit with constant flood lighting, including static scenes and runbys, and period props and actors will be used to build scenes. Sadly it will only operate as far north as Curriers, so no shots at Ghost Pond, but the fact that we're getting both #18 and #114 is neat. When I was there two years ago, it was supposed to be a two-day affair, with the #112 and #113 on Friday and the #114 on Saturday, but B&P was late delivering the #114, so that part got scratched. So, I got a ticket as soon as it was announced, and that was a good call, because it was sold out in 24 hours.
Nevada Northern has acquired a Brill M-55 doodlebug from Colebrookdale Railroad. This car was built by J.G. Brill in August of 1930 for Sperry Rail Service, as car #116, then renumbered to #121. From there it went to the Remington Arms Co. for moving ammunition around at one of their plants, I've heard some say that it was at the Illion, NY plant and other say it was at the Bridgeport, CT plant. Remington retired it in '53 and it kicked around a bunch of different operations; Valley Railroad in CT, Mount Dora Scenic Railway in FL, Belvidere & Delaware Railway in NJ, Arizona Eastern Railway in AZ, Black River & Western in NJ and then Colebrookdale in PA. The car was originally powered by a Continental R6572 inline 6-cylinder gasoline engine but that was replaced by a 396 big block Chevy with a TH400 transmission at one point (I'm reminded of a museum that had a trolley that had a 110hp Corvair motor and transmission installed). I saw it at Colebrookdale, and they were the ones that gave it the cream and blue paint, but I don't think they operated it much, and that thing's bounced around the US a ton. NN is saying that the plan is to use it for the "Ping-Pong Special", a back-and-forth 1 mile run from Nevada Northern Railway Museum to the White Pine Public Museum, which is a perfect use for a doodlebug.
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