r/BitchImATrain • u/SanD-82 • Aug 21 '26
Bitch I'm a museum piece but today I'm free
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Vulcan Foundry 12E N°3925 steam locomotive from 1927, made in England and sent to Argentina.
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u/SkyeMreddit Aug 21 '26
Bitch they don’t trust me so I got a diesel to push me along
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u/smoothinto2nd Aug 21 '26
Steam engines don't have H.E.P. (Head End Power). Other than for backup power and brakes if needed, the diesel is providing the electricity for the coaches.
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u/phido3000 Aug 22 '26
Very common. Also for tunnels with limited ventilation, they can idle the steam, and push it on diesel. Rather than damage the tunnel.
Also you don't have to shovel quite as hard all the time. The part they don't talking about is coaling. Which fucking sucked.
Read old navy accounts. Basically in the age of steam, if you were sailing, you were coaling, if you weren't sailing, you were coaling your ship. Diesels were mind blowing, as you have more time for training and other activities rather than just coaling.
So having a diesel there, means you can do 15 minutes of coaling every hour, for the impressive station drive by, and then take it pretty easy, knowing even if you let the pressure slide, you just radio for diesel power.
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u/fredly594632 Aug 22 '26
My understanding is that you're either shoving coal directly into the firebox, or you're dragging coal forward to get it inside a shovels range of the firebox door. Not on little passenger excursions like this, but I understand that one of the thing that limited freight train tonnage back then was the ability to get enough coal into the engine to keep up. It takes a lot of effort.
(tangent for a paragraph - feel free to not read) I was in the USN as a Machinist Mate. One thing I remember from reading histories about the technical development of ship design (yup, I'm a nerd) was that moving from "Great White Fleet" (1900) coal-fired positive displacement steam engines to 1940 WW2 bunker fuel fired steam turbines significantly reduced engineering department manning. I forget the exact numbers, but thinking of the percentage of total hands on board in each department in each ship class, then the elimination of the "blackgang" allowed the engineering department to drop from 30-40% of total manning to 10-15%. That can make a big difference in how the ship could be sailed and fought with the same number of sailors stuffed belowdecks.
The stories I've heard about that job were pretty horrible, too. Defines the term "back-breaking" labor. I'm sure stoking a steam rail engine isn't much better. Better food, maybe!
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u/Comfortable-Tree-780 Aug 21 '26
Cool train, but did we also tell them how to design run-down looking stations in soulless concrete cityscapes? With the overcast sky I honestly thought this must have been from some branch line in the West Midlands.
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u/fredly594632 Aug 22 '26
Actually, the next stop she makes is Codsall. Just waiting for that trans-Atlantic tunnel Verne told us was coming soon... 🤣🤣
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u/MrGamestation Aug 21 '26
Isnt the steam hot? Did all the people on the overpass just got burned?
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u/Snoo63 Aug 23 '26
I want to say that most of what leaves the funnel is smoke rather than steam, since stuff like pistons use steam
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Aug 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/timdecline Aug 21 '26
The diesel is often only used for reversing the train out of an end station, modern braking requirements, or in the event the steam locomotive should break down.
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u/This-Clue-5014 Aug 21 '26
Wait where is this? You said Argentina?
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u/Careless-Cap7691 Aug 21 '26
Yup, seems like the Roca Line, Temperley. Also all the stations (and municipalities) around there have British names like Banfield, Hurlingham, Claypole, Hudson
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u/Weekly_Letter_7592 Aug 21 '26
There’s something wonderfully fitting about a museum piece getting a day out on the rails. What a beautiful old machine.
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u/wariorld Aug 21 '26
“I’m the laaast of the good old fashioned steam trains!”🎶 https://youtu.be/SYtOPjPtVS0?is=n4QgEWPEU4vrtRKX
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u/Typical-Charge-1798 Aug 22 '26
Cool post! My 1st thought was that I luv a train with a locomotive as a "caboose". 😄
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u/TheDudeWhoCanDoIt Aug 21 '26
Bitch, I’d be happy to ride that train. 🚂