Twin City Photos

What happens above is mostly cosmetic. The real work happens below.

Southern Pacific 4449 all steamed up and ready to go. It left the station in Northeast Minneapolis at 8:00 am 18 July, destination Chicago. Once it left the station, I got ahead of it and got a few more shots as it was passing the Jackson Street Roundhouse.

For other Monochrome Weekly photos check here.

Southern Pacific 4449 being worked on with what is affectionately known as the ‘blue wrench’. It goes along with another phrase sometimes used in the steel industry, ‘heat and beat to fit’. The blue wrench of course is a cutting torch, which has a blue flame. Once it touches steel … well you can see the result.

Mitchster will be riding on SP 4449 today down to Chicago. Have fun Mitch.

This is the engine room from which the engineers operated Locomotive 227. In the center you can see the coal shut leading underneath the boiler.

Locomotive 227 is located at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. Weighing in over 1 million pounds and capable of pulling a load of 36 million pounds, it has two separate ‘engines’, i.e. sets of powered wheels. Because of the locomotive’s length, the wheel sets are articulated, meaning they can ‘turn’ underneath the main body of the locomotive. This was necessary so the locomotive could handle the curves in the railroad tracks.

Looking at all the controls in the cab, one could almost imagine that the train engineers running this machine could probably have a go at running the space shuttle, aero issues excepted.

For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.

Another shot of engine 225. I’d love to understand how that mechanism functions as a ‘reverse gear’. Actually, locomotives don’t use gears in their drive line, but we’ll let them get away with description. Reversing gears has to be a big deal with a steam locomotive. Growing up in Germany, I saw quite a few coal fired locomotives. One of the more amazing sights is to see on of those locomotives spin their wheels, their version of a burnout. Hard to believe but they can do that.

Fair amount of processing done on this photo. Wanted it to look like a vintage photo. For other Monochrome Monday photos check here.