I feel like it’s worth bringing up the Welsh narrow gauge in the UK in this case - Talyllyn and Dolgoch were built in 1864 and 1866 respectively, and are still in service on the same line today, albeit under preservation since 1951. As far as I can tell the longest either has been out of service was 13 years. EDIT - a lot of folks are bringing up that Talyllyn was laid aside for a long time at one point - I’m including that in the 13 year number. No. 1 was originally the more popular of the two and as far as I can see in all sources, remained in traffic until 1945 despite increasingly poor condition. Dolgoch then became the only engine in service until 1952; No. 1 would go on to reenter traffic in 1958.
Also the purchased locos after their original purpose came to an end. Mountaineer (built in USA 1917 for use in france) at the ffestiniog helped them during their early restoration in the 70s and was a mainstay until 2006 when she was sidelined (now being restored)
Prince of the Ffestiniog Railway could also be considered. Built in 1863, it was in operation until 1936 (73 years). It was never retired, but was still under overhaul when the railway stopped running in 1946. The company was taken over by enthusiasts in 1954, and the overhaul of Prince was completed until 1955. Since then Prince has been in operation for another 69 years.
@@thefaulnt3562 you’d be surprised. I know a Maine 2 footer that served on the majority of Maine’s narrow gauge railroads. It still survives and operates today. Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway No.9
G233 'Leschenault Lady' was built in 1898, and served the West Australian Government Railways until about 1968. And then was effectively still operated and maintained by the WAGR in tourist excursion service for the next 25-odd years, despite her and sister G123 'Koombana Queen' being gifted to the Bunbury Tourist Bureau and subsequently the Leschenault Railway Preservation Society. This later became the South-West Rail & Heritage Centre, and ended up in Boyanup, WA. Formal ownership of G233 was in fact only handed over from Westrail (as the WAGR rebranded themselves in the 70s) to Rail Heritage WA in 1995. 97 years of regular operation in Government Railways ownership.
Excellent episode! I just wrote an article on the UP #844 for R&R celebrating her 80th. But in my head, I like to celebrate any steam engine still running whether there has been a lull in her service or not for whatever reason. So that's my personal quest...find the oldest by build date.
I'd like to nominate the New South Wales Government Railways 19 Class, specifically 1905. The locomotive was built in 1877 by Beyer and Peacock and operated under NSWGR and it's subsequent rebrands all the way until July 1972, almost 100 years after its construction.
Well worth watching some great film of the 19 class from the Australian National Film and Sound Archive late in normal service and an interview with one crew that manned them : ua-cam.com/video/S0izTlCTHJc/v-deo.htmlsi=a5zV1yHpGjQJxmQu
The fact that the Rocket, albeit loaned to the Franklin Institute, was still owned by the Philadelphia & Reading when it was absorbed by Conrail, where ownership was technically transferred to them, and then once again to...whichever railroad gained it in the split between CSX and Norfolk Southern, leaving the locomotive still in ownership for ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS with somehow _nobody_ realizing until last year is freaking hilarious!
Since it was in Philadelphia when Conrail was split up, the owner was still Conrail, as strange as that sounds, because CSX and NS were given joint ownership over the areas neither side was willing to give up.
i was talking about this topic earlier with a friend of mine. i’m glad that you guys dove into this rabbit hole! railroad ownership or not, they’re all the same locomotive in my eyes. if i’m correct, D&SNG 473 is either the most or one of the most continuously operated steam locomotives in the world. the longest she was out of service was about a year at most. it’s crazy to think the longest rostered locomotive hasn’t been talked about as much as it should
I came here to say this, with the 478 right with it. 476 was down for quite some time but 473 has barely ever not been actively running and always in the shop for real repairs.
Several of the 1877 built New South Wales Z19 class 0-6-0 engines were kept in service by the New South Wales Government Railways from their introduction in 1877 until final retirement in 1972, a service life of 95 years. As a result, they outlived several generations of steam (and even some diesel) types built to replace them. Photos exist of these locomotives, an Australian version of the Stephenson “long boiler” type, shunting next to brand new Alco C/M636 locomotives on delivery from Sydney to the Pilbara.
Need to show Cass Scenic Railroad shay 5 some love in this video. Been running the same mountain for companies based out of Cass since 1905 and was never retired, and never been out of service more than 15 years.
This is a dumb shout out, but thank you Mark for encouraging me (through your videos) to be a FEBT member. Those folks are doing amazing work. But again, thank you for the work you do through content creation.
Cass Scenic’s Shay 5 has been operating on the same railroad line since 1905 when it was shipped new to Cass. It kinda falls into the exceptions though as ownership changed (and is now owned by the State of WV), it did run on other parts of the line other than Cass hill (though was still serviced at Cass shops) and it was taken out of service for a couple of years after being used as a stationary boiler for the Cass mill. (The cylinders were cracked during a hard freeze due to neglect). Luckily she and the railroad was saved and rebuilt, and is the most special and probably beloved locomotive in the Cass roster. The MSLRHA webpage has a wonderful library of the history of the Cass locomotives for those interested.
That's corporate bureaucracy for you... corporations sometimes forgot such things such as asset ownership, especially if said asset is from the earliest days of the company's existence.
In Britain there are a few examples of locos being used for 30, 40, even 50 years. LB&SCR A1X Terrier class number 55 "Stepney" was built in 1875, withdrawn in 1960. The Terriers are super cute btw, lovely little 0-6-0 tank engines.
honestly yea, he should get together some of his friends more well versed in british engines and go over this topic from the perspective of the lil narrow gauge british stuff thats lasted stupendously long despite kinda being a meme (long live the mini garrets) as well as the safe haven the isle of white became during British rails massacre of steam.
@@Jonstrains21 Technically, Furness Railway No. 3, "Old Coppernob" was owned by the railway after its service life ended, only being moved from Barrow after it was hit by a german bomb in WW2
And still the EBT continues to amaze me learning this fact about 15. Can’t wait for my yearly visit in the summer. Was excited to hear they got state grants for the bridges enroute to Saltillo
You mentioned the drgwr narrow gauge who served under diffrent companies. I shall mention (CSRR) #5 it has worked at Cass for about 120 years and it never worked anywhere else. Plus if we talkin oldest operational geared locos its CSRR #5. I know it worked under a couple companys. It workes under WestVaco lumber company then the mower lumber company bought the railroad and equipment from WestVaco. Then it was under CSRR. But it was never sidelined for long. It was working on taking up the rails.
This gets me thinking about what it's like here in germany. The thing is we had some "changes in management" here aswell as having to pay reparations twice. So our locomotives went EVERYWHERE. My guess is the longest serving has to be one of the prussian P8s. Class 38 number 1772 was built in 1915 for the Royal Prussian Railway and served until 1975, surviving 2 changes in railroad organization, 3 changes in government and 2 world wars. The 38s went everywhere tho, so there might be one of the pre-WW1 locomotives that went to eastern europe and served even past 1975.
38 2267 is also a candidate: Operated from 1918 to 1972. Was oficially taken out of service in 1980 and put on a pedistal as a monument. Taken of in 1991 and ran again in 1992. So you could argue it never went out of service more then 15 years an has been running continuesly
Oh I can think of ONE conundrum thats even MORE subjective...oldest surviving operable locomotives...because most (if not all) locos get MORE that *wear parts* like flues and staybolts replaced now and then....The most common phrase I've heard is *great-gran-dads axe* you know OMG its AMAZING we STILL usewe that axe he got over 100 years ago...of course we DID replace the handle 4 or 5 times and the head split once, and the lil wedge in the top got lost once or twice and got replaced...but WOW its still amazing its lasted this long.....
What a fascinating history lesson Mark! Your video really explains the important legacies of the railroads through surviving steam locomotives. They are tangible connections to the past and, to echo you Mark, we are so fortunate to have them survive to the present (whether on static exhibition or in service). Seeing these choo choos stirs emotions of awe upon experiencing their sounds, movement and just plain beauty. It’s even more amazing when you consider that a locomotive as early as the Rocket survives. BTW, the one that sends me into the stratosphere is the Lion at the Maine State Museum. These are awesome, amazing and fabulous pieces of equipment. Suffice to say I’m a sucker for the earliest choo choos! As always Professor thank you for sharing yet another wonderful learning moment and cheers to you!
Not steam, but Philadelphia & West Chester box motor 07 was built in 1911 and served that and it's two successors the Phila. Suburban Transport Co. and SEPTA until 1991. It's now cosmetically restored at the PA trolley museum in Washington PA.
It's so cool that so many steamers are preserved and or still in use. It's also cool that there's a few WWll German steamers being used by small countries! I recently went to Elbe, Washington and got to see they're smaller logging locos in use for the scenic railroad. My kids and I stayed at the Hobo Inn, in Elbe. It was so cool! Most of the "rooms" are cabooses, but we stayed in the Family Suite, which is a box car. I highly recommend visiting Elbe, Washington if you're a steamer rail fan!
In nsw, the 19 class locos were entered into service in 1877 and were only then out of service in 1972 after having cascaded down form main line engines to branchliners, and then down to shunting engines in the last years of their life
Assuming that's a spring switch at 4:56 as you see the target flip from red to green as the loco passes. Now you've got me wondering about the longest rostered. Obviously it won't be anywhere the record on the steamer. Off the top of my head Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District's SW1s check in at continuous operation and ownership at 72 years.
There is another case of a modern RR owning a 19th century steam locomotive. The Northern Pacific number 1, named the Minnetonka, is on display in Duluth MN. It was loaned to the museum by the Northern Pacific, and as far as I’m aware, that loan continues to this day, meaning the Minnetonka, which was built in 1870, is owned by BNSF.
@hyce777 the oldest surviving steam locomotive in the world is GKB 671, she was built in 1860 in Austria and has been serving ever since, she has never been retired her modification done was adding air brakes to her! She’s still a coal burner iirc. There are plenty of videos on her.
@@Hyce777 thanks for the like and comment Hyce! I learned about her a few years ago,she’s pretty interesting. Her class is called the südbahn class 23(old). If o remember correctly she’s the last of her class to still be in active service
Roaring Camp & Big Trees Heisler number 2 deserves a mention. While not still on her original road she has been on the active roster of a railroad since 1899. Having even loaded herself onto a flatcar for shipment from the West side lumber company to Roaring Camp in 1963, upon arrival she was steamed up on the flatcar and unloaded herself and was immediately pressed into service by her new owner.
Torch lake is a 0-6-4 mason bogie locomotive built in 1873 and then was sold to the Camulet and Hecla mining company and worked on the Hecla and torch lake railroad hauling copper ore. Torch lake was purchased by the henry ford museum in 1969 and still pulls passenger trains on the weiser railroad at the museum to this day. So in theory torch lake has had a 90+ ish career at the same company, I don't have enough information to either prove or disprove the length of its working career.
here's another for the list. not at the top, but near it, the William Crooks. this is personally my favorite locomotive in the world. the first locomotive to grace the twin cities area all the way back in 1862. it was transferred from railroad to railroad until it was donated by the Great Northern in 1962. it had a service life of 100 years. it is currently on display at the Lake Superior railroad museum and is definitely a remarkable locomotive
Maybe look to austria. There are some steamlocomotives still running since 1900 on their lines. The best example is the Achenseebahn in Tyrol, which has been operating steam locomotives every day during the high season since 1889.
On the largest Island of Germany we have a Narrow Gauge Railway called RüBB (formerly RÜ.K.B) that is operating since 1895 and has everyday Trains. It has a Locomotive that is called 99 4632 or 52Mh that was build in 1914 and is still in use today, without ever been taking out of Service for more that maybe 2 years to rebuild in Meiningen. The would mean the 52Mh is operating for now 110 Years!
Quite a sad weekend here discussing long service. Blackpool Heritage Tram services are being 'paused'. As for relevance to this topic, as part of the fleet there's a couple from the 1900s, though they had lengthy retired periods, including mentions of sheds and chicken coops. The Balloons on the other hand where in regular service until moved over to the heritage service, so some have run continuously for 90 years. Not record breaking, but their endurance in regular service may well be? IIRC that ended in 2011, so 77 years.
If we are counting locomotives that have only been out of service for maintenance, I think LBSCR 72 Fenchurch fits that bill, being the oldest working standard gauge steam locomotive in service when withdrawn for preservation in 1963.
Another fun little one is Laona & Northern 4. Originally built in 1916 for the Fairchild & Northeastern. 1926-now on the L&NO. While the company nearly went under at the end of the lumber boom, but the company rebranded and is still running. The railroad has been running under the same family ownership. And if you'd really like to get foamer and compete with the EBT, 4 has more operating years than 14 and 15. A fun living little legend! :)
I rode th 844 in 1976 when I was a child. It was amazing. I look forward for her to go back into service (I assume she is currently going some rebuild maintenance while UP shows off Big Boy.)
All these engines and no mention of Cass Seinic Railroad number 5?!?! CSRR, former Mower lumber company, former Greenbrier Cheat & Elk No.5 is an 80 ton class C shay locomotive built in 1905 for the paper mill at Cass, Ascension served the West Virginia pulp and paper company for decades, and then the mower lumber company who moved in and took over logging operations, running all on the same trackage that she started on in 1905, she served some time parked behind the powerhouse as a stationary steam generator, and then was put back in service when Cass was purchased by the state of WV in the 1960s So I'm gonna say it again. This shay ogging locomotive has been working, not just "rostered" like many in this list, but WORKING for all but about a decade of its life, and it continues to run in service, hauling tonnage up the mountain to bald knob regularly. I absolutely cannot believe that the engine was not mentioned as she is still around doing what she was built to do, on the trackage she was originally doing it, over 119 years later.
@ the Swedish state railway class E2 979 at the railroad I volunteer at. Was technically keep in reserve the last 20 years but was sat fully operational ready to bring out if needed along with another 149 locomotives.
In Indonesia, the B50 class 2-4-0 built by Sharp Stewart from 1879 - 1896 were still running regularly all the way to the early 1980s serving a rural branchline in East Java. Out of all 65 units, alot were scrapped by the 1930s leaving only 14 of them by 1950. B5004 is the only survivor today, and is now at the Transport Museum in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (which is basicaly a park about Indonesia as a whole in a much smaller scale).
Locomotion No. 1/Active was built in 1825 for the Stockton and Darlington and was still owned by BR in 1968 or 1975 (depending on your source) when it became the property of the National Collection.
From the UK side I think an honorable mention should go to Beckton Gas Works' Neilson 0-4-0WT No.1561 which ran continuously from 1870 to 1963 (by which it was still kept in pristine running condition by the works according to the Beckton book), before entering preservation at Penrhyn Castle. She has recently moved to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
If you count logging railroads that were converted to tourist railroads, Shay #5 at Cass WV has been on the roster of the 4 or 5 companies that owned the it plus the state of West Virginia park service since 1905 when it was delivered from Lima. It's always been run in the area around Cass, Spruce and Durbin.
The electric locomotives used by the Iowa Traction Railroad were built in the 20s and are still in revenue service today, so that's another interesting datapoint
Over here in Wales, and by extension the UK, I'd say "Dolgoch" on the Talyllyn Railway probably fits the bill! She was built in 1866 for the TR Co. and has yet to be withdrawn from service! The only time she hasn't been running is for general overhaul and routine maintenance, the longest period being 9 years. The Railway itself has never shut down either and is still running on the original 1865 Act of Parliament, though the ownership was transferred to the Preservation Society in 1951 (Becoming the first preserved Railway in the World.) "Prince" on the Ffestiniog Railway has been in use since 1863, but has changed and been rebuilt so much more and looks nothing like she did originally unlike "Dolgoch". Their Railway had an 8 year period of absolute closure however. If you ever feel like you want to do anything about the Talyllyn Railway, I run their UA-cam channel so drop me a line!
Here in the UK I think most locos changed hands to much to ever really have had a long continuous service with one company. A lot of the early lines merged naturally even before the 1926 Grouping and then post WWII all the lines got merged into BR, and then BR itself got split up. Probably the longest operating company was the Great Western Railway which was founded in 1833 and existed until absorbed into British Railways in 1947, but they had a gauge change part the way through their existence, limiting the potential max length of service of their locos. The first class that comes to mind for both length of time in use and the shear number of owners that they had, is the LBSCR A1/A1X Class. The 'Terriers' or 'Rooters' were built in 1872 for London commuter trains, work that they did brilliantly until the trains just got too heavy, and they inevitably got replaced. However it turned out they were equally at home on Britain's many branch and industrial lines, and so they just kept going, Unfortunately while the class as a whole has been pretty active throughout their 150 year career, individual locos have also had significant periods of inactivity, especially in preservation, so I'm unsure if any counts as having been in service the whole time.
There’s a pretty interesting older locomotive here in Omaha, NE operating at our Zoo (considered the best in the world some years). OZRR 395-104 “Riva”, an 0-6-2, was built the Krauss Works in Linz Austria for the Mori-Arco-Riva del Garda (MAR) Railway in Italy in 1890 with two other locomotives, named “Arco” and “Lago di Garda”. It served on the MAR until WWI when it was sent to serve on field railways on the Eastern Front. Between 1918 and 1941 it worked in Stryj, Poland before being used in military service again during WWII. After WWII it ended up on the State Railways of Romania (CFR), where it got its current number, until 1968 when it got sold to Plasser & Theurer. A Plasser & Theurer representative found out that the Omaha Zoo was looking for another locomotive, resulting in its donation to the Zoo in 1974. After that it was restored in the UP Omaha Shops, entering service at the Zoo in 1976, operating almost every year since. Recently it has been returned to an appearance close to how it looked on the MAR. I’m probably going to post some photos on the Discord server.
Adelaide Australia's H type trams were in regular revenue service from 1929 to 2008. They were the only type in operation from 1958 to 2006 when they started to be replaced with modern types
People always think of 844 because it’s one of the most famous locomotives ever built. I would guess it’s logged more miles than any locomotive in history. Those aren’t short excursions it was running on. And it wasn’t casually chugging along either even into it’s old age. I’ve seen videos of it flying along at 75 mph a few years ago. It doesn’t do that anymore but it still could. Just search for UP 844 highball @ 75 mph. That was made in 2010 and UP 6936 was tagging along for the ride too. Nothing like the largest diesel ever built being used as generator.
In terms of standard gauge locomotives with longest service, the Bristol Harbour Locomotives Portbury and Henbury spring to mind since henbury was built for the port in 1937 and as far as I can find was never sold and still works the harbour side at M-shed for narrow gauge the Ffestiniog englands or the Talyllyn Railways No 1 and 2 are the oldest I can think of still operating on there original railways. ( if Im correct there is an engine in sweden I think which still uses original parts from the 1800 thanks to it being a fairly standard design from beyer Peacock but dont quote me for this)
I think an honorable mention would be Stockton Terminal & Eastern 1, which is now on display in Travel Town in Los Angeles. In revenue service from 1864 to 1953, 89 years. 39 of those years were spent serving the Stockton Terminal & Eastern, after previously being owned by the (original) Western Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southern Pacific.
I consider 844 the last link holding us to the steam era. Everybody talks about how all the railroads dieselized and the steam era is behind us. With 844 still being on the roster, that means UP is THE last railroad, still running under its original name and never shut down for any period of time, that hasn't completely retired every steam engine.
I'd consider JNR (nei JGR) 8630 which was built in 1914 and was struck from roster in 1979, when it was transfered to the Umekoji Museum (now the Kyoto Railway Museum) where it remained in operational. This railroad museum is owned by JR West, one of JNR's descendents. While this doesn't compare with the 185 years, it is probably the longest continuously running locomotive to never leave the possession of a single railroad at 110 years contiguous.
possibly another from wales is no 3 from the Snowdonian mountain railway? arrived on the line 1895, still operational. not sure on full history of the locomotives but i think they've mostly all been in continuous operation since then
QR has a number of steam engines with valid tickets. The steam withdrawal was quite late (track config & weight limitations + the country party didn't want to spend money) - there where suburban passenger cars with AC being pulled by steam engines. There's A10 No.6 built in 1864 retired in 1960, restored in 1991 & is some times run on the network as a special. There's quite a few operational QR steam engines around, some owned by QR others owned by tourist railways. For a while QR ran Steam Train Sunday specials on the network but that ended when they realised they didn't have the parts or the manufacturer-ing or money need to keep it running every week. More recently they run a handful of specials every year.
If we're talking just sheer operating time, an honorable mention goes to some of the surviving Maine 2 foot gauge equipment, particularly the stuff off of the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad, whether that be on hime rails, or at Edaville in MA, or even now in the case of B&SR 7
But what about Torch Lake's Mason Bogie? I know back in like 2018 #3 turned 145 years old IIRC because there was a video that blew up about them throwing a chocolate birthday cake into its firebox that had candles on it that dictated it was celebrating its 145th back in 2018. Engine would be turning 152 next year. I know you in the recent Devlog in CoS you talked to the people up from there even and that the engine still runs to some degree? How long has #3 been in service on and off?
If I was part of Conrail, I would have restored Rocket to working order and gotten at least one run out of it before handing it over to a museum. Mostly for S&G
In Germany there are a number of narrow gauge railways that operate some quite old locos. The Saxon class IV K for example were build between 1892 and 1921. Some of them have survived, and some of those are still in (occasional) service. There are also the Harz-Mallets 99 5901 - 99 5906, none of them are currently active, but 99 5906 was build in 1918 and withdrawn (due to defect) in 2022, with only a 5 year gap. Big issue with most old German locos is the ownership. It can go from privat railway or country owned railway (e.g. Saxon state railway) to national railway (DRG) to next national railway (DR) to next national railway (DR of DDR, or DB) to privat railway to preservation society (and maybe back to privat railway...)
If we're talking actual revenue service, theres a dutch company called FairTrains which still rents out the 1315, an electric loco built in 1956, for freight service. They also have a shunting locomotor, the 231, from 1935. A number of these locomotors are actually still in use at some company yards around the Netherlands, but it's hard to track their history
Top three oldest currently operating locomotives in the world: 3rd place: Caroline (Norway) from 1861 2nd place: GKB 671 (Austria) from 1860 (the convertible you saw in Slovakia? was from the same production line) 1st place: Fairy Queen (India) from 1855 Longest continously running locomotive is the GKB 671 with the longest pause for overhauls ect. being one year between 2001 and 2002 Oldest moving engine is apparently the Puffing Billy locomotive from 1802/1804 which is on static display and can be ran on compressed air
This is probably not part of the condition you set out on Hyce, but the longest locomotive that has ever been in existence is Puffing Billy. She was constucted between 1813 and 1814. She now resides at the science museum in London. Not to mention that she has a younger sister in the Wylam dilly which is also still in existence. Both have been modified from 0-4-0 to 0-8-0 and back again due to what rail they ran on.
A very Honorable mention in favor of the UK side of things would be The Talyllyn Railway No. 2 "Dolgoch". The Locomotive Served the original Talyllyn line from 1866 to 1951 when the line was preserved, still under the TR nomenclature, and continued to Run until 1952 when another piece of motive power became available. Under the guide of "15 year absence" or standard 1472, The locomotive was down for the count from '52 to '63, about 11 years or so. Knowing a bit on British overhaul tactics, mainly a boiler ticket there in modern day is 10 years compared to our usual 15, the locomotive is always a consent runner on the line for being 158, 159 later this year. The Locomotive single-handedly ran the line from 1945 to 1952 once the No 1 "Talyllyn" was found to be too worn out after decades of being the more preferred engine.
Wasn't all D&RGW narrow gauge paused for 3 years? Also had no clue Rocket was never owned by the Franklin Institute. I've seen it too, I always thought it was a replica. Guess they moved it during the renovations.
I talked to Ed Dickens with the UP Steam Shop in September 2024. He said 844 is ready to go at any time but people are interested in seeing BigBoy 4014 right now.
You should visit Roaring Camp logging museum in Northern California. They run excursion/tourist trains pulled by vintage narrow gauge logging steamers like Shays, Heislers, and Climaxes.
Id guess the oldest operating engines in the UK would've been for the narrow gauge the Talylynn Railways two original engines which where both built in the 1860s, and for the standard gauge the LBSC terriers which where built in the 1870s.
Okay… now I’m excited for EBT 15. With how long it took them to get 16 up I’m hopeful that she will be up before the decade is out. While she may not hold the 15 year title, it will still be a great thing to see one of the originally preserved and operated locomotives under steam. This along with their March To Saltillo and right now the progress towards Pogue Bridge, there is a lot of excitement bubbling and venting out of Orbisonia right now.
Dolgoch wants a word. 1866 to present day, one company, and never out of service for more than 11 years. The old lady's sister, Talyllyn, is even older at 1864 to present, and was only ever out of service for 13. And the only time the railway ever missed the summer passenger service since they were cleared for passenger operations in 1866 was the 2020 pandemic. I'm surprised you didn't think of them, being the world's first preserved railway and all. Prince and Princess from the Ffestiniog have them beat by a year or three with 1963, and I'll take them at their word that Prince is the oldest locomotive in the world still operating on it's original railway, though they had a decent few years and a company change between operations and preservation, so I think the Talyllyn is more impressive. You might enjoy my favorite story about Dolgoch: The way she lied to the boiler inspector. When the railway entered preservation in the 50s, she still had her original 1866 boiler, and was the only operating engine at the time, and the preservation society obviously couldn't continue the prior policy of "we can't afford insurance, and we're only running so as not to let the locals down, so we're just going to hope nothing happens". So the boiler inspector came, drilled a small hole in the boiler, measured the thickness of the plate, and it passed spec. Dolgoch continued to run the railway alone for a couple years before the railway got the Corris engines to work properly on the rotten rails she had pounded a half inch out of gauge to suit her long wheelbase and boxer's gait through 85 years of hard running. But when she was pulled from service for her overhaul, it was discovered that the boiler was indeed within spec where the inspector checked it: and literally nowhere else. The inspector had drilled into the only square inch of the entire boiler that was still of adequate thickness, the old lady was actually running on basically zero safety margin for years, with nobody the wiser.
Hyce (of topic here) do you know that Brazil had the most powerfull narrow gauge steam locomotive, by tractice effort. A narrow gauge 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone", a impressive monster with 55000 lbs of tractive effort. it's a shame that all menbers of his class, 4 members total, were scrapped. And also brazillian railways mostly use, 90% or more, metre gauge, 1000mm, and those that aren't use irish broad gauge, 1600mm.
Ffestiniog Railway Locomotives date from 1863. The Festiniog Railway Company (Act of Parliament 1832) is owned by the F & WH Railway Trust and supported by the Ffestiniog Railway Society. When the Trust took over in 1954 a brand new boiler was found for No 2 Prince (George England 1863) which was installed. Prince's 10 year boiler ticket ran out in 2023 and it is expected to return in 2025
CN, a class 1 railway in 2024; still rosters some 65+ year old GP9s. VIA Rail Canada also still uses three 67 year old RDCs. Though they have been through rebuilds, it's crazy that some 1950s locomotives are still in revenue service to this day.
I would have guessed that the longest serving US steam locomotive might be the Ammonoosuc (1875-current) on the Mount Washington Cog Railway, it might have had some time off in there that I don't know about. They also had the Peppersass, which was in operating service from 1869 until 2008.
Have a look at the New South Wales Government railways. Locomotive No.1 still exists per see. In it current form, it’s has bits from all 4 off the original locomotives. The other ones to look at are the 19 class. First introduced in 1877, some worked for the railways for close to 90 years before being retired with the end of steam in 1972. I don’t have the service dates available at the moment to see which one served the longest. We have some locos still technically owned by the government but are on loan to preservation societies to maintain and run them. Such an example is 3801, who some would say is our most famous loco. Kinda like our own flying Scotsman. It entered service in 1943 and is still owned by its original owner, just under different departmental names.
You and Unlucky Tug should do a collaboration sometime, as he's more knowledgeable about British trains since he makes mostly stuff about Thomas the Tank Engine.
for us here in blighty its likely Tallylln at 160 years of service for the same railway since its inception. with an occasional spat of inactivity, so it might also be Dolgoch. If not one of those two then probably one of the Ffestiniog engines.
I'm wondering if you're ever going to do a video on advanced steam locomotive technology like Porta and Chapelon, poppet valves, and more. I posted my own video on the Franklin Type B valve gear, but because I'm a small channel, it's not going to get much attention. I also already posted a couple memes featuring advanced steam loco tech on your Discord server too lol.
While not a record, here in Australia Queensland Railways 3'6" gauge BB18 1/4 class pacific 1079 was built in 1956 and kept running for fan trips under QR ownership after the end of regular steam operation in 1969 and the longest she has been out of service was four or five years during covid. While on the subject of QR Heritage operations, and turning to the whole other subject of what the steam locos haul, is there anywhere in the U.S. that you can ride at track speed on a class one mainline in a wooden bodied, end platform coach built before the turn of the last century and still owned and maintained by the original railroad?
As far as the locomotives at your museum. On any of the engines how much of the engine is original to when it was built or is every part on the engine from the cab to the cowcatcher new?
Some long living swiss examples that come to my mind. The Steam Engine No 2 of the Monte Generoso Rackrailraod from 1890 still belongs to the railway and is still running today. But it was out of service from 1941 to 1981 The Brienz Rothorn Rackengines 1-5 were built in 1881 and still belong to the BRB too, 3 are out of service, no 2 and 5 are in working condition, but only one is in service with them swithcing every few years. But the railroad was not running between 1914 and 1931 What might be the longest running engine might just be a valley over. On the Schynigge Platte rack railway, the engine No 5 was in contiouns service from 1893 until 2020. It was needed to build and remove the catenary every year so it wouldn't be damaged in winter. To my knowledge there was never a long time were it wasn't running
![[SFS] The only time I YELLED at a coworker when I worked for the Railroad. | Stories from the Shop](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UKs9GO_dIV0/mqdefault.jpg)
Hyce the audio and video aren’t synced from 3:05 to 3:43
Was about to comment that beat me to it
I'm glad it wasn't just me I thought UA-cam was having a stroke.
I thought I was having a stroke.
To quote Robin Williams stole my line
Hi all, not sure what render goof up caused this but UA-camr won't let me replace the file so here we are...
I feel like it’s worth bringing up the Welsh narrow gauge in the UK in this case - Talyllyn and Dolgoch were built in 1864 and 1866 respectively, and are still in service on the same line today, albeit under preservation since 1951. As far as I can tell the longest either has been out of service was 13 years.
EDIT - a lot of folks are bringing up that Talyllyn was laid aside for a long time at one point - I’m including that in the 13 year number. No. 1 was originally the more popular of the two and as far as I can see in all sources, remained in traffic until 1945 despite increasingly poor condition. Dolgoch then became the only engine in service until 1952; No. 1 would go on to reenter traffic in 1958.
In the UK we have 10 year between overhauls.
That's amazing. I knew something from the UK would probably beat what we had over here.
Talyllyn had a significant period of minimum usage before its rebuild in the 50s.
Also the purchased locos after their original purpose came to an end. Mountaineer (built in USA 1917 for use in france) at the ffestiniog helped them during their early restoration in the 70s and was a mainstay until 2006 when she was sidelined (now being restored)
Prince of the Ffestiniog Railway could also be considered. Built in 1863, it was in operation until 1936 (73 years). It was never retired, but was still under overhaul when the railway stopped running in 1946. The company was taken over by enthusiasts in 1954, and the overhaul of Prince was completed until 1955. Since then Prince has been in operation for another 69 years.
I think next there needs to be a search for the locomotive that’s been owned by the *most* railroads
Dear me, I dont know where to begin with that chronology. Still be fun, though 😊
I have a feeling it will be something old and run on logging.
@@thefaulnt3562 you’d be surprised. I know a Maine 2 footer that served on the majority of Maine’s narrow gauge railroads. It still survives and operates today. Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington Railway No.9
G233 'Leschenault Lady' was built in 1898, and served the West Australian Government Railways until about 1968. And then was effectively still operated and maintained by the WAGR in tourist excursion service for the next 25-odd years, despite her and sister G123 'Koombana Queen' being gifted to the Bunbury Tourist Bureau and subsequently the Leschenault Railway Preservation Society. This later became the South-West Rail & Heritage Centre, and ended up in Boyanup, WA.
Formal ownership of G233 was in fact only handed over from Westrail (as the WAGR rebranded themselves in the 70s) to Rail Heritage WA in 1995. 97 years of regular operation in Government Railways ownership.
Something something WAGR budget running on the smell of an oily rag ;)
@williamadams7865 Yep. And isolated, lightly-built branchlines and so on and so forth.
@ “Two bent lengths of fencing were that were used as rails.”
That's pretty outstanding!
Beat me to the punch!
Excellent episode! I just wrote an article on the UP #844 for R&R celebrating her 80th. But in my head, I like to celebrate any steam engine still running whether there has been a lull in her service or not for whatever reason. So that's my personal quest...find the oldest by build date.
I'd like to nominate the New South Wales Government Railways 19 Class, specifically 1905. The locomotive was built in 1877 by Beyer and Peacock and operated under NSWGR and it's subsequent rebrands all the way until July 1972, almost 100 years after its construction.
Are those the ones that ran at darling harbour? that place kicked ass! especially that double floor goods shed with tracks on both floors
@@legdig Yeah, they were the locos that inhabited the yards of Darling Harbour right up till their end of service.
Well worth watching some great film of the 19 class from the Australian National Film and Sound Archive late in normal service and an interview with one crew that manned them :
ua-cam.com/video/S0izTlCTHJc/v-deo.htmlsi=a5zV1yHpGjQJxmQu
The fact that the Rocket, albeit loaned to the Franklin Institute, was still owned by the Philadelphia & Reading when it was absorbed by Conrail, where ownership was technically transferred to them, and then once again to...whichever railroad gained it in the split between CSX and Norfolk Southern, leaving the locomotive still in ownership for ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FIVE YEARS with somehow _nobody_ realizing until last year is freaking hilarious!
so it makes maybe train enthusiast's model of the rocket in contrail blue historically accurate huh
edit: oh. not. the rocket I was thinking of.
Since it was in Philadelphia when Conrail was split up, the owner was still Conrail, as strange as that sounds, because CSX and NS were given joint ownership over the areas neither side was willing to give up.
@@mpf1947 Oh wow! That's crazy
@@mpf1947 And Conrail *still* *exists*, if only to work the ports.
Cass Scenic 5 has been in service since 1905 and has never left Cass. There's also the talyllyn railways no.1 and no.2 from the 1860s
Correct. It’s been at it 119 years at Cass
i was talking about this topic earlier with a friend of mine. i’m glad that you guys dove into this rabbit hole! railroad ownership or not, they’re all the same locomotive in my eyes.
if i’m correct, D&SNG 473 is either the most or one of the most continuously operated steam locomotives in the world. the longest she was out of service was about a year at most.
it’s crazy to think the longest rostered locomotive hasn’t been talked about as much as it should
I came here to say this, with the 478 right with it. 476 was down for quite some time but 473 has barely ever not been actively running and always in the shop for real repairs.
Several of the 1877 built New South Wales Z19 class 0-6-0 engines were kept in service by the New South Wales Government Railways from their introduction in 1877 until final retirement in 1972, a service life of 95 years. As a result, they outlived several generations of steam (and even some diesel) types built to replace them.
Photos exist of these locomotives, an Australian version of the Stephenson “long boiler” type, shunting next to brand new Alco C/M636 locomotives on delivery from Sydney to the Pilbara.
Need to show Cass Scenic Railroad shay 5 some love in this video. Been running the same mountain for companies based out of Cass since 1905 and was never retired, and never been out of service more than 15 years.
15 years is a long time
This is a dumb shout out, but thank you Mark for encouraging me (through your videos) to be a FEBT member. Those folks are doing amazing work. But again, thank you for the work you do through content creation.
Thank you. EBT member since 1983; #0007.
@ dang that’s cool, I’m just glad this group is around doing great work.
Cass Scenic’s Shay 5 has been operating on the same railroad line since 1905 when it was shipped new to Cass. It kinda falls into the exceptions though as ownership changed (and is now owned by the State of WV), it did run on other parts of the line other than Cass hill (though was still serviced at Cass shops) and it was taken out of service for a couple of years after being used as a stationary boiler for the Cass mill. (The cylinders were cracked during a hard freeze due to neglect).
Luckily she and the railroad was saved and rebuilt, and is the most special and probably beloved locomotive in the Cass roster.
The MSLRHA webpage has a wonderful library of the history of the Cass locomotives for those interested.
In Soon (tm) years it would (technically) be Montezuma. She was built in 1871 and had a major rebuild in 2xxx.
Also she was number one
It's a new build, it doesn't count.
@ we can do what the British do. We will use a piece of the original and put it on the new one. It would then be the "same" locomotive
@Johndoe-jd AFAIK nothing is left of Montezuma, it was scrapped
She's not a rebuild. Unless we can find an original part, then by British standards she'd be a rebuild.
Smitty Werbenjägermanjensen?
Oh my god, the story with the Reading Rocket is absolutely hilarious
That's corporate bureaucracy for you... corporations sometimes forgot such things such as asset ownership, especially if said asset is from the earliest days of the company's existence.
In Britain there are a few examples of locos being used for 30, 40, even 50 years.
LB&SCR A1X Terrier class number 55 "Stepney" was built in 1875, withdrawn in 1960.
The Terriers are super cute btw, lovely little 0-6-0 tank engines.
Talyllyn has been in active duty service for the same company for 160 years as of this year
honestly yea, he should get together some of his friends more well versed in british engines and go over this topic from the perspective of the lil narrow gauge british stuff thats lasted stupendously long despite kinda being a meme (long live the mini garrets) as well as the safe haven the isle of white became during British rails massacre of steam.
@@Jonstrains21 Technically, Furness Railway No. 3, "Old Coppernob" was owned by the railway after its service life ended, only being moved from Barrow after it was hit by a german bomb in WW2
OMG, that's hilarious with the Rocket! xD
...now restore it and run it on the mainline!
And still the EBT continues to amaze me learning this fact about 15. Can’t wait for my yearly visit in the summer. Was excited to hear they got state grants for the bridges enroute to Saltillo
You mentioned the drgwr narrow gauge who served under diffrent companies. I shall mention (CSRR) #5 it has worked at Cass for about 120 years and it never worked anywhere else. Plus if we talkin oldest operational geared locos its CSRR #5. I know it worked under a couple companys. It workes under WestVaco lumber company then the mower lumber company bought the railroad and equipment from WestVaco. Then it was under CSRR. But it was never sidelined for long. It was working on taking up the rails.
This gets me thinking about what it's like here in germany. The thing is we had some "changes in management" here aswell as having to pay reparations twice. So our locomotives went EVERYWHERE. My guess is the longest serving has to be one of the prussian P8s. Class 38 number 1772 was built in 1915 for the Royal Prussian Railway and served until 1975, surviving 2 changes in railroad organization, 3 changes in government and 2 world wars.
The 38s went everywhere tho, so there might be one of the pre-WW1 locomotives that went to eastern europe and served even past 1975.
38 2267 is also a candidate: Operated from 1918 to 1972. Was oficially taken out of service in 1980 and put on a pedistal as a monument. Taken of in 1991 and ran again in 1992. So you could argue it never went out of service more then 15 years an has been running continuesly
As someone who lives near the East Broad Top, it's always a joy to hear/see this guy talk about the EBT.
Oh I can think of ONE conundrum thats even MORE subjective...oldest surviving operable locomotives...because most (if not all) locos get MORE that *wear parts* like flues and staybolts replaced now and then....The most common phrase I've heard is *great-gran-dads axe* you know OMG its AMAZING we STILL usewe that axe he got over 100 years ago...of course we DID replace the handle 4 or 5 times and the head split once, and the lil wedge in the top got lost once or twice and got replaced...but WOW its still amazing its lasted this long.....
What a fascinating history lesson Mark! Your video really explains the important legacies of the railroads through surviving steam locomotives. They are tangible connections to the past and, to echo you Mark, we are so fortunate to have them survive to the present (whether on static exhibition or in service). Seeing these choo choos stirs emotions of awe upon experiencing their sounds, movement and just plain beauty. It’s even more amazing when you consider that a locomotive as early as the Rocket survives. BTW, the one that sends me into the stratosphere is the Lion at the Maine State Museum. These are awesome, amazing and fabulous pieces of equipment. Suffice to say I’m a sucker for the earliest choo choos! As always Professor thank you for sharing yet another wonderful learning moment and cheers to you!
.... WOW! As much as I lol at the ES&DT Hijinks Its these cool stories that keep me coming back as well.
Not steam, but Philadelphia & West Chester box motor 07 was built in 1911 and served that and it's two successors the Phila. Suburban Transport Co. and SEPTA until 1991. It's now cosmetically restored at the PA trolley museum in Washington PA.
Long life to the 844
It's so cool that so many steamers are preserved and or still in use. It's also cool that there's a few WWll German steamers being used by small countries! I recently went to Elbe, Washington and got to see they're smaller logging locos in use for the scenic railroad. My kids and I stayed at the Hobo Inn, in Elbe. It was so cool! Most of the "rooms" are cabooses, but we stayed in the Family Suite, which is a box car. I highly recommend visiting Elbe, Washington if you're a steamer rail fan!
In nsw, the 19 class locos were entered into service in 1877 and were only then out of service in 1972 after having cascaded down form main line engines to branchliners, and then down to shunting engines in the last years of their life
Assuming that's a spring switch at 4:56 as you see the target flip from red to green as the loco passes.
Now you've got me wondering about the longest rostered.
Obviously it won't be anywhere the record on the steamer. Off the top of my head Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District's SW1s check in at continuous operation and ownership at 72 years.
There is another case of a modern RR owning a 19th century steam locomotive. The Northern Pacific number 1, named the Minnetonka, is on display in Duluth MN. It was loaned to the museum by the Northern Pacific, and as far as I’m aware, that loan continues to this day, meaning the Minnetonka, which was built in 1870, is owned by BNSF.
Having seen the Minnetonka in person a few times, it is a smol bean of an engine
I heard in a documentary somewhere that 844 was the largest locomotive never retired officially
@Hyce at 3:02 the video and audio un synced i don’t know for how long but it’s pretty bad
probably about a 3 second lag on the video
Till 3:53 just 10 secs before this I think
Man I thought I was losing it. 😂😂
@hyce777 the oldest surviving steam locomotive in the world is GKB 671, she was built in 1860 in Austria and has been serving ever since, she has never been retired her modification done was adding air brakes to her! She’s still a coal burner iirc. There are plenty of videos on her.
Oldest surviving still in service, I assume.
@@Hyce777 yes sir,she was built in 1860. She has been owned by Austrian railways her entire life even when Nazis germany invaded.
@@Hyce777 thanks for the like and comment Hyce! I learned about her a few years ago,she’s pretty interesting. Her class is called the südbahn class 23(old). If o remember correctly she’s the last of her class to still be in active service
@@Hyce777 ua-cam.com/video/GvKAyA2Bduw/v-deo.htmlsi=PyJxY4txNJWjKOV4 this is a video of gkb 671 I found.
Roaring Camp & Big Trees Heisler number 2 deserves a mention. While not still on her original road she has been on the active roster of a railroad since 1899. Having even loaded herself onto a flatcar for shipment from the West side lumber company to Roaring Camp in 1963, upon arrival she was steamed up on the flatcar and unloaded herself and was immediately pressed into service by her new owner.
Torch lake is a 0-6-4 mason bogie locomotive built in 1873 and then was sold to the Camulet and Hecla mining company and worked on the Hecla and torch lake railroad hauling copper ore. Torch lake was purchased by the henry ford museum in 1969 and still pulls passenger trains on the weiser railroad at the museum to this day.
So in theory torch lake has had a 90+ ish career at the same company, I don't have enough information to either prove or disprove the length of its working career.
here's another for the list. not at the top, but near it, the William Crooks.
this is personally my favorite locomotive in the world. the first locomotive to grace the twin cities area all the way back in 1862.
it was transferred from railroad to railroad until it was donated by the Great Northern in 1962. it had a service life of 100 years.
it is currently on display at the Lake Superior railroad museum and is definitely a remarkable locomotive
Not steam but CN's GP9m's are still in service 70+ years later.
Maybe look to austria. There are some steamlocomotives still running since 1900 on their lines.
The best example is the Achenseebahn in Tyrol, which has been operating steam locomotives every day during the high season since 1889.
On the largest Island of Germany we have a Narrow Gauge Railway called RüBB (formerly RÜ.K.B) that is operating since 1895 and has everyday Trains. It has a Locomotive that is called 99 4632 or 52Mh that was build in 1914 and is still in use today, without ever been taking out of Service for more that maybe 2 years to rebuild in Meiningen. The would mean the 52Mh is operating for now 110 Years!
B&SR 7 has been in more or less continuous service since 1913, currently operated by the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad and Museum.
Quite a sad weekend here discussing long service. Blackpool Heritage Tram services are being 'paused'.
As for relevance to this topic, as part of the fleet there's a couple from the 1900s, though they had lengthy retired periods, including mentions of sheds and chicken coops. The Balloons on the other hand where in regular service until moved over to the heritage service, so some have run continuously for 90 years. Not record breaking, but their endurance in regular service may well be? IIRC that ended in 2011, so 77 years.
If we are counting locomotives that have only been out of service for maintenance, I think LBSCR 72 Fenchurch fits that bill, being the oldest working standard gauge steam locomotive in service when withdrawn for preservation in 1963.
Another fun little one is Laona & Northern 4. Originally built in 1916 for the Fairchild & Northeastern. 1926-now on the L&NO. While the company nearly went under at the end of the lumber boom, but the company rebranded and is still running. The railroad has been running under the same family ownership. And if you'd really like to get foamer and compete with the EBT, 4 has more operating years than 14 and 15. A fun living little legend! :)
I rode th 844 in 1976 when I was a child. It was amazing. I look forward for her to go back into service (I assume she is currently going some rebuild maintenance while UP shows off Big Boy.)
This was a fun topic. Thank you.
All these engines and no mention of Cass Seinic Railroad number 5?!?!
CSRR, former Mower lumber company, former Greenbrier Cheat & Elk No.5 is an 80 ton class C shay locomotive built in 1905 for the paper mill at Cass, Ascension served the West Virginia pulp and paper company for decades, and then the mower lumber company who moved in and took over logging operations, running all on the same trackage that she started on in 1905, she served some time parked behind the powerhouse as a stationary steam generator, and then was put back in service when Cass was purchased by the state of WV in the 1960s
So I'm gonna say it again. This shay ogging locomotive has been working, not just "rostered" like many in this list, but WORKING for all but about a decade of its life, and it continues to run in service, hauling tonnage up the mountain to bald knob regularly. I absolutely cannot believe that the engine was not mentioned as she is still around doing what she was built to do, on the trackage she was originally doing it, over 119 years later.
478 is still my favorite… she pulled the train I rode in 2003, even if the crews don’t like here, I love her.
I know of a locomotive that technically was on roster for 81 years. It was built in 1909 and was officially withdrawn fully in 1990.
So what engine? you can't tease us like that
@ the Swedish state railway class E2 979 at the railroad I volunteer at. Was technically keep in reserve the last 20 years but was sat fully operational ready to bring out if needed along with another 149 locomotives.
@@emilpersson8250 Tror E 952 slår E2 979 med tre år. Byggd 1908, till Inlandsbanan 1992.
Fascinating episode!
Nevada Northern 40 was built in 1910, and although retired in 1941, has run every decade since she was built.
This was such a cool look at stuff!
In Indonesia, the B50 class 2-4-0 built by Sharp Stewart from 1879 - 1896 were still running regularly all the way to the early 1980s serving a rural branchline in East Java. Out of all 65 units, alot were scrapped by the 1930s leaving only 14 of them by 1950. B5004 is the only survivor today, and is now at the Transport Museum in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (which is basicaly a park about Indonesia as a whole in a much smaller scale).
Locomotion No. 1/Active was built in 1825 for the Stockton and Darlington and was still owned by BR in 1968 or 1975 (depending on your source) when it became the property of the National Collection.
Some diesel locomotives have had pretty long service lives as well -- might want to do a video on that.
From the UK side I think an honorable mention should go to Beckton Gas Works' Neilson 0-4-0WT No.1561 which ran continuously from 1870 to 1963 (by which it was still kept in pristine running condition by the works according to the Beckton book), before entering preservation at Penrhyn Castle. She has recently moved to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
If you count logging railroads that were converted to tourist railroads, Shay #5 at Cass WV has been on the roster of the 4 or 5 companies that owned the it plus the state of West Virginia park service since 1905 when it was delivered from Lima. It's always been run in the area around Cass, Spruce and Durbin.
The electric locomotives used by the Iowa Traction Railroad were built in the 20s and are still in revenue service today, so that's another interesting datapoint
Over here in Wales, and by extension the UK, I'd say "Dolgoch" on the Talyllyn Railway probably fits the bill! She was built in 1866 for the TR Co. and has yet to be withdrawn from service! The only time she hasn't been running is for general overhaul and routine maintenance, the longest period being 9 years. The Railway itself has never shut down either and is still running on the original 1865 Act of Parliament, though the ownership was transferred to the Preservation Society in 1951 (Becoming the first preserved Railway in the World.)
"Prince" on the Ffestiniog Railway has been in use since 1863, but has changed and been rebuilt so much more and looks nothing like she did originally unlike "Dolgoch". Their Railway had an 8 year period of absolute closure however.
If you ever feel like you want to do anything about the Talyllyn Railway, I run their UA-cam channel so drop me a line!
Here in the UK I think most locos changed hands to much to ever really have had a long continuous service with one company. A lot of the early lines merged naturally even before the 1926 Grouping and then post WWII all the lines got merged into BR, and then BR itself got split up. Probably the longest operating company was the Great Western Railway which was founded in 1833 and existed until absorbed into British Railways in 1947, but they had a gauge change part the way through their existence, limiting the potential max length of service of their locos.
The first class that comes to mind for both length of time in use and the shear number of owners that they had, is the LBSCR A1/A1X Class. The 'Terriers' or 'Rooters' were built in 1872 for London commuter trains, work that they did brilliantly until the trains just got too heavy, and they inevitably got replaced. However it turned out they were equally at home on Britain's many branch and industrial lines, and so they just kept going, Unfortunately while the class as a whole has been pretty active throughout their 150 year career, individual locos have also had significant periods of inactivity, especially in preservation, so I'm unsure if any counts as having been in service the whole time.
There’s a pretty interesting older locomotive here in Omaha, NE operating at our Zoo (considered the best in the world some years).
OZRR 395-104 “Riva”, an 0-6-2, was built the Krauss Works in Linz Austria for the Mori-Arco-Riva del Garda (MAR) Railway in Italy in 1890 with two other locomotives, named “Arco” and “Lago di Garda”. It served on the MAR until WWI when it was sent to serve on field railways on the Eastern Front. Between 1918 and 1941 it worked in Stryj, Poland before being used in military service again during WWII. After WWII it ended up on the State Railways of Romania (CFR), where it got its current number, until 1968 when it got sold to Plasser & Theurer. A Plasser & Theurer representative found out that the Omaha Zoo was looking for another locomotive, resulting in its donation to the Zoo in 1974. After that it was restored in the UP Omaha Shops, entering service at the Zoo in 1976, operating almost every year since. Recently it has been returned to an appearance close to how it looked on the MAR.
I’m probably going to post some photos on the Discord server.
Adelaide Australia's H type trams were in regular revenue service from 1929 to 2008. They were the only type in operation from 1958 to 2006 when they started to be replaced with modern types
People always think of 844 because it’s one of the most famous locomotives ever built. I would guess it’s logged more miles than any locomotive in history. Those aren’t short excursions it was running on. And it wasn’t casually chugging along either even into it’s old age. I’ve seen videos of it flying along at 75 mph a few years ago. It doesn’t do that anymore but it still could. Just search for UP 844 highball @ 75 mph. That was made in 2010 and UP 6936 was tagging along for the ride too. Nothing like the largest diesel ever built being used as generator.
In terms of standard gauge locomotives with longest service, the Bristol Harbour Locomotives Portbury and Henbury spring to mind since henbury was built for the port in 1937 and as far as I can find was never sold and still works the harbour side at M-shed
for narrow gauge the Ffestiniog englands or the Talyllyn Railways No 1 and 2 are the oldest I can think of still operating on there original railways.
( if Im correct there is an engine in sweden I think which still uses original parts from the 1800 thanks to it being a fairly standard design from beyer Peacock but dont quote me for this)
I think an honorable mention would be Stockton Terminal & Eastern 1, which is now on display in Travel Town in Los Angeles. In revenue service from 1864 to 1953, 89 years. 39 of those years were spent serving the Stockton Terminal & Eastern, after previously being owned by the (original) Western Pacific, Central Pacific, and Southern Pacific.
I consider 844 the last link holding us to the steam era. Everybody talks about how all the railroads dieselized and the steam era is behind us. With 844 still being on the roster, that means UP is THE last railroad, still running under its original name and never shut down for any period of time, that hasn't completely retired every steam engine.
Did you watch the video? The EBT would like a word.
@Hyce777 EBT was verry much shut down in the late 50's and between 2011 untill recently.
I'd consider JNR (nei JGR) 8630 which was built in 1914 and was struck from roster in 1979, when it was transfered to the Umekoji Museum (now the Kyoto Railway Museum) where it remained in operational. This railroad museum is owned by JR West, one of JNR's descendents. While this doesn't compare with the 185 years, it is probably the longest continuously running locomotive to never leave the possession of a single railroad at 110 years contiguous.
possibly another from wales is no 3 from the Snowdonian mountain railway?
arrived on the line 1895, still operational. not sure on full history of the locomotives but i think they've mostly all been in continuous operation since then
QR has a number of steam engines with valid tickets. The steam withdrawal was quite late (track config & weight limitations + the country party didn't want to spend money) - there where suburban passenger cars with AC being pulled by steam engines.
There's A10 No.6 built in 1864 retired in 1960, restored in 1991 & is some times run on the network as a special.
There's quite a few operational QR steam engines around, some owned by QR others owned by tourist railways. For a while QR ran Steam Train Sunday specials on the network but that ended when they realised they didn't have the parts or the manufacturer-ing or money need to keep it running every week. More recently they run a handful of specials every year.
If we're talking just sheer operating time, an honorable mention goes to some of the surviving Maine 2 foot gauge equipment, particularly the stuff off of the Bridgton & Saco River Railroad, whether that be on hime rails, or at Edaville in MA, or even now in the case of B&SR 7
But what about Torch Lake's Mason Bogie? I know back in like 2018 #3 turned 145 years old IIRC because there was a video that blew up about them throwing a chocolate birthday cake into its firebox that had candles on it that dictated it was celebrating its 145th back in 2018. Engine would be turning 152 next year. I know you in the recent Devlog in CoS you talked to the people up from there even and that the engine still runs to some degree? How long has #3 been in service on and off?
If I was part of Conrail, I would have restored Rocket to working order and gotten at least one run out of it before handing it over to a museum.
Mostly for S&G
I used to operate a fleet of little "Rockets" on "Sid Meyer's Railroad Tycoon" for the Amiga.
It would probably be talyllyn in the UK, having been operated by the Talyllyn Railway since it was built
In Germany there are a number of narrow gauge railways that operate some quite old locos. The Saxon class IV K for example were build between 1892 and 1921. Some of them have survived, and some of those are still in (occasional) service. There are also the Harz-Mallets 99 5901 - 99 5906, none of them are currently active, but 99 5906 was build in 1918 and withdrawn (due to defect) in 2022, with only a 5 year gap.
Big issue with most old German locos is the ownership. It can go from privat railway or country owned railway (e.g. Saxon state railway) to national railway (DRG) to next national railway (DR) to next national railway (DR of DDR, or DB) to privat railway to preservation society (and maybe back to privat railway...)
If we're talking actual revenue service, theres a dutch company called FairTrains which still rents out the 1315, an electric loco built in 1956, for freight service. They also have a shunting locomotor, the 231, from 1935. A number of these locomotors are actually still in use at some company yards around the Netherlands, but it's hard to track their history
Top three oldest currently operating locomotives in the world:
3rd place:
Caroline (Norway) from 1861
2nd place:
GKB 671 (Austria) from 1860 (the convertible you saw in Slovakia? was from the same production line)
1st place:
Fairy Queen (India) from 1855
Longest continously running locomotive is the GKB 671 with the longest pause for overhauls ect. being one year between 2001 and 2002
Oldest moving engine is apparently the Puffing Billy locomotive from 1802/1804 which is on static display and can be ran on compressed air
This is probably not part of the condition you set out on Hyce, but the longest locomotive that has ever been in existence is Puffing Billy. She was constucted between 1813 and 1814. She now resides at the science museum in London. Not to mention that she has a younger sister in the Wylam dilly which is also still in existence. Both have been modified from 0-4-0 to 0-8-0 and back again due to what rail they ran on.
One example in the UK I can think of is LBSCR Fenchurch which was built in 1872 & retired in the early 1960’s by British Rail
A very Honorable mention in favor of the UK side of things would be The Talyllyn Railway No. 2 "Dolgoch". The Locomotive Served the original Talyllyn line from 1866 to 1951 when the line was preserved, still under the TR nomenclature, and continued to Run until 1952 when another piece of motive power became available. Under the guide of "15 year absence" or standard 1472, The locomotive was down for the count from '52 to '63, about 11 years or so.
Knowing a bit on British overhaul tactics, mainly a boiler ticket there in modern day is 10 years compared to our usual 15, the locomotive is always a consent runner on the line for being 158, 159 later this year. The Locomotive single-handedly ran the line from 1945 to 1952 once the No 1 "Talyllyn" was found to be too worn out after decades of being the more preferred engine.
Wasn't all D&RGW narrow gauge paused for 3 years?
Also had no clue Rocket was never owned by the Franklin Institute. I've seen it too, I always thought it was a replica. Guess they moved it during the renovations.
I talked to Ed Dickens with the UP Steam Shop in September 2024. He said 844 is ready to go at any time but people are interested in seeing BigBoy 4014 right now.
You should visit Roaring Camp logging museum in Northern California. They run excursion/tourist trains pulled by vintage narrow gauge logging steamers like Shays, Heislers, and Climaxes.
Id guess the oldest operating engines in the UK would've been for the narrow gauge the Talylynn Railways two original engines which where both built in the 1860s, and for the standard gauge the LBSC terriers which where built in the 1870s.
Okay… now I’m excited for EBT 15. With how long it took them to get 16 up I’m hopeful that she will be up before the decade is out. While she may not hold the 15 year title, it will still be a great thing to see one of the originally preserved and operated locomotives under steam. This along with their March To Saltillo and right now the progress towards Pogue Bridge, there is a lot of excitement bubbling and venting out of Orbisonia right now.
Dolgoch wants a word. 1866 to present day, one company, and never out of service for more than 11 years. The old lady's sister, Talyllyn, is even older at 1864 to present, and was only ever out of service for 13. And the only time the railway ever missed the summer passenger service since they were cleared for passenger operations in 1866 was the 2020 pandemic. I'm surprised you didn't think of them, being the world's first preserved railway and all.
Prince and Princess from the Ffestiniog have them beat by a year or three with 1963, and I'll take them at their word that Prince is the oldest locomotive in the world still operating on it's original railway, though they had a decent few years and a company change between operations and preservation, so I think the Talyllyn is more impressive.
You might enjoy my favorite story about Dolgoch: The way she lied to the boiler inspector. When the railway entered preservation in the 50s, she still had her original 1866 boiler, and was the only operating engine at the time, and the preservation society obviously couldn't continue the prior policy of "we can't afford insurance, and we're only running so as not to let the locals down, so we're just going to hope nothing happens". So the boiler inspector came, drilled a small hole in the boiler, measured the thickness of the plate, and it passed spec. Dolgoch continued to run the railway alone for a couple years before the railway got the Corris engines to work properly on the rotten rails she had pounded a half inch out of gauge to suit her long wheelbase and boxer's gait through 85 years of hard running. But when she was pulled from service for her overhaul, it was discovered that the boiler was indeed within spec where the inspector checked it: and literally nowhere else. The inspector had drilled into the only square inch of the entire boiler that was still of adequate thickness, the old lady was actually running on basically zero safety margin for years, with nobody the wiser.
Hyce (of topic here) do you know that Brazil had the most powerfull narrow gauge steam locomotive, by tractice effort. A narrow gauge 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone", a impressive monster with 55000 lbs of tractive effort. it's a shame that all menbers of his class, 4 members total, were scrapped. And also brazillian railways mostly use, 90% or more, metre gauge, 1000mm, and those that aren't use irish broad gauge, 1600mm.
Ffestiniog Railway Locomotives date from 1863. The Festiniog Railway Company (Act of Parliament 1832) is owned by the F & WH Railway Trust and supported by the Ffestiniog Railway Society. When the Trust took over in 1954 a brand new boiler was found for No 2 Prince (George England 1863) which was installed. Prince's 10 year boiler ticket ran out in 2023 and it is expected to return in 2025
CN, a class 1 railway in 2024; still rosters some 65+ year old GP9s. VIA Rail Canada also still uses three 67 year old RDCs. Though they have been through rebuilds, it's crazy that some 1950s locomotives are still in revenue service to this day.
So cool to roll up to a CN yard and see some filthy old geeps and gmd-1s running around
@@Spanderson99 Agreed, it's great to see museum pieces still in service.
I would have guessed that the longest serving US steam locomotive might be the Ammonoosuc (1875-current) on the Mount Washington Cog Railway, it might have had some time off in there that I don't know about. They also had the Peppersass, which was in operating service from 1869 until 2008.
In Switzerland Brienz Rothorn Bahn Nr. 2 runs since 1891 till today. But as the line had some hiatus periods during the Worldwars its also spoty.
(Sees Conrail in thumbnail)
*Neuron activation*
Have a look at the New South Wales Government railways.
Locomotive No.1 still exists per see. In it current form, it’s has bits from all 4 off the original locomotives.
The other ones to look at are the 19 class. First introduced in 1877, some worked for the railways for close to 90 years before being retired with the end of steam in 1972. I don’t have the service dates available at the moment to see which one served the longest.
We have some locos still technically owned by the government but are on loan to preservation societies to maintain and run them. Such an example is 3801, who some would say is our most famous loco. Kinda like our own flying Scotsman. It entered service in 1943 and is still owned by its original owner, just under different departmental names.
You and Unlucky Tug should do a collaboration sometime, as he's more knowledgeable about British trains since he makes mostly stuff about Thomas the Tank Engine.
for us here in blighty its likely Tallylln at 160 years of service for the same railway since its inception. with an occasional spat of inactivity, so it might also be Dolgoch. If not one of those two then probably one of the Ffestiniog engines.
I'm wondering if you're ever going to do a video on advanced steam locomotive technology like Porta and Chapelon, poppet valves, and more. I posted my own video on the Franklin Type B valve gear, but because I'm a small channel, it's not going to get much attention. I also already posted a couple memes featuring advanced steam loco tech on your Discord server too lol.
While not a record, here in Australia Queensland Railways 3'6" gauge BB18 1/4 class pacific 1079 was built in 1956 and kept running for fan trips under QR ownership after the end of regular steam operation in 1969 and the longest she has been out of service was four or five years during covid. While on the subject of QR Heritage operations, and turning to the whole other subject of what the steam locos haul, is there anywhere in the U.S. that you can ride at track speed on a class one mainline in a wooden bodied, end platform coach built before the turn of the last century and still owned and maintained by the original railroad?
Question, where does Skookum, 2-4-4-2, fit in as it was abandoned for many years, and is back in service, but different owners. Have fun
What about Shay No.5 at the Cass Scenic Railroad? Built in 1905 and was bought new by Cass in 1905 and has never left.
As far as the locomotives at your museum. On any of the engines how much of the engine is original to when it was built or is every part on the engine from the cab to the cowcatcher new?
Some long living swiss examples that come to my mind.
The Steam Engine No 2 of the Monte Generoso Rackrailraod from 1890 still belongs to the railway and is still running today. But it was out of service from 1941 to 1981
The Brienz Rothorn Rackengines 1-5 were built in 1881 and still belong to the BRB too, 3 are out of service, no 2 and 5 are in working condition, but only one is in service with them swithcing every few years. But the railroad was not running between 1914 and 1931
What might be the longest running engine might just be a valley over. On the Schynigge Platte rack railway, the engine No 5 was in contiouns service from 1893 until 2020. It was needed to build and remove the catenary every year so it wouldn't be damaged in winter. To my knowledge there was never a long time were it wasn't running