The Steam Era’s Longest Train
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- When most think of longer freight trains, the modern days of railroading is understandably the first thing that comes to mind. However, even the age of steam dabbled in the idea as well…
Massive thanks to TrainKidStudios, Colton K, Blake’s Trains and More and Official Denver&RioGrandeWestern for helping in the making of this video.
If I missed a source in the credits, it’s either public domain or I couldn’t find it. Let me know and I’ll cite it where I can, sorry in advance.
Check out TrainK’s railfanning video here:
• 20 Minutes of CSX and NS
Further reading, and one major info source for this video:
cs.trains.com/...
Discord server:
/ discord
It has come to my attention that i mispronounced Worcester in the video, I apologize for that.
there's another way to say it?
@@derkaiser50Wor-ster. Think Worcestershire sauce.
Woostah
In Ohio we at least have the decency to spell it “Wooster”.
Don't apologize, let them screech into the ether lol
The thing I love about this is the shear coordination that must have gone into this event. There were no radios, and the length of the train meant that the first locomotive would start wayyyy before the one at the rear. Id love to go back and see this unfold.
The lead engine would power forward for over 150’ before the slack was removed from all the couplings on the consist. Steam power never failed when brute power was required!
I would guess that those old railroad pocket watches had a purpose, no?
“Synchronize watches!”
This was well before hearing that during WWI and WWII!!!
@@dangeary2134 I didn’t think about that, it makes a lot of sense. All you’d need then is some mathematics to judge the perfect time to set off in sync with the coupler slack.
steam era. would have to stop at least 5 times (once per locomotive) for every water stop. Lining that up would be a pain in the neck. Locomotives in middle would actually be pushing train cars in front of them at some points. Add in a few hills, and just like modern day trains, part of the locomotives could be pushing while part of them are braking.
1:36 IT THAT RED BREAD?!?!?
Railroads though, prior to trucking , were the main mode of transportation in the building of this great nation. I hope they make somewhat of a comeback as they had in the past. Excellent video. Thank you for sharing
In Europe they still are all the rage. The us is just in love with cars and truck
They should have made a second train carrying potatos that was even longer so they could use all that to make a lot of french fries
They could season the fries using the salt from the first train.
exactly
@@imatrainperson1195 Now they need a train carrying cattle and beef, and one carrying buns and cheese.
The thing is, it wud indeed have to be a LOT longer if we intend to use all that salt on all the potatoes
Like id say at least 10 times as long
Thing is, to think srsly on this for a sec... The salt is actually bein moved to where the potatoes are, to be used in initial prep of the potatoes before final shipment of product.
Or more accurately, the beef or the cabbage or the cucumbers or whatve you that wud be a lot hvier to ship if they didnt first remove the waterweight
What rly shudve happened was the worcester salt special shudve carried back shipments of hvily salt preserved foods to the workers in the salt mines
It will never cease to amaze me how 90% of people add an H to worcester just to make it make pronounceable lol. It's wuh-ster, wuh-stah if your in New england freight hub and wuh-ster-shire if you're cooking
work-es-tur
There, now everyones mad at me :p
Glad someone else noticed it lol, it jumped out immediately
I'm from (old) England and I watched just to see how it was pronounced. Are you from New England? I am interested that you pronounce it the same way as we do.
@@andybelcher1767 originally yes
I pronounce it War-Ses-Terr just to make sure everyone hates the way I pronounce it.
Imagine how hellish the cordination between all the locomotives must've been... Especially in a time before electronic/digital syncing...
This happened in 1897, not 1797. They had relays and telephones.
@@robertcollins4663 Even in 1897 though there was no radio communication between locomotives, only communication between stations and semaphore signalling.
@@jonathanree4524 Semaphore for engine-to-engine? Why no use steam whistle?
In 1970 I saw a SP WB train in flat, SW Louisiana with 3 engines and 153 cars and I thought THAT was impressive then. That's small potatoes now.
I was NOT expecting the Red Bread at 1:33
I was literally coming down here to comment exactly this 😂
The original Worcester in the UK is pronounce Wuster.
The city of Worcester in Massachusetts is also pronounced in the traditional UK manner. Anyone know the correct way to reference Worcester, NY?
And it sounds almost the same if you say Worse ter.
Yes but here in America we feel it's our obligation to pronounce every single letter!
@@brianwithoutay2291 No, we go even farther and pronounce letters that aren't there!
it seems 5 steam engines really isnt that many for a fully loaded 162 car train. I've seen plenty of 100-120 car trains with 4-6 Dash 9's before. Steam never fails to impress me.
also, these were 1890 steam engines (4-6-0 ten wheelers if the illustration is accurate), a far, *far* cry from the true monsters that would succeed them. There is a famous video out there of UP3985 hauling a similar number of double stacked freight cars up Sherman Hill by itself.
I couldn’t find much info on the locomotives themselves, though one source I read claimed that the lead engine was Erie 1058. Plus, the one photo of the train I could find had a 2-8-0 Consolidation leading.
Yeah, these locomotives were much smaller. But the freight cars were smaller then too. 2700 tons would be 27 loaded coal cars today. One SD40-2 could pull that by itself.
@@gregrowe1168Remember these also have plain bearings, not roller bearings. Also, you're likely limited not by traction but by the strength of the carbodies and the couplers in tension.
@@daniellewis1789 Yeah definitely requires a bit more pulling power than the same amount of weight now.
As somebody from Massachusetts, the way Worcester was pronounced in this video was painful
Well I’m sorry for butchering it. As for how it’s actually pronounced, that can be left up to debate.
Plus, this is in New York. Not Massachusetts.
Worcester is Worcester whether in NY or Massachusetts. His point of debate is moot. NY should be Worchester and leave the treasured Worcester to Massachusetts.
Oooh, the board at 3:10 has some grt info, but the part i rly like is how it mentions how much butter this salt cud ssn...
And thats a 1:20 ratio of salt to butter; which is smth that wud taste unbearably salty to most today... As our butter uses a 1-2% salt to butter ratio for ssnin
But it lasted much longer that way, and may even be washed before usin to remove some of that excessive salt (tho the liquid leftover wud likely then be used as some other part of a meal, esp if particularly poorer; such as added to bread dough or used as base for a soup stock)
1897 was still an era where refrigeration wasnt rly commonplace, even with electrification and otherwise bringin such as an option for some... home refrigeration wasnt a thing until the 1910s, and even then took decades to become commonplace and still only little more than a few decades ago that we finally get to over 99% of homes havin a refrigerator in USA... Still today its only 99.8%
What a neat piece of railroad lore! Happy to help with the clips
I just want to say using the gta 3 theme for the intro is amazing
Extremely based usage of the GTA III theme in the intro, I applaud you for that.
Great video! Lots of info I didn’t know, awesome job. Glad I could help with the clips
Love your choice of music! I'm glad UA-cam recommended me to ya
In germany, we aren't there yet. although freight trains are longer than passenger, and a bit slower, they are below a kilometer long, at least in somewhat densly settled areas (like between Berlin and Königswusterhausen)
Another awesome video!
Big Deliveries Can Sometimes Be Rare For Railroad Back Then, Nowadays It's More Than Just 100 Freight Cars Alone
Mega trains annoy motorists at crossings, and put train crews out of work.
I just noticed your channel name: A+++, nay, even better; S+++ grade
3:59 That sure looks like a model RR.
The first song you have in the background is part of the Grand theft auto 3 theme song :D i was like whaaat
Also bear in mind that wooden 36' cars were the norm...and did they all have air brakes and automatic couplers?
A very nice video that I enjoyed. I suggest anyone watching a Florida East Coast railroad train going by taking all of those vehicles. It cools off of I 95 and US1. Thank you florida east coast
Great video! A topic I never thought of as a Railfan! Keep up the great content! 👍
Thank you! I never knew this train existed for a long time either.
@@imatrainperson1195 You’re welcome! 👍
Interesting video Andrew!
Thanks Owen!
The hold for tonnage guys won out. 1 enginer does the work on 3 crews. With steam you have to have 2 men running each locomotive.
Just ask the folks of East Palatine, OH
Showing an image of three rail Lionel track is not quite the perfect example to visualize what railroad track in the real world may have looked like back in 1897.
this is a great video
GTA 3 theme song in the beginning that's awesome. Long long time since I heard that
The drawings would be a safety nightmare 2-4 M between trains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love the music
Crazy how even back then DPUs were known to be necessary
Some britsh dude: STILL TOO SPICY, GIVE ME MORE SALT!
Hold on. 5M lbs of salt is about 2 270 metric tons, which is about 14 t per carriage. Seems a little for that time 🤔Let's even round up to 15 t to include packaging.
I think carriages of that time could carry more.
But anyway the undertaking is very impressive! 🤯
I believe I calculated the weight a different way than metric tons, but either way, you’re right. It was still a massive undertaking for the era.
Worcester lol
Worcester Mass? That's where I live
@@ronaldmorrison6013 Fake Worcester?
@@ronaldmorrison6013Me too!
@@ronaldmorrison6013people butcher the pronunciation of the city or Worcester all the time.
worchester or wishster?
Nice Looking layout.
W video
Good video and narration however you mispronounced the word WORCESTER . Their is NO H after the letter C. Henceforth Worcester Mass or Providence & Worcester RR. I know I was a shareholder for 40 years.
I know you've recognized that you mispronounced a key word in your narration, but it does, nonetheless, pain me that such a well prepared and thorough presentation would contain what should be pronounced as 'Wus-ter' and, if you were living in Massachusetts, 'Wusta' which, I guess can be forgiven since much of the country would have a similar pronunciation. Try Worcestershire sauce.
Again I apologize. I’m from the Midwestern US so I didn’t have much experience around the term. Besides, based on what I’ve heard, there’s many ways to say it.
“Wooster,” “Wusta,” “Wuster,” etc. though again, I’m sorry.
Now I've heard but can't find any confirmation on this but supposedly the Union Pacific had a Big Boy pull a train five miles long once, strictly as a stunt though and it was never repeated. It may have only pulled it a few feet just to make the point. If anyone knows the truth of this I'd love to hear it!
It’s said the Big Boy was CAPABLE of pulling that sized train, but it was never officially documented. If it were, then the big boy would’ve singlehandedly beaten every world record train by far. As interesting as that would’ve been, I doubt any railyard could hold a train that size in the 1940s/50s, and the coupler slack would be horrible.
@@imatrainperson1195 I'm sure you're right, that five mile train story sounds more like a product of a rumor mill going into overdrive.
It is pronounced Wus-ter (wus as in wussy).
as an englishman, every mispronunciation of worcester hurt me personally. 😆
Wussy? As in Barbussy?
Ok but the TF2 music
3:07 Autogen captions made a major goof here bcuz you took too long a pause btwn one hundred and sixty two; it says the train has 10062 cars
Oh wait, it cud alsove goofed just cuz ya say one hundred sixty two instd of one hundred and sixty two; no doubt the addtn of and wudve made the AI aware of the right number to write
The good news is that you do show a closeup of it clearly labeled 162 cars right after that; but still a funny goof for the AI autogen... And yet more evidence that human intervention is still necessary if one wants to provide accurate captions
Unrelated: Theres train horns in the distance where im at rn as im typin all this, what lucky timin
Wqsnt it proven that the Union Pacific Big Boy was capable of pulling a 5 mile long freight train.
Capable yes, but not ever officially tested and recorded. If that were the case it would’ve single-handedly beaten out every world record train by far.
Whistle signals and hand signals
Could you do a vid on how Conrail came to be?
There are a LOT of people that refuse to believe that railroads were under fire from Congress and a whole lot of three-letter agencies.
I know Conrail is short for Consolidated Rail, and it was put together by the Government.
Before it was contrived, smaller railroads were dropping like flies and abandoning entire networks.
Please do this, if you would?
That’s an interesting idea, though several other people have told Conrail’s origin story before. Still, I might be open to it.
Well There's Your Problem's series on Penn Central is probably the definitive source on the pldigressions have the time and don't mind their collective sense of humor and more than occasional digreessions.
Not exactly documentary but incredibly well researched compared to any other attempts -the story is too complex to simplify imo.
They cover from the PRR and NYC's founding to the end of Conrail.
Shhhh don't tell him about the CNJ running a equipment move in the 1890s with 438 cars down the nanticoke branch using 1 4-8-0
I’m listening…
As I briefly mentioned Lehigh Valley was claimed to have run some massive coal trains on their route around the same time too.
@@imatrainperson1195 this was in a report, it wasn't made a big deal but the ARHS has info on it. It was literally just a equipment move that happened to have way more cars than normal
_laughs in PRR 3 Chime Screeching 200 car long ore train_
Do tell…
@@imatrainperson1195 what is there to to tell?
It was insanely common.
_like. Really really common._
Do I need to mention how long the N&W ran their drags in the steam era?
@@pennsy6755 is there photo or video footage of those?
And about how long was the average PRR ore car?
3:23 Yikes. Many say the six-point star is the emblem for One World Order.
no, that's a star of david- which is the symbol of judaism. Whoever told you that is either antisemetic or just the sort of person that doesn't think before repeating things
The song at 4:45?
Track 3-Weatherscan Music
Kids need to be taught *NOT* to play around Trains.
Why? Because Nearly a Thousand People are Killed by Trains a Year.
In the end, people need to be Smart and Safe.
You make a big deal about how this big train benefited the general population and wasn't just a cash grab, but you fail to explain how in literally any way. "It served a bunch of communities," yeah? So would a bunch of smaller trains, which could choose more direct routes as well. This was very obviously a way to grab publicity, as proven by the coach full of reporters it had. It's ok to just tell a history lesson without coming up with a "moral of the story."
You’re partly right, this train was made with much publicity in mind. And I’ll admit I was a bit biased toward it. At the same time, this was 1897, when shipping goods (especially large quantities of salt) long distances took many, many days. While they could’ve used smaller trains instead, then every individual train would’ve had to cope with the amount of traffic on the rail lines, thus taking longer than a unified consist. That combined train method doesn’t work all the time (as we’ve seen in modern times), but in the 1890s especially, the added efficiency could be of help to the distributors and consumers who could receive the salt quicker as well as the higher up management.
Worcester is pronounced Woo-stir. Not wor- sester and especially not Wor- chester. Look at the word. There is no h in the spelling of Worcester.
Well, there is a district in Montgomery County PA that's spelled the same but pronounced "war-sester."
So it all depends where you're from I guess.
Kind of like Cairo IL which is pronounced by locals "kay-ro" and not "ky-ro." Then there's Lima OH pronounced "ly-ma" not "lee-ma." No point in going on from here.
Pronounced "Wooster"
Or, Wister if you are from Worcester
“Woo” as in “woof” or “wood” though, not as in “woohoo” or “whoop”
@@chrisgreeson5758 Or wu- stah, if you're from the city in Massachusetts.
Why did I think this was going to be interesting?