{"id":4081,"date":"2016-08-02T17:35:49","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T21:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nanosphoto.com\/blog\/?p=4081"},"modified":"2022-01-23T13:31:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T13:31:08","slug":"summertime-inside-a-teakettle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/summertime-inside-a-teakettle\/","title":{"rendered":"Summertime inside a teakettle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Weather forecasts were calling for high temperatures approaching the 90s, coupled with fairly high humidity for Saturday July 30, 2016 – a pretty normal occurrence for mid-summer in southern New England.  Instead of seeking out the comfort of an air conditioned space, I headed out to do a little shooting – in an even warmer environment, the cab of a steam locomotive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I visited the Valley Railroad\/Essex Steam Train<\/a> and rode along with the engine crew for the first run of the day.  The crew on this Saturday consisted of Fireman Bill Fredrickson and engineer Fred Jordan – both veterans of the Valley Railroad in a number of capacities, but Fred was more recently marked up as a steam engineer.  I had photographed Fred<\/a> a couple years back when he was working as the engineer for the Essex Clipper Dinner Train<\/a>, but this was my first opportunity to document him in the right hand seat of a steam locomotive.<\/p>\n

Arriving around 8:30am, and after signing my waiver to ride the locomotive, it was time to check in with Fred and Bill in the Locomotive Servicing Facility.  As a side note, the LSF is the newest building in Essex, which provides engine and maintenance crews with an enclosed space to service the locomotives, and also includes a pit allowing easy inspection and maintenance of the underside of the equipment.  The new building is located alongside the existing shop at the south end of Essex yard.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Valley Railroad no 40 sits in the railroad’s Locomotive Servicing Facility in Essex, Connecticut at the start of the day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before the locomotive could be moved out into the sunshine of the emerging day, the pair needs to complete some inspections and lubrication of the running gear on the nearly century old locomotive.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Valley Railroad fireman Bill Frederickson lubricates some of No. 40s running gear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Engineer Fred Jordan chats with fireman Bill Frederickson as they get the power ready for the day’s work<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fireman Bill Frederickson is adding oil to the journal box on the trailing truck of No. 40<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Bill F. adding oil to No. 40s running gear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And while they were doing that, I of course had to get a couple of my more artsy shots out of the way…<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
A peek into No. 40s cab shows a coal scoop at the ready, with a can of oil alongside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Detail look at 40’s logo on her tender<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of that inspection is to clear any accumulated water from the cylinders – and doing that was a team effort, with<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Bill watches the cylinder cock as Fred purges the cylinders of any water<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With all complete, it was time to head out into the daylight.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Engineer Fred Jordan eases No. 40 out of the Locomotive Servicing Facility<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next task the crew had on their list was to fuel up the locomotive – so a trip over to track 8 where the coaling ramp is located was in order.  Working with his fireman on the ground, Fred eased the Mikado from the LSF over to the easternmost track in Essex.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Fred adjusts the volume on his handheld radio as he watches for the fireman’s signal from the ground<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred eases No. 40 towards the coal ramp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once there, and the coal bunker lined up with the ramp, Wayne Hebert operated the railroad’s backhoe, and proceeded to fill ‘er up with coal<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Wayne Hebert operates the backhoe, and tops off No. 40s coal bunker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As that was going on, Bill tended to the fire in 40s firebox<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Bill checks the fire in 40 as Fred watches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And Fred lent a hand by clearing some of the ash from 40s ash pan<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Fred rakes the ashes from No. 40<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred rakes the ashes from No. 40<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the coal was continued to be loaded, I felt it was right to take a couple more detail shots inside the cab.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
The boiler steam gauge is showing about 150 pounds per square inch of pressure – well under the Maxium Allowed Working Pressure of 175 PSI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
A padlock serves as a safety latch in No. 40s throttle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once the bunker was full of coal, it was time to head to the north end of the yard, and tie onto the waiting train.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
No 40 heads north around her train at the start of the day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the locomotive and train now ready to run as one unit, Bill took the opportunity to wet down the freshly added coal in the tender.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Fireman Bill Frederickson wetting down the freshly loaded coal in the tender<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And, yes, I and my camera got quite wet…but we’ve both been through worse.  A quick dry-off of the lens and my face (and glasses), and we were back in business.<\/p>\n

While waiting for our departure time to arrive, I took the opportunity for another detail shot…well, really my intent was to get out of the hot cab for a bit and cool off…<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Deatil of 40s builders plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But at the same time, Fred also got off and did some more lube checks of the running gear.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Engineer Fred Jordan tops off the oil on part of 40s running gear<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Engineer Fred Jordan tops off the oil on part of 40s running gear – with century-old equipment, lubrication is an ongoing task to keep them running<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With all that done, everyone climbed back into the cab for the remainder of time we’d be waiting at the station.  During that time, some visitors from Austria came up to the locomotive and asked to come aboard.  The crew welcomed them up and gave them a quick tour of the cab, and Bill gave them a demonstration of how to fire the locomotive – another facet of their jobs at the Valley Railroad, well outside of the normal head end duties.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
The job of fireman and engineer do not only mean you get to operate the train – you also interface with the tourists who are riding the train. Here Fred and Bill give a brief tour, and demonstration of firing – to some folks visiting from Austria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soon after the visitors made their way back to their seats on the train, it was time to depart.  Instead of doing a play-by-play of that part, I’ll just post the rest of the photos.  Feel free to click through them and check out the larger sizes.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Fred eases the train out of Essex station with a load of passengers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
As the train heads north, leaving Essex yard limits, Fred and Bill chat a bit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Valley Railroad fireman Bill F. throws a shovel full of coal onto No. 40’s fire as the train was rolling north through Chester, Connecticut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
A wide view of the entire cab of No. 40 as the train proceeds north<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred watches as he shoves the train south from North Chester to the Hadlyme stop, where some passengers will leave the train, headed across the river to Gillete Castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Engineer Fred continues to watch his train as they shove south towards Deep River Landing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred smiles and waves to passengers as No. 40 runs around the train at Deep River Landing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred pulling the whistle cord as the train approaches the Essex Street grade crossing in Deep River.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
A contrasty look at Fred as he brings the train south to Essex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred brings 40 back north as the passengers leave the train.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred grips 40s throttle as he eases the locomotive into a hitch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
Fred’s fingers at the ready to apply the brakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along the way, I did manage to sneak in a couple photos of myself for fun…<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
The photographer gets a quick shot of himself as the train proceeds north<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"<\/a>
The photographer’s reflection as the train passes by the parlor car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As usual, feel free to comment here, or drop me a line with any thoughts you may have on the photos.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading!
\nTom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weather forecasts were calling for high temperatures approaching the 90s, coupled with fairly high humidity for Saturday July 30, 2016 – a pretty normal occurrence for mid-summer in southern New England.  Instead of seeking out the comfort of an air conditioned space, I headed out to do a little shooting – in an even warmer environment, the cab […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[568,14,180,210,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-4081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rail_photography","8":"tag-cab-ride","9":"tag-connecticut","10":"tag-essex","11":"tag-steam-train","12":"tag-valley-railroad","13":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/20160730-152053000490-1D0A9183-XL.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5321,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4081\/revisions\/5321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}