Another train question...?

Question

Why is it I prefer steam locomotives over diesel locomotives?

Answer 1

I don't know about you, but I was born 35 years too late.

Steam engines, while soul-less, are very much a living beast, and not only as a metaphor.

They need food. Their diet consists of coal, oil or wood.

They need air to breath to consume that food.

The water they need is their life blood.

Their cross compound air pumps are their heart beat, their arrhythmic pounding that shakes the engine is their pulse.

The aroma of steam, hot oil, grease and exhaust are the components of their perfume.

When in motion, their side rods, cranks, connecting rods and eccentrics are their legs in dizzy dance.

Their voice is heard on the wind as a whistle, crooning long and low through the night.

The barking of their exhaust when pulling heavy trains is their laborious protest.

And, as with all ladies, they must be treated just right, with lots of TLC and attention to detail.

So. What's not to prefer, over the cold, hard, unimaginative steel of diesel electric traction?

Answer 2

Yeah, the steamers were indeed unique. I'm an engineer, and I had a chance to pilot one on the Grand Canyon RR a few years back. That trip also made me realize how nice a diesel is though. I work for a short line. In the morning, I start either a Geep 9, or a Geep 35 like it was a truck. No firing or waiting for steam pressure. No mineral build up in the boiler. No ash pan to empty. I don't need to stop at a coal tipple. No stopping for water in freezing temps. I don't need to get on the ground to oil bearing journals. Instead, I just start my Geep, back it out of the barn. And if it's cold out, I flip on the heater. (Can't do that in a steamer.) And go to work. All I have to worry about is where I'll stop for lunch. The steam engine will always be a nostalgic part of U.S. history. And they are fascinating. But when I go to work every morning, that Geep looks pretty good to me.

Answer 3

Well, not trying to be too facetious but mostly because you dont have to work on them
Yes the romance of the steam era is absolutely wonderful and the coolness factor of steam is at least 10 to 1 over deiesel.
But I have talked with the "old timers" that ran steam, they were a huge amount of work, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, very very limited visibility.
My Dad said he did not miss the steamers until they had been gone a number of years. I remember a story he told me about steamers, at about 25 mph the steam exhaust from the cylinders would be talking to him, it would say letsgofishing letsgofishing letsgofishing. Deisels dont do that, I have worked on them forever and they dont ever say much.
From an engineers point of view, if you were good on steam you were very good and everyone knew it, you were undisputed top dog.
Not so now, a mediocre engineer can get by almost as well as a good hoghead. A lot of the human factor has been taken out.

Answer 4

It's the poetry in motion. Several writers have alluded to a steam locomotive having a soul, but of course that doesn't mean much of anything really. But the way it moves, it seems like it's alive.

Answer 5

Your stuck in the past? Or perhaps you like the chunkyness of the body and the need to stop every fifty miles to take on new water.

Answer 6

Because they seem alive, you can see them working, they smell good, they are romantic, they are nostalgic and to people (like me) of a certain age, bring back memories of childhoood and adolescence when life was much simpler.

Answer 7

The sound of chugging and the whistle.

Answer 8

Old is gold...