Comments on: The Lost Engines of Roanoke

The Lost Engines of Roanoke

Kattullus — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:18:54 -0800

"Looking for all the world like an engine abandoned in the Amazon jungle, M2 class 4-8-0 number 1118 lies forlorn and forgotten at the Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal yard in Roanoke, VA." The Lost Engines of Roanoke website chronicles the history of four steam locomotives that were sold in the 50's to a scrapyard in Roanoke, Virginia. There are plenty of photos of the engines and other train equipment and information on two other lost engines. The news section has been busy of late since one of the engines has been sold to a railroad themed restaurant in Bellville, Ohio. The move was photodocumented.

By: unixrat

unixrat — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:42:37 -0800

Train people are an impressively monomaniacal sort. Narrow set of interests, but a nearly bottomless appetite for information, history, and train-related doodads.

By: Debaser626

Debaser626 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:56:07 -0800

The move was photodocumented Is the slow loading time on this link to remind us of a ~~softer, gentler~~ slower, yawn-inducing time when the world wasn't so fast and demanding? It works. I actually got some work done while waiting for the page to load. Stupid link makin' me work and crap.... Oh... and wouldn't these classify as steamjunk? buh dum cha!

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:31:04 -0800

There's some neat ruined trains round my neck of the woods. I'm just going to cut-and-paste from this comment, as it was at the end of a thread and no bugger saw it: Another variant on steam trains: I was at the Northwest Train Museum the other day (or the outdoor part of it that consists of a bunch of decaying old steamtrains on a track) and saw soem very weird looking trains: Geared Steam Locomotives. Designed for steeper track and poorer conditions they work on a different priciple to the conventional steam trains and come in a bunch of weird designs, like this v cylinder one or this one with side mounted drive shafts. I felt a bit like I'd stumbled upon the Burgess shale of steam trains.

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:36:20 -0800

That comment is some kind of thread-killer. I'll have to try it out on some threads that aren't even steam-engine related.

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:09:11 -0800

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:19:30 -0800

I'm surprised there's interest in getting some of them running again. The rust looks completely out of control, especially in one of those pics that showed an engineers compartment. Many of the bolts and nuts looked fused together by the rust.

By: Leon

Leon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:54:29 -0800

Artw: first time around, that comment caused me to spend 45 minutes on Cambrian fossils and punctuated evolution, and to wishlist Stephen Jay Gould's book. So somebody read it.

By: Leon

Leon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:05:07 -0800

equilibrium. damn.

By: Artw

Artw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:07:45 -0800

Aha. So the comment actually disappears people in time.

By: Artful Codger

Artful Codger — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:50:39 -0800

hey Kattullus, thanks for that post. To the unenlightened: the attraction to trains and locomotives is probably formed in childhood, and may be genetic, or at least contagious (e.g. contracted from a favourite uncle. Thanks, Uncle Dick). They're fascinating to watch (full-size or in miniature), and the enjoyment of trains doesn't lead to cancer or moral decay. Yet.