We were at the Minnesota Transportation Museum‘s St. Paul location over the weekend to attend a play (it was the last showing, so I shan’t bore you with a review), and between the meal (meh! – although the cupcake with bacon wrapped around it was interesting) and the show they gave us a quick tour of the roundhouse area. This is where they work on rehabilitating their acquisitions, and so that held our collective interest.
Except for this. This was fascinating. I didn’t know steam engines came in plus-sizes quite like this:
I know they gave us a short history of this locomotive, but I was too visually stunned to take it in, except for the part where they said they’re in the process of changing the tires (his word, not mine). Fortunately, and much to my relief, I tracked it down on the web site. It’s Northern Pacific 2156. Here’s part of a side view of this baby:
This is most of the front half of 2156; I apologize, but my back was against another engine, and it was hard to really get the scale of this thing in here. And yet, from the web site:
Steam locomotive 2156 is a light 4-6-2 “Pacific,” built in 1909 to help handle the Northern Pacific’s increasing passenger business. Based on the successful Q-1 class, Q-3 engines 2148-2170 were constructed by Baldwin (2148-2157) and Alco (2158-2170.) They were well-liked by the crews, capable of cruising at 95 mph. Vital stats: 200 psi superheated steam, 236,000 lbs engine weight, 69″ drivers, 22″x26″ cylinders, 31,000 lbs tractive effort.
Light? Wow. This looked like a monster to me. Here’s the other half of the side view:
You can see the tires to be changed out. Just think of this monster barreling along at 95 MPH!
And one more gratitudinous pic just for fun.
No doubt the front missing end, off for rehabilitation, contributes to the effect of an immobile cannon. It has a raw, primal feel this way, as if it usually wears a civilized mask and this evening we walked in with its mask hanging on the door handle, its ravening nature revealed for by mistake.
