Waushakum Live Steamers Fall Meet 2009

The forecast for the weekend was pretty gloomy so my wife came up from home and met me at the commuter parking lot in Killingly CT after school and we headed up to Holliston. I live 32 miles south of where I work and that is about 40 miles south of Holliston. My thinking was that, if the weather was a complete blow out of the weekend I could at least get some photos on Friday evening before the big rains arrived. That plan worked out fine and we had a great time Friday evening. On the was home later in the evening we were looking for a place to eat and stumbled across Falzone's in Douglas MA on Rt. 16. We had the best Italian dinner in ages and the bill was only about $35.00 for us both. Highly recommended!

When I woke up on Saturday the rain was pounding down and I decided to forego the 70 mile drive up to Holliston. Sunday however the driveway was dry and I headed out at about 8:00AM.

I took quite a few photos and a number of fellows told me they would send along a paragraph or two about their equipment so please check back after a while to see if they followed through. As always if you recognize an engine feel free to let me know who it belongs to and I will update this page. errol.groff@snet.net

Fall Meet video

This handsome rig belongs to Bill Shields. I recognized bill's name from his postings on the Chaski board and we had a pleasant chat The boiler is propane fired and when I saw it the tank was coated with frost.

Hi Errol

The green 0-4-0 Juliet belongs to Joedy Hicks from CT.

She ran so well on Friday I am still picking cinders out of my teeth, but all good things must come to an end and miss Juliet has a new owner. She now belongs to Bob Ballato of NH. I hope she brings as much joy to him as she did to me.

from "joedbiker"

Just last night I was looking at some Heisler plans. My current project is almost done so I am looking for a new project to keep me off the streets and out of the bars. This engine was built from Kozo plans.

Two of Joe Ng's great locos

My wife loved this loco since is a great rendition of the 12" = 1' train that we rode from anchorage to Denali National Park several year ago.

John Stewart sent this info 8 September 2009, thanks John for contributing to the page and thanks for participating at the meet.

Hi Errol;

Nice meeting you briefly when you were photographing. Apologies for

being preoccupied; locomotives sometimes give one "issues" as I'm sure

you know! (a few things to fix this week...) I was down at Waushakum with my wife Deb Stewart Murray Bennell was also there; Murray is also one of us Canadians.

The locomotive I brought was a 3/4" scale SNCF 141R; built by George

Tapping many years ago now. The full sized 141Rs were built in America

and Canada, and shipped to France at the end of WWII.

Ian fisher

Let me know if you get this i am not sure you will . My name is Ian Fisher and i am a member of Waushakum and you had asked if I would send in a note about my engine .

My engine is a 1" British ten wheeler number 7807 Compton Manor , Great Western . She is a scale model of one of the engines my father was a fire man on . He started this engine many years ago , but was side tracked due to my mothers and his health . He had the engine completed to the point were we could steam her up in the back yard but she never ran . My dad Harvey Fisher passed and never sore her run . It took me many trys to get it to the point the way she runs today . In fact this past weekend was the best she has ever run .

Also just to let you know this past weekend was the annual meet , the fall blow down meet is Oct 18 and it is in memory of my father this year .

Hope this was helpful .

Thanks Ian

Rich Hubbard (R) arrived and Russ Steeves operated the hoist while Rich unloaded his equipment.

NEMES president Dick Boucher

Not sure on this one but it might be Fr. Finelli running the B&M Mountain

Chris Colby running his B&M Mountain (from BobbyT)

Chris Colby sent this info 5 September 2009. Thank you Chris!

The Prototype

The Boston & Maine Railroad's last purchase of steam locomotives was its Class R-1 "Mountains" built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in four groups starting in 1935 with the last 5 coming in 1941. These eighteen 4-8-2s (# 4100 through #4117) each weighed 416,100 lbs and among the heaviest 4-8-2s built in the United States.

They had 28 x 31 cylinders, 73" drivers, a 240 psi boiler pressure and a tractive effort of 67,900 pounds. The final order was Class R1d, which had Worthington SA Type Feedwater heaters, roller bearings, Baldwin Disc Drivers, and Centipede Tenders. The first thirteen of these locomotives were sold to the B&O in 1947 and the remaining five were retired in 1955 and 1956.

Specifications for R-1Class

Wheel Arrangement: 4-8-2

Length: 105' - 8"

Drivers: 73" diameter

Weight on Drivers: 269,300 lbs

Total Locomotive Weight: 416,100 lbs

Locomotive & Tender Weight: 788,800 lbs

Grate Area: 79 sq ft

Cylinders: (2) 28" diameter x 31" stroke

Boiler Pressure: 240 psi

Tractive Effort: 67,900 lbs

6 Wheel Truck Tenders:20,000 gal water and 21 tons coal

Centipede Tenders: 23,000 gal water and 21 tons coal

The Model

1.6" to the foot, approx 14' Long, approx 1500 lbs dry, boiler capacity approx 25 gal, tender capacity approx 50 lbs coal, 30 gal water

100-125# operating pressure; 3 relief valves; steel boiler, copper tubes; steam injector, axle pump and two steam driven water pumps; steam brakes for engine; steam ejector for train brakes (vacuum). built in about 18 months by Moe's Locomotive Works near Hamilton Ontario Canada, completed in 2003 from prints of prototype.

Close ups of the B&M Mountain (from BobbyT)