New York Central Niagaras

Discussion in 'Loco Suggestions & Proposals' started by Buynot, May 11, 2019.

  1. Buynot

    Buynot Well-Known Member

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    In its day, the New York Central was responsible for some of the most powerful, and iconic steam locomotives to ever grace the rails. One of these locomotives, was the 4-8-4 Niagara. These locomotives were built by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady New York in 1945, at a time where their J class 4-6-4's had reached their limits. The Niagaras were delivered in 6 batches between 1945 and 1946. With their 75 inch boxpok drivers, baker valve gear, and a tractive effort of 62,000 lbs, these locomotives quickly proved themselves to be quite the heavy haulers. Not only this, but they also had incredible speed capabilities, being able to keep most passenger trains on time, or making up incredible amounts of time in the rare case that they were late. The Niagaras hustled and bustled their way over New York Central's system until, they were heavily challenged by the new EMD F7. The new diesel locomotives were put through a series of tests against the mighty 4-8-4's and they would have come out on top had it not been for maintenance costs. By the mid 1950s, the locomotives had been relegated to low priority freights throughout Ohio and the upper Midwest. They were all retired by 1956, and unfortunately, all were cut up by 1960. I feel that this locomotive would make for a fantastic addition to Train Simulator, as it's just the kind of locomotive that the US steam market needs right now. Do you guys agree? Let me know what you think!
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  2. jedi247

    jedi247 Well-Known Member

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    Heck yeah! Such a nice engine. We could get the water troughs. That would be cool. We could get an NYC Water Level Route with these, plus some freight and passenger cars. The NYC 20th Century Limited needs to be included. I'd also like some NYC Pacemaker 50' boxcars, other cars, and a caboose for freight.
     
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  3. steammaster4449

    steammaster4449 Well-Known Member

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    It's a shame they Central scrapped the overwhelming majority of their steamers. They would've made some fantastic excursion stars. I wonder if there are any groups out there interested in restoring a couple of Mohawks or maybe even building some new Hudsons and Niagaras. Ah well.
     
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  4. Buynot

    Buynot Well-Known Member

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    I believe there was a group attempting to rebuild a new Hudson from scratch, but the project stalled out due to lack of funding.
     
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  5. steammaster4449

    steammaster4449 Well-Known Member

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    Well that's a shame. A group building a new Pennsy T1 can get the necessary funds yet a group wanting to build a new NYC Hudson can't?
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  6. trainboyerik

    trainboyerik Member

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    well, who does not love the famous NYC Hudson? I'm sure I do love the NYC Hudson!
     
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  7. treid09

    treid09 Guest

    Great suggestion. This is one of those engines that TS absolutely must have. Niagara's are, in my mind at least, the only class of 4-8-4 that could ever match or surpass Uncle Pete's FEFs.
     
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  8. treid09

    treid09 Guest

    I just did some reading on Wikipedia about the Niagaras and found out something very interesting. The schedules were so tight that maintenance schedules were cut to just one day of work. Therefore, the locomotives were kept under steam, and work was done while it was under steam. In the firebox, the work (brick arch, cleaning tubes and flues) was done by men wearing suits of asbestos overalls (according to the article). If that is indeed true......whoa.

    Has anybody else heard of this? Here's where I read it: New York Central Niagara - Wikipedia
     
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  9. steammaster4449

    steammaster4449 Well-Known Member

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    And that's why we have OSHA nowadays.

    Edit: I gotta put another OSHA reference/joke in.

    OSHA would've had a bloody field day with the Central because of that.
     
    Last edited: Dec 6, 2020
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  10. steammaster4449

    steammaster4449 Well-Known Member

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    Let's not forget that the Central had a poppet valve gear equipped Niagara, number 5500.

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    Here we see a 10.5" gauge live steam model of a Niagara on the Stapleford Miniature Railway in the U.K. back in 2015.



    And here we see various Water Level Route operations, with multiple Niagaras making appearances.

     
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