Why Are So Many Steam Locomotives Sitting in Parks?

A couple common themes in the comments. First, comments about water use. There are a lot of factors impacting that, and it's true that a lot of locomotives could go much further without stopping for water. The topic is too complicated to have included in this video, along with some others, without making it way too long, so it'll be a separate video later. Same for some of the other comments questioning information. Also, since quite a few people have asked about finding local steam locomotives, I found this site that lists the ones in the US. Click on your state on the map and it brings up a map with a lot, pro probably not all, of them in your state. I don't have any connection to the site, and don't know how accurate it is, but you may find it useful. www.steamlocomotive.com/survivors/?country=USA&sta…

Park locomotives are like a piano that is used as furniture and is never played. Sad the generations who have never experienced a specticle that an operating steam locomotive is. 😊

In the 1950s when the railroads were converting to diesels many employees wanted to save some of the steam locomotives for history. After 150 years of steam it was the end of an era. Many small towns were railroad towns for 100 years or more. I come from a railroad town. My father, grandfather, and an uncle all worked for the railroad. My dad was on the committee in 1956 to convince the town council to accept a small steam switch engine for free. Where were they going to put it? There was a brand new park being built, so it would go there. Then the railroad started laying off employees. With steam gone they didn't need as many workers. My dad got transferred and we moved 2 hours away. But our relatives continued to live there. 65 years later it's no longer a railroad town. In fact it has become a bedroom town for silicon valley and the population is now 100,000 +. But the steam locomotive is still sitting in the park.

The K4b class of locomotives of which 5632 is a member are passenger locomotives. There are exceptions to every rule of course but passenger locomotives usually have large drivers for fast acceleration and high speed. The Pacific type of arrangement is very common to passenger locomotives of this period.

There is a retired steam locomotive in a park in my hometown. I remember climbing all over it as a child. It was completely open. As our world became more safety conscious (and litigious), it underwent renovation. An abatement of the asbestos insulation of the boiler was carried out: the entire locomotive was shrouded in a plastic tent and the exterior skin of the boiler jacket was removed in order to expose the asbestos and facilitate its removal. The exterior of the boiler was restored and the engine was given a fresh coat of paint. Like the GTW you filmed, it is now safely behind a fence and park users may look at it but never touch it, much less climb on it or imagine being the engineer from inside the cab.

Most “average” workaday steam locomotives such as 5632, built from the 1910’s thru the early-mid 30’s could, (as others have stated) go 100-150 miles on water and around 150-200 miles on coal (depending on train and territory). During fuel stops the engineer would also go and oil around, grease the rods if needed. Indeed, most would need to go “to the house” for minor maintenance after every run or two. Many of the locomotives built in the mid to late superpower era (30’s-1950) were a different story. Most of these locomotives had mechanical lubricators with enough capacity to last 300+ miles. Almost all had roller bearings on everything but the rods which increased reliability and maintenance intervals. Things like automatic wedge adjusters, alco lateral motion devices, and better boiler design/water treatment also kept them out of the house longer and increased their efficiency (thus fuel range). A few locomotives classes like C&O’s J3A (of which 614 survives), C&O L Class 4-6-4’s, N&W J’s (of which 611 survives), N&W’s last class of A 2-6-6-4’s, NYC’s S1A/B Niagara’s, ATSF’s 3776/2900’s, etc. also had roller bearing rods. The cavities in these rods had enough capacity to go 300+ miles before oil had to be added. Almost all of these locomotives were known for their high reliability/availability and in many cases (when compared to first generation diesels); they were actually cheaper to operate because it would take a 3-4 unit set of diesels to equal one of them. The diesels also had a higher initial cost, a higher maintenance cost over the lifespan of the engine. The only time the modern steam locomotive’s costs rose substantially was during major shoppings. Really, it wasn’t until the SD40-2 that a single diesel unit had the horsepower and tractive effort to match something like a Van Sweringen 2-8-4 (NKP 765, PM 1225). Steam lost out early on (compared to Europe/Asia) for a few reasons. 1. There weren’t many standard designs that allowed for parts commonality between railroads/locomotive classes. 2. It was the “average” locomotives that got the nation through WWII, not the superpower/advanced ones. Railroads had begun the switch to diesels before the war to replace these already worn out locomotives, only to be stopped by the war production board. By the time superpower locomotives had a chance to prove themselves, it was already too late. If locomotives like 844, 611, 614, 2912, etc. had been introduced 10-15 years earlier, it might have been a different story. 3. Oil was cheap and plentiful after the war, the labor force was demanding higher wages and a lot of miners went on strike, this was another nail in the coffin for steam. 4. Public opinion. Despite the many advancements, management and the public saw even the most modern steam locomotives as “old fashioned” or “pre-war”. Everyone was ready to move on from the war; this was an easy sell for a diesel salesman that could easily make the case for a sleek looking streamlined diesel, or a road switcher that the could be painted in any color the railroad wished. It was also an era where people were starting to realize pollution/smoke inhalation were health hazards, steam therefore also became bad PR.

With the introduction of tenders (a special car containing water and fuel), trains could run 100–150 miles without a refill.

Not only will these locomotives run 100-150 miles between water stops, but they did not have to be shopped every night. Modern steam locomotives could run great distances without shopping. Santa Fe’s 3780, 2900, 3460, & 5010 class ran transcontinental without changing engines. The old timers who worked steam said Santa Fe management charged the diesel maintenance cost off to these engines to make them appear less efficient. What drove the demise of steam for the Santa Fe was the availability of water in the desert southwest and the complexity of operating a steam engine. Early Winton and EMD 567B diesel engines had a lot of issues.

Because they don't fit in my backyard?

We have lived in Michigan for over 10 years and had no clue Michigan has these hidden gems.

5632 is in a lot better cosmetic shape than I thought. Most pictures I've seen of her have shown her in rather rough shape. However, I'd like to see 5632 run again, and I'm not the only one who'd like to see it happen (History in the Dark said that he'd like to restore 5632 if he had the money). The main reason why we, and many railfans, want to see 5632 run again is because her sister, Grand Trunk Western 5629, was abandoned by her owner in the 1980s after he ran into financial trouble, and then she was ripped apart and unceremoniously scrapped in 1987. 5632 is 5629's only surviving sister, and she would be continuing 5629's legacy if she's restored to operation.

There is a book called "One Second After" in which the US, Japan, and much of Europe are hit by EMP attacks that destroy the electrical grids and communication systems in those areas as well as disabling vehicles. It's actually written by a person who was involved in a Congressional study on the impacts of an EMP attack (90% of the US population dead within a year). In such a scenario steam locomotives might be the only way to get freight moving again. The book goes so far as to describe an effort to retrieve first active locomotives from heritage lines, then use them to bring display locomotives to Norfolk in order to use the workshops aboard Navy carriers and repair ships to get them back in service.

Our town couldn't afford a steam engine display... all we got was a caboose...

Why are some locomotives sitting in parks? Because they can't sit in drives. I'll see myself out.

At least people can see them in parks.

One more reason: Deisel-Electrics do not operate well in water. In the Spring of 1965, the Mississippi River flooded the Milwaukee Road freight yard in Savanna, Illinois. The Milwaukee pulled one of these off display and gave it a quick overhaul . And put it to work pulling the stranded cars out of the flooded yard.

There is one in Cleburn, TX which used to be a major yard for the AT&SF. The yard is still there but the shops are no where near what they used to be. My grandfather was a machinist there after WWII, so railroading is in my blood.

Two steam locomotives were donated to a park in Portland Oregon, SP 4949 and SPS 700. They were pulled out of the park and restored. They are currently operating excursion trains.

I'm so glad that they're being put on display. They're beautiful machines. Rather than being scrapped. The reality is that they can't all continue to be used, so the next best thing is to have them as cultural pieces in a park.

I was both glad and sad when they took the long retired steam locomotive out of the park in Bartlesville for restoration