Atticus-W on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/atticus-w/art/Old-Coalburner-84569925Atticus-W

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Old Coalburner

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Description

...on the Pennsylvania Southern, ca. 1891.


(Apologies in advance for a rather tedious explanation!)

Basically... this is my idea of a generic, old-time freight engine in the eastern USA. It’s a camelback design (meaning the cab is located in the middle, rather than behind, the boiler), but it doesn’t have the huge Wooten firebox that generally necessitates this unusual placement. Rather, I like to think that a particular coal-hauling Pennsylvania railroad looked to their anthracite-burning neighbor, the Reading, and got the idea to build a middle-cab engine with the only goal being to improve forward visibility. Reportedly, as my line of thinking continues, the design wasn’t a huge success, but neither was it a particular failure— and as in many such cases, laissez-faire prevailed with the crews. The engine carried out its duties unbothered by modification.

If the ultimate conclusion arrived at by my watchers is that this engine is a camelback for the sake of being a camelback, so be it. =p I'm actually pleased with it, all things considered, though I've been a bit torn from the start over whether or not to give it a slope-back firebox.
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waltsland's avatar
does this still exist? it looks soo awsome;):)