An interesting piece of railroadiana that I inherited from my father is this copy of the Suggested Unit Course in Locomotive Firing, published in 1944 by the Bureau of Industrial and Technical Information of the New York State Education Department. Prepared at the Seneca Vocational High School in Buffalo in association with the University of the State of New York, the textbook discusses the techniques and equipment used by a fireman. The book was probably given to my father by a railroader friend.

"The fireman of the modern locomotive," the course begins, "must have a thorough knowledge of firing methods that must be pursued in order to evaporate as much water into steam as possible with every pound of coal burned." The "modern locomotive" chosen to illustrate firing procedures was this Lima Locomotive Works builder's photo of New York Central's Mohawk No. 3135, sister engine to No. 3137. She appears in this view minus the smoke deflectors visible above.

The textbook goes on to describe in detail the operation of locomotive stokers and water systems, techniques for firing different kinds of coal, how to control the fire and the use of the grates, the ash pan flusher and coal pusher, how to control sludge and foam in the water supply, reading the pyrometer (temperature gauge for superheated steam), how to avoid plugging of the smokebox netting, and smoke and draft control.

Firing a large steam locomotive is an art requiring constant attention to the engine's performance, understanding of the use of a variety of types of equipment, and — as the course stresses — close cooperation between the fireman and the engineer. "One steam failure resulting from poor firing or lack of crew cooperation is far reaching, and may tie up an entire section of the railroad system. The average person does not realize how much experience, information, and teamwork are necessary to bring about an 'on-time performance.'"

The textbook includes this illustration of a steam locomotive backhead or cab interior, also courtesy of Lima Locomotive Works and presumably from the New York Central's Class L4 Mohawk type. The daunting array of pipes, valves and gauges is further testimony to the skill and expertise needed to keep the modern steam locomotive operating at its peak of efficiency and performance.

Although the Central's L3 and L4 classes were designed as dual-service power, the older 4-8-2s of the L1 and L2 classes were primarily freight engines. A roster published in 1940 lists 135 members of class L1, built beginning in 1916, and 300 engines in class L2 erected 1925-1930. In August, 1953, I photographed No. 2967, a representative of class L2d, in the yards at Lansing, Michigan, on the line between Jackson and Bay City. A 1929 product of the American Locomotive Company, No. 2967 had 25½x30-inch cylinders and 69-inch drivers, and carried a boiler pressure of 225 pounds per square inch. With a locomotive weight of 370,150 pounds she produced 60,150 pounds of tractive force, to which a booster added another 12,400 pounds.

Most L2s, being used in freight service, had footboards on the pilot, useful to trainmen in switching maneuvers. No. 2967, however, is shown with the familiar "cowcatcher" pilot. Many representatives of the L2d class had such a pilot, which was required for service in Canada. This type of pilot could be cast steel, as on newer NYC locomotives, or fabricated from boiler tubing or other extruded material as appears to be the case here. The proper term is "pilot," but the fixture on the front end of a steam locomotive was often known as the "cowcatcher," a throwback to the days of early locomotives. The flared and spoked device (originally larger and sometimes supported by its own set of wheels) was supposed to sweep obstacles, especially stray livestock, from the tracks or at least cushion the rest of the locomotive from impact. Mention of the "cowcatcher" reminds me of an incident that occurred during my childhood. In the late 1940s my father took me to visit the New York Central's shop complex in Jackson, Michigan. Outside one of the shop buildings we were surprised to see a stack of new wooden cowcatchers destined for mounting on locomotives undergoing repairs. This was the shops' answer to the continuing shortage of steel in the postwar years. When painted black the wooden substitutes could have fooled anyone, except perhaps a hefty errant bovine. I seem to recall that shop personnel were not eager to have their clever expedient known to the general public.

If any steam engine could be said to have been the trademark locomotive of its owner, the New York Central's Hudson type 4-6-4s would qualify. These locomotives handled passenger trains throughout the system, regularly hauling heavy main line limiteds at speeds over 90 miles per hour on level track. During 1946-1951 our family lived in Adrian, Michigan, and I can well remember the sight and sound of these engines heading a speeding stream of New York Central trains on the main line west of Toledo during a train-watching day with my father. The Central's Hudsons were the prototype for countless model trains which delighted boys — and men — across the continent.

I caught Hudson No. 5367 at Gaylord, Michigan, in August, 1952, heading up the Sunday-only Timberliner bound from Mackinaw City to Detroit. Originally the Michigan Central's No. 8222, she was one of 75 members of class J1d outshopped by American Locomotive Company, located along NYC trackage in Schenectady, New York, in 1929-30. No. 5367 sustained a steam pressure of 225 pounds per square inch and had 25x28-inch cylinders. Like all of New York Central's Hudsons except the 20 operated by subsidiary Boston & Albany, she boasted high 79-inch driving wheels. All Hudsons had a booster engine in the trailing truck for help in starting heavy trains. With the booster operating, the J1s produced 53,250 pounds of tractive force. No. 5367 was also assigned to the Michigan Central's Canadian operation, known as the Canada Southern. Viewer Tom Rock has supplied a photo of her at the head of a mail and express train in Windsor, Ontario. No. 5367 was retired in October, 1953.

What a loss that, of the 275 Hudsons owned by the New York Central System, not one example was spared the salvager's torch. Below we see J1d Hudson No. 5314 in the dead line at the Detroit engine terminal in March, 1954 — her number not yet crossed out and her rods still intact, but her fate sealed along with that of her companions on the adjacent tracks.

Design of the New York Central's Hudsons reached its epitome in the J3a class, Nos. 5405-5454, delivered by Alco in 1937-38. The final group of ten were streamlined for the Twentieth Century Limited. Henry Dreyfuss' famous styling for the Century, featuring a finned bullet nose resembling an ancient warrior's helmet, has been hailed as an icon of art deco industrial design.

Although my father, Dr. R. D. Leonard, was an avid New York Central fan and train-watcher, he seldom attempted photography with our ancient folding cartridge Kodak. He left a small collection of New York Central steam photos from the 1930s, but because they were the work of other photographers I had not considered them for use in this Archive. (You can view them in my New York Central Collection.) I was delighted, reviewing Dad's collection, to begin to suspect that he had taken this photo of one of the streamlined J3s, No. 5450, in 1938 or 1939. My suspicions were confirmed in correspondence with my uncle, the late Alan B. Campbell of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who appears in the picture as the young man intently examining the locomotive's pilot.

The scene is Chicago's Englewood station, on the curve where the New York Central, coming from La Salle Street Station, turned southeast to parallel the Pennsylvania Railroad into Indiana — a spot familiar to me from visits there with my father in post-World War II days. Judging from the angle of the shadows the time is about 4:00 p.m., the time of the departure of the Twentieth Century Limited from Chicago after the introduction of the J3s shortened the schedule between Chicago and New York to 16 hours. After a run of some 922 miles from Englewood to the steam terminal at Harmon, New York, the train would proceed under electric power into Grand Central Station, where its elite consist of passengers would receive the famous "red carpet treatment." I have a photo of another streamlined Hudson taken the same day and location, so whether this locomotive is heading the on-schedule Century, a section of it, or possibly another train is impossible to determine. A vignette of No. 5450 at this same location appears in the Herron video The Glory Machines 3, and she is also shown in the now hard-to-find Chicory Productions The Century of the New York Central, Part I. According to information from George Elwood's Streamline Hudson Discussion, No. 5450 experienced a boiler explosion at Canastota, New York in September, 1943 and was out of service for more than a year due to the World War II steel shortage, and when returned to service had lost her Scullin disc drivers and her newly assigned centipede-type tender. However, a photo of her reportedly taken at Englewood Station in 1945 shows the Scullin drivers, with the side skirting missing over the third set of drivers.

The J3a class had dimensions differing slightly from those of the J1s. The unstreamlined members of the class weighed less, at 360,000 pounds, since the shrouding of the streamlined members raised the weight to 365,500 pounds. They had 22½x29-inch cylinders, and the boiler pressure was raised to 265 pounds. Although their tractive effort without booster was somewhat lower that that of the J1s, with booster cut in it was slightly higher at 53,960 pounds. More importantly for the high-speed service for which these locomotives were designed, their steaming capacity rendered them capable of 4700 horsepower at 77 miles per hour, compared with 3900 horsepower at 66 miles per hour for the J1 class. All the J3s had roller bearings on all axles, but the last five, including No. 5450, had roller bearings on their connecting and coupling rods as well.

In 1939 artist Charles Sheeler created a painting entitled Rolling Power as part of a series of paintings published in Fortune magazine to celebrate American industry. The painting depicts the right trailing pilot truck wheel and first two drivers of No. 5450, with the cylinder and valve gear linkage. The oil-on-canvas painting is owned by the Smith College Museum.

Before the advent of the famous Hudson type, the premier trains of the New York Central's passenger fleet, including the Twentieth Century Limited, were hauled by Pacific or 4-6-2 type locomotives. The Central invested heavily in these engines, and in 1940 still rostered some 380 of them system-wide. Of this number, the most numerous were the 187 members of class K3, which alone had 16 subclasses.

This photo of Pacific No. 3328 (renumbered to 4728 in 1936) was apparently taken in Butler, Indiana, in 1934. She was a member of class K3n, erected by the American Locomotive Company's Brooks works in 1918. With 79-inch drivers, 200 pounds of boiler pressure, and cylinders measuring 23½x26 inches, she exerted a tractive force of about 31,000 pounds. A penciled notation on the back of the photo claims that a booster added another 9700 pounds of tractive effort, although my 1940 New York Central roster does not mention a booster for this class. Butler, a small city in rural northeast Indiana, was not a stop for the Central's faster long-distance trains, so this photo shows No. 3328 (4728) heading a westbound local, the type of service to which the Pacifics were assigned after the Hudsons usurped their position on the premier "varnish."

This picture is from my father's collection, but its origin continues to be a mystery. Butler was the home town of my maternal grandparents Emlin Verne and Laura Squires Campbell, and their remains are buried there in the cemetery along the former New York Central (now Norfolk Southern) main line. But unlike my father, the Campbells were not railroad fans, although Emlin was employed for a time as a physician by the Pennsylvania Railroad in Chicago. My parents did not meet until a year after this photo was taken, so my father would have had no occasion to visit Butler in 1934 for family reasons. It is possible that he and his friend drove through Butler on U.S. Highway 6 while returning east from their visit to the Century of Progress Exposition, and Dad might have snapped the picture then. Otherwise, the photographer remains unknown. Thanks to Dave Miller of Traverse City, Michigan, for supplying the post-1936 number for this locomotive.

The NYC's premier Twentieth Century Limited service offered telephone connections at stations, barber, maid, stenographer, and — in thoughtful accomodation to the train's regular clientele — stock reports. The famous train was often featured in company publicity. The post card at left, mailed in October 1911, shows the Century speeding along the NYC's four-track main line with a K3 Pacific in the lead (numbered 4807 in the painting). At right is a scene from the New York Central's 1925 calendar, by artist Walter L. Greene, showing K3n Pacific No. 3292 (later 4692) racing south along the Hudson River under the recently constructed Castleton Cutoff bridge with the first section of the Century. The green flags indicate a following section. The Greene print is shown here courtesy of Paul, Jr. and Jan Ubermuth of Connecticut.

The vast majority of New York Central's locomotives were built by the American Locomotive Company, which in 1913 published a catalog of examples of the Pacific type locomotives it was promoting. The halftone below from a 1913 bulletin of the American Locomotive Company shows No. 3370, a member of one of the earlier K3 subclasses erected from 1911-1913 for NYC predecessor New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. As is evident from the photo of No. 3328 (4728) above, the original trailing truck for the K3s was later replaced by a one-piece Delta casting and the early electric headlight was upgraded.

The New York Central System's fleet of class H (2-8-2 type) locomotives was built in the 1910s and 1920s for main line freight service, but most were soon supplanted in that role by the Mohawks (4-8-2 type) and, on the Boston & Albany, the Berkshires (2-8-4 type). Nevertheless they soldiered on into the beginnings of the diesel era in local freight, branch line or yard transfer service. Indeed, a class H7 2-8-2 was the last steam locomotive to be operated by the New York Central. My first cab ride, at the age of eight or nine, was in class H10 locomotive No. 2345 at Jackson, Michigan, through the courtesy of an engineer my father had befriended.

Our visit to NYC's Detroit engine terminal in March, 1954, yielded this shot of No. 1306. She was a member of class H5n, a 1914 product of the American Locomotive Company, and rolled on the 63-inch drivers that were standard for New York Central's 2-8-2s. She had 25x32-inch cylinders and 180 pounds of boiler pressure. The NYC preferred the Baker valve gear on its newer locomotives, and retrofitted some of its older power with that type of valve motion. However, in this photo No. 1306's Walschaerts valve gear (in reverse position) is clearly displayed.

The lowly switch engine lacked the glamour attached to heavy main-line freight locomotives or high-speed passenger power. Nevertheless, if these workhorses had not performed their mundane assignments in yards, terminals and industrial trackage, the larger road engines would have had nothing to haul. The New York Central had hundreds of 0-8-0 switchers, some of which served faithfully to the very end of the steam era in forgotten corners of the system. This last batch of photos features three members of this large group.

0-8-0 No. 7538 was a member of class U2g, erected by Lima Locomotive Works in 1918 (note the diamond-shaped builder's plate). This group had 58-inch drivers and sustained 185 pounds of boiler pressure. They had 23½x30-inch cylinders and weighed 218,000 pounds, and exerted a tractive force of 44,920 pounds. For some reason I have no record of when and where I photographed No. 7538, but I believe it was in Lansing, Michigan, in August 1953. It appears that this engine and its companion were out of service at this time, stored outside the roundhouse.

Our March, 1954 visit to the Detroit engine terminal found several tracks lined with "dead" steam engines awaiting their final trip to the scrap yards. Among them was 0-8-0 switcher No. 7718. Normally, locomotives destined for scrapping had their valve gear disconnected from the eccentric crank, allowing them to be towed with less cylinder resistance. No. 7718, however, was still intact. She belonged to class U3c, delivered in 1922 by American Locomotive Company and Lima Locomotive Works. The U3 class, numbering some 417 locomotives systemwide, all had 52-inch drivers and 25x28-inch cylinders. No. 7718's group had a boiler pressure of 175 pounds per square inch and a locomotive weight of 219,500 pounds, and produced 50,060 pounds of tractive effort.

At Kankakee, Illinois, in the summer of 1955, 0-8-0 No. 7912 was resting from her duties on the roundhouse lead track when we came visiting in search of late steam. These class U3e switchers had the same dimensions as class U3c above, but the 65 engines in this group came from American Locomotive Company and Lima Locomotive Works in 1924. Viewer Downs Prior sent me a photo of No. 7912's builder's plate, which identifies her as an Alco product from Schenectady; her original number, before 1936, was 4312. Incidentally, No. 7912 appears repeatedly in the Mark I video The Midland and Two Centrals, and also puts in a cameo appearance in Sunday River Productions' Niagaras and Mohawks. She must have had a good agent.