New Orleans Steam

Today I went with two of my neighbors and we took a ride out early this moring to see the break-in run of the newly restored 745 2-8-2 steam loco. The three of us, arrived at the KCS yard just west of the city limits just before 9 am. The old engine was off in the distance backing into a "Y" and with an enormous blow of smoke and steam the engine pulled forward out of the "Y". The yard track was next to the street and we stood 15' from the track with our backs to the traffic in the street. A large recycling truck dieseled behind us in the street and the concrete road heaved beneath our feet. Then the 745 came up on us, getting bigger and bigger, and closer and closer. The engine grew nearer to the sound of its pistons rhythmically hissing steam, smoke belching from the stack, steam swirling around the wheels, its bell ringing and whistle screaming its arrival. This time the concrete beneath our feet began to viberate right up thru our bones. The gound did not heave, but trembled and transmitted the meeting of rail and wheel as the engine passed us going at yard speed of about 10 mph. Yet the huge mechanical behemoth, in the mist of all this, purred like the well oiled machine it is. Forty-eight years after it was placed on display in New Orleans' Audubon Park – and 20 years after it was removed from the park – former Southern Pacific Mk-5 class 2-8-2 745 returned to the main line. First in mid-December 2004 the 745 underwent some break-in runs on the Kansas City Southern, and again this weekend. We leaped frog the 745 along Highway 61 catching it at grade crossings a few more times. I took vids as it passed, another took digital photos and our British friend put pennies on the track. After getting back home I dropped the video camera and the tape looks to be no more. Hopefully, my neighbor will send me the still photos as all I have now to remember the fun day is a paper thin penny. Thank you Mr. Chatterton.
 

brakie

Active Member
Yeah Sir!!! Steaming down the line!! Thanks for sharing..
Yes,I recall as a kid during the last days of main line steam how those steamers would shake the ground as they pounded by..Big doings for a lad of 6 in 1954!
 

cidchase

Active Member
Very nice pics, By-the-Water!!

Will she be used for excursion runs?
Is she still owned by KCS? Is there a
restoration organization that paid for
the work, or how did it come about?

I think these restorations are wonderful.
Riding behind one of these steamers, you
can close your eyes, and the sounds and smells
transport you back to the time when the
railroads were the interstate, the semis, and
the airplanes. :thumb:

It's nice to revisit the past from the comfort and
convenience of the present. Good old days?? :D :D
 

nolatron

Member
It'll start an excursion run around LA and MS starting on March 29 stopping at several cities for tours of the train.

Probably can find the other answers at thier website: http://www.lasta.org

I can't wait to see this baby running. I recently found out about it and missed the break-in runs but remember the old engine sitting in the park when I was kid. By neat to see it actually run after all these years. I always wondered what happened to it when is vanished from the park.

cidchase said:
Very nice pics, By-the-Water!!

Will she be used for excursion runs?
Is she still owned by KCS? Is there a
restoration organization that paid for
the work, or how did it come about?

I think these restorations are wonderful.
Riding behind one of these steamers, you
can close your eyes, and the sounds and smells
transport you back to the time when the
railroads were the interstate, the semis, and
the airplanes. :thumb:

It's nice to revisit the past from the comfort and
convenience of the present. Good old days?? :D :D
 

Matthyro

Will always be re-membered
That's a great description of the power of this passing loco BWR. Too bad about your video camera. Nice to see the photos of the old girl in action.
 

cabdriver

Member
Bywater,
I really enjoyed reading your description of the old engine heading out...You wrote:

"Then the 745 came up on us, getting bigger and bigger, and closer and closer. The engine grew nearer to the sound of its pistons rhythmically hissing steam, smoke belching from the stack, steam swirling around the wheels, its bell ringing and whistle screaming its arrival."

Wow! I am there. The pictures only add to it, but I could imagine the whole thing just from your imagery. Thanks.
 

KCS

Member
The Times/Local & State. Tuesday, April 12, 2005. By Jim Hudelson/ The Times. "Steam blast from the past" 'Mikado' locomotive starts 10-day layover. The steam locomotive SP745, a 1920-vintage "Mikado" engine, passes en route to Kansas City Southern's Deramus Yard in Shreveport on Monday afternoon. Live steam returnedto Shreveport's steel rails Monday, when SP745, a New Orleans-built "Mikado" steam engine rolled into Kansas City Southern's Deramus Yard north of Cross Lake. All work stopped at Baker Machine Company on Shreveport-Blanchard Highway as it's owners and employees, joined by more than a dozen faithful rail fans, welcomed the huffing, puffing engine and its train of exhibit cars.

"It's alive - a living, breathing machine," said Skip Waters of Dallas, who rushed to Louisiana on Monday to photograph the historic engine, built just after World War I and said to be the sole remaining steam locomotive built in New Orleans.
"They're romantic, a time capsule, a piece of history you don't see. And it's the first time in more than 50 years there's been steam on the rails between Leesville and Shreveport."

The engine lovingly restored by the Louisiana Steam Train Association, or LASTA, began a state-circling tour April 2, which reached its midpoint in Shreveport. The engine will be here 10 days, while the crew rests. On April 23, it will cross the Red River into Bossier City for a few days for public viewing - details are still being cobbled together - and then will continue the tour east to Ruston and then south back to New Orleans by way of Baton Rouge.

Monday, fans and followers scrambled to keep pace with the engine, whose tooting horn and whistle evoked an earlier era.

Schedule of SP745
April 23: To Bossier City
April 25: Arcadia, Ruston, Monroe,
Rayville, Delhi.
April 26: Tallulah, then Vicksburg, Miss.
April 27: Jackson, Miss.
April 29: McComb, Miss.
April 30: Hammond, La.
May 1: Baton Rouge.
May 3: Garyville, Harahan.
May 4: Jefferson.
(Dates subject to change)

On a personal note I am ****ed because I planned to go see it, but however I got stuck at home without a ride because I have no insurance. That's OK, I know a hand full of people who work for K.C.S so hopefully somebody got some good shot's or even video of it. If you saw it, consider yourself lucky because that was it. The last trip it will ever make before it is shutdown for good.
 
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