Steamtown in the Winter

This is the second part of Steamtown in the Winter. This was the Sunday after the night photo session and once again the 261 put on a great show.

                                                                                                            
This is the 261 running through the woods near Tobyhanna                                                    Here is the 261 backing up after performing a runby at Tobyhanna.
on the second day of the event. The locomotive looks great                                                    The car behind the engine is the 261 is the tool car and it is painted to
doing track speed, notice the old telephone poles at right.                                                      match the passenger colors of the Milwaukee.

                                                                                                                         
The 261 is resting at Tobyhanna and is waiting to uncouple                                               While the 261 is waiting the crew performs some maintenance checks.
so it can head back to Steamtown. The locomotive will have to run                                        The locomotive has to be gone over  top to bottom for problems that
tender first back to Scranton because no turning facilities are available.                                    could cause damage to the engine of the schedule.
                                                                                                                                             The man is inspecting the bearing on the forward truck.

                                                                                                             
Here is a photo of the 261's immense drivers. The drivers are                                                Here is another view of the drivers. The 261 was built by ALCO in
74' and the locomotive can produce 62040 lbs. of tractive effort.                                             1943 when the Milwaukee needed engines for the war time rush.
The 261 is one of only 2 surviving Milwaukee Road S3 4-8-4's.                                              Since it was built so late it is one of the modern operating steam
                                                                                                                                              locomotives.

                                                                                                                            
Here is a shot of the 261's all weather cab. The cab was built to withstand                               The train is about ready to depart Tobyhanna as the 2317 has
anything that Mother nature could throw at the locomotive when it was operating                      coupled on. The 2317 was built by the Montreal Locomotive
in the northern plains. It came in handy today because the weather was blistering cold.             works in 1923 an is a class G3.


This is the 2317 and the train heading back towards Scranton.
The station at right is the restored Lackawanna Tobyhanna depot


Even some of the busiest people in the world will come out to see an operating steam locomotive.
Santa has taken time out of his busy schedule to come see the 261.
Santa brought a great gift to Steamtown by letting the 261 stay for a year.