What is a Baldwin Noisless Locomotive? Seems like an oxymoron. How could a steam loco be "noiseless?"

hankmorris@earthlink.net

Perhaps it refers to their passenger diesels - they don't make noise when they don't run. ;-)


Electric City Trolley Museum Association

> What is a Baldwin Noisless Locomotive? Seems
> like an oxymoron. How could a steam loco be
> "noiseless?"

Baldwin built fireless steam locomotives, one of which is still operational in Cuba, and compressed air locomotives, two of which is preserved at the Edaville RR. It may have been one of these.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a


Surviving World Steam Project
james1@pernet.net

A little sniffing got the following link to a photo from an 1881 BLW catalogue of an "inclosed noiseless locomotive" for the B&M. It appears to be an 0-4-2 steam dummy. Don't know about the noiseless part - exhaust muffler? condenser?

here's the link: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/imago/baldwin.html

Electric City Trolley Museum Association

> Baldwin built fireless steam locomotives,
> one of which is still operational in Cuba,
> and compressed air locomotives, two of which
> is preserved at the Edaville RR. It may have
> been one of these.

> -James Hefner
> Hebrews 10:20a Baldwin also built many soda motors they were like small dummys. They made no more noise than a fireless and had greater range.bb


staybolt2@netscape.net

> Baldwin built fireless steam locomotives,
> one of which is still operational in Cuba,
> and compressed air locomotives, two of which
> is preserved at the Edaville RR. It may have
> been one of these.

> -James Hefner
> Hebrews 10:20a Baldwin also built many soda motors they were like small dummys. They made no more noise than a fireless and had greater range. Than a fireless. regards bb


staybolt2@netscape.net

Have learned Baldwin Noiseless was NOT fireless. Rather, it was a "dummy." That said, nobody has been able to explain why it was called "noiseless."
Photo at: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/imago/baldwin.html
Top row, far right picture.
Love to learn more.
Hank

hankmorris@earthlink.net

What the heck is a soda motor?

Balwin offered a pattened "exhaust box" designed to muffel exhaust noise for their "dummies"

Dummies in general, suffered from a reputation that they scared horses (this is not hard to do, silver toy ballons are also known to scare horses)
One of the justifications for the dummy body was to make these locomotives look like the exisiting horse drawn steet cars, and therefore hopfully not scaring "old dobin".

Reportadly, the patent date for this device was 1877.

Thanks to Dave Spohr and Kyle Wyatt for the research behind this answer...

Randy Hees

http://spcrr.org
hees@ix.netcom.com

There are only two steam dummies left in the US. One of the two is an SP switcher at Traveltown Park,Los Angeles. It ran here in San Francisco in the 1880s before traction or cable cars put in out of business. Went to something called the Motor road in Southern CA. Later lost the body and became a switcher.

There is also a tiny engine on display at Mammoth Cave National Park. I played on it as a kid.

There is an operational example in I think New Zealand.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> There is also a tiny engine on display at
> Mammoth Cave National Park. I played on it
> as a kid.

The Mammoth Cave loco was rehabbed/rebuilt/refurbished--take your pick--and can be seen in Gene Hull's article on NRHS Web site under Web Exclusives. They did a commendable job.

hankmorris@earthlink.net

> What the heck is a soda motor?

Perhaps it refers to the engineer and fireman in the cab of Frisco 1630 or--even worse--J. Neils Lumber Shay 5 on a 95 degree, 95% humidity day...Without three or four cans of soda for each of us between runs, that ol' chooch isn't going ANYWHERE!


kevinmccabe@avenew.com

I think the "soda" was sodium bicarbonate (?) which produces a gas when mixed with water. This gas, contained in a pressure vessel, provided motive power which was an alternative to steam or compressed air.

tr2manz@frontiernet.net

H.K. Porter also built steam dummies or tram engines; there are six, confirmed American built steam dummies in the USA; only the Mammouth Cave example has a carbody. Three of them are pictured on the "Surviving World Steam Locomotive" CD-ROM.

A little over 100 tram engines remain worldwide; roughly thirty-three are operational, and nine are pictured on the "Surviving World Steam Locomotive" CD-ROM program. A tram engine on the Chiemsee-Bahn railwy in Prien, Germany has been in continuous operation since 1887. Some were operational on Java until about the 1980's, and some may still be operating in Paraguay. I was sent some photographs taken in 1975 of tram engines that were operational in Suriname; they looked just great. It is a shame they are so derelict now.

I say "American built" because the "Prince d'Liege" at Starrucca House in Susquehanna was also a tram engine at one time. I say "confirmed" because a friend of my mine in Louisiana related to me how he was shown a steam locomotive in the middle of the woods north of Livingston, LA. Based on the location and his description (small drivered 0-4-0 with a round 1897 builder's plate) I believe it is one of the Baldwin steam dummies used by the Garyville Northern RR. That was back in the 1960s when he was a boy; he has no idea where it was, and the man who showed it to him is either too feeble or has since passed away.

A Shay from the same RR is upside down in Hope Canal E. of Hwy 61, nr. Garyville, LA. (I tried to photograph it during the recent drought, but it can only be reached by boat.) Remains of logging cars and the tracks themselves can still be found back in the swamp.

There was a good article on steam dummies in past issue of Invention and Technology magazine. I think I have it put away somewhere, but can't find it at the moment.

-Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone
James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a


Surviving World Steam Project
james1@pernet.net