THE BIG HUDSON

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Trainman4602
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THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Trainman4602 »

Hello All
It’s been a while since my last post. I have been busy with building another passenger car. This time it’s a RPO This car will house the battery powered air compressor as well as holding tools and a coal bin.

This last week I have been out of town. I traveled up to New York State to work on the Green Hudson.

This is a 3 Inch scale locomotive 15 inch gage locomotive that Seymour Johnson built along with some others back in the late sixties.

It is now owned by Sandy Wittum. Sandy asked me to come up to straighten out some important issues with it. I spent the better part of a week up there working every day in the engine house fixing things.

I made some cylinder drain cocks and installed them along with re routing the supply pipes for it. I spent two days replacing the oil and atomizing valves, and spent another day working on the tender brakes. I also added a new steam gauge and siphon tube to replace two gauges that went bad.

On Sunday we ran and all went well. I’ll be going back in the spring to work on the suspension and install a battery powered air compressor as well as the automatic brake equipment for safe train operation. Sandy’s Railroad has some very steep grades as much as 3 percent but that is a down grade .

I shot some video but my camera doesn’t like rain so it failed. I can’t up load the video to my computer .

Today I bought a new camera so I’ll get the video up as soon as possible.

For now enjoy the pictures
Attachments
Picture 009.jpg
Picture 033.jpg
Picture 031.jpg
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Picture 036.jpg
ALLWAYS OPERATING MY TRAIN IN A SAFE MANNER USING AUTOMATIC AIR BRAKES
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dwilloughby
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by dwilloughby »

When Bill Norrad (I think that's the correct spelling) owned the locomotive, I saw it run in June of 1994. One of the last runs at Seymour Johnson's place before the property was sold. My they are big machines and about as close to a full size locomotive that can be run by us common folk. David, it has to be an honor to keep a piece the Live Steam history alive and well.
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Harlock
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Harlock »

Great to see her getting some TLC. Having run a few 15" gauge engines, it's both awe inspiring and scary at the same time, especially when the engine is a rolling museum piece.
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LivingLegend
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by LivingLegend »

Suffering from brain farts....

Is this the first Hudson that Seymour built? Or the second one that Glen Bell had at Bell Gardens?

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Trainman4602
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Trainman4602 »

Hudson number 5433 aka the “green” Hudson is the first that was completed I believe this one and Seymour’s 6088 was started at the same time. My first trip to the Promised Land back in 1980 in fact when I met you LL, it was at the Goleta track. The 6088, Seymour’s Hudson was in the round house with no boiler and had still plenty of work to be done. I have pictures of all this stuff. I’ll post them if I ever get a good scanner.


Glenn Bell of Taco Bell fame, had both Hudson there. They were owned by Bill Norad at the time. Sandy bought the Green Hudson from the estate. Bob Franks of train town has the other one as well as an Atlantic built by Dick Priest.
ALLWAYS OPERATING MY TRAIN IN A SAFE MANNER USING AUTOMATIC AIR BRAKES
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FLSTEAM
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by FLSTEAM »

Here is another picture of the Hudson. That's my little mogul pulling the hudson out of the engine house. Sandy's RR is fantastic!..

John B.
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DJSteamer3017
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by DJSteamer3017 »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGYq-tcZBsg
Yes, heres a video of both of Seymour Johnson's Hudsons. The Montecito and Pacific Coast 6088 that now resides at Sonoma Train Town Railroad in Sonoma, CA which at one time spent time at the Los Angeles Live Steamers in 2008 before being sold to Sonoma Train Town. In the same video is Bill Norred's NYC 5433 thats now owned by Sandy Whittum. The video was taken during the 1995 IBLS Ramble in which they visited the Goleta Valley Railroad Club and the Montecito and Pacific Coast Railroad, shortly after Seymour's Death. The video shows a ride behind M&PC 6088 and scenes with NYC 5433. The NYC 5433 was built by Seymour Johnson and owned by Bill Norred, whos railroading fame been contributed the fact that he owned this hudson, 2 or 3 Narrow Gauge Locomotives and 5 of the Original WED (Walt Disney) Enterprises RETLAW-1 Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad Passenger Cars. 4 of these cars and his locomotives redside at Rob Rossi's Pacific Coast Railroad in nearby San Luis Obispo, California, and the Retlaw-1 Combine now resides with the Carolwood Pacific Historical Society, and on display at the Walt Disney Carolwood Barn. Certainly people like Seymour Johnson and Bill Norred are true Live Steaming Legends.
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Loco112
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Loco112 »

I thouhgt someone else built the green engine and another one also, its here I think;

http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/vie ... on#p125435
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Trainman4602
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Trainman4602 »

I ‘m not totally sure of all my statements. I have heard many stories and rumors about it and most of the guys if not all of them are in the great Round House in the sky so. I would have to get someone from the Goleta club old enough to remember them. The number on Seymour’s loco is 6088 the 60 indicating the years started and the 88 the year finished or at least running on steam.

Bob Harpur did work on the 5433 Old little engines catalogs feature the castings. At that time Bob Harpur had a code stamp for boilers an “L” stamp stands for locomotive dah.

The number below the manufacture”Harpur” is the national board registration number. Under that the year built 1968 with the clover leaf “L” stamp no longer issued replaced by ”S” and finally the design pressure 300# . The 300# is far higher than needed, that’s a good design idea. After some years as the boiler get older the working pressure would be downgraded so this higher number gives the boiler many years of running at its current pressure of 150#
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Rob Gardner
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Rob Gardner »

Dave,

Great to see the results of your week at Sandy's. Glad to hear she steams well. Did you try pulling any cars up the hill to see if the work we did last year increased the weight on the drivers? By the sounds of your post, more work is needed in that area. Now if we can just close the gap in the connection track and get a set of points and a frog, we will have a complete railroad to run on! I'll call you this weekend to discuss further.

Mike, you're right about the immensity of these engines. The first time I got to run the 5433, it was quite an experience to feel that much power at your hand. Mind you, I've run large rubber tired wheel loaders and dozers here and there, but as steam locomotives go, there's not much else to compare to one this size.

Rob Gardner
Steve Goodbody
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Steve Goodbody »

The video of the MAPRR at Goleta Valley has just knocked me over.

Will try and locate and then scan some pictures from September 1989 of Seymour Johnson's 6088 on what I believe was its first day of passenger hauling. The MAPRR was not complete at the time - just the loop around the parking area and an out-and-back onto the hillside. The event was a Goleta Valley run day.

Was 21 years old at the time and on vacation in SoCal from England. Had contacted a few clubs before coming out to see if it was okay to visit (Riverside, Chula Vista, and Goleta Valley) and all were great hosts. However, Goleta became the highlight of the trip as, in addition to the unexpected bonus of seeing 6088 running, Seymour kindly gave me a personal tour of his workshop and his drawing office (containing cabinet-after-cabinet of drawings for the Hudson).

Lost touch with 6088 after Seymour died and Goleta was dismantled, but later discovered that it had gone to Bell Gardens near San Diego. Was put in contact with Bill Palmer (who maintained the Bell Gardens RR), and he kindly arranged for me to visit during a business trip (sometime between 2000 and 2002 - I can't remember exactly when). Sure enough, there was the rolling chassis of 6088 and numerous other pieces of the loco scattered around. I guess Bell Gardens was shut down and dismantled not too long after my visit. Bill was another great guy - we had a long chat and he gave me a fascinating tour of the Bell Gardens railroad.

Am glad to hear that 6088's found a new home, and would be grateful if someone could tell me if it's still in pieces or has been restored.
Lastly, and I guess many people know this but I'll mention for anyone who doesn't, Seymour chose the number 6088 because those were the years in which the loco was started and completed - 1960 through 1988.

Sorry for partially hi-jacking your thread Dave, hope it's not too off-topic.

Thanks
Steve Goodbody
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Trainman4602
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Re: THE BIG HUDSON

Post by Trainman4602 »

The 6088 is alive and running at Train Town in Sonoma CA.

I can't post the you tube from this computer so look it up Type in Sonoma train town

BTW I don’t consider talking about the same subject ‘THE BIG HUDSON’ high jacking
What I consider high jacking is to pick a statement from the thread and go off on some side track. I think if you wish to comment on something that is in the post start your own thread.
ALLWAYS OPERATING MY TRAIN IN A SAFE MANNER USING AUTOMATIC AIR BRAKES
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