Chessie Steam Specials 1977 & 1978

In 1977 and 1978 The Chessie System (now CSX) ran a series of public passenger excursions over their system using former Reading T-1 locomotive 2101, which had been restored to pull the Bicentennial American Freedom Train around the eastern U.S. in 1975 and 1976.

A small group of us drove more than three hours to the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal railyard to board a train to ride to Garrett, Indiana, less than an hour north of Fort Wayne.

In Northwest Indiana the train stopped and passengers who wanted to take photos were allowed to detrain and line up across a meadow area. The crew backed the train up twice and ran it past the photo line, with lots of smoke & noise.

Star Roman, Alan Toy & Rex Ware

I don't necessarily put a lot of faith in everything every railfan on an excursion says, but one fellow claimed that he held a stopwatch across a few mileposts and came up with a top speed of 76mph.

They turned the engine at Garrett and let it sit on display for the public while passengers went to nearby establishments for food and refreshments. There was a mid-train concession car, too, with gifts/souvenirs and food.

The railroad had intended to operate the train only one year, but it was a huge public relations success and did better financially than they had expected. The locomotive was still in good shape, and the money had already been invested in preparing the train.

Cylinders on steam engines are lubricated by adding specially formulated oil to the steam before it enters the cylinder. Early engines used displacement lubricators that used balanced pressure and the difference in specific gravity between oil and water, with no moving parts. Later engines like this one use a mechanical pump driven by the oscillation of the valve linkage, that draws oil from a reservoir and adds it in metered amounts to the steam supply. The crew member here is filling the steam-cylinder oil reservoir.