Detroit, Toledo & Ironton #45: The "business office". You are looking into the cab of Detroit, Toledo & Ironton #45, a 4-4-2 Atlantic type, built in 1902 by the American Locomotive Works for the Michigan Central Railroad as their #254. With working boiler pressure of 190 lbs and a total tractive effort of only 20,148 lbs., this engine was not built for power, it was built for speed. Sporting 79" drivers, she could easily haul fast passenger trains, running at 70 mph with perhaps 8 wooden coaches behind her. Like so many machines built in this timeframe, she was obsolete within just a few years. Railroad safety enhancements, such as the advent of steel coaches, left this high-drivered beauty without a job by the mid-1920s. In 1926, she was purchased by Henry Ford for his Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad, but I've seen no documentation that she was ever actually used. She was sent to Ford's Rouge Factory for some restoration work, but just 4 years later, she was placed in the collection of his newly established "Edison Institute", which is now known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.
Displayed inoperable today in the roundhouse of the Weiser Railroad at Greenfield Village, DTI #45 provides visitors with an opportunity to see a steam locomotive from several interesting angles, without having to open up entire roundhouse floor to wandering visitors. As such, her stall is fenced off from the rest of the facility. Although the engine is difficult to photograph broadside, visitors can walk around the outside of the locomotive and then step down into the servicing pit and view the complexity of her running gear. Finally, they can climb a set of stairs and get the view you are getting now of the cab where her crew would have spent some long days, a full century ago.
As someone who has seen a few steam locomotive cabs, I can say that this one is pretty unique. It features a large, insulated boiler backhead, which would have been welcome on warm, summer days. The wide firebox on this engine was fed through not one, but two fire doors. Hand-bombing this hungry beast at 70 mph must have been a real work-out. The devices located on the floor below the fire doors are the grate shakers, used for cleaning the fire and dumping it, if necessary. The iron handles on either side of the grate shakers are the engineer and fireman's side blow-down valves. Note the unusual positioning of the water injectors on the right side of the backhead and the plethora of polished brass piping. Just in front of the engineer's seat is the brake stand and behind it, the massive reverse lever, or "Johnson Bar". The location of the water glass and gauge cocks on either side of the high-mounted throttle appears to indicate that the crown sheet was pretty high up on this monster. This engine is currently displayed without her tender, as the combination of the two would not fit in the roundhouse stall. The museum does have the tender stored separately, so if better display quarters become available in the future, the entire locomotive and tender might one day be reunited.
