A symbol of hope for the future. A young woman out for a walk on her parents property gives a hearty wave to a passenger train headed for the big city of Baltimore as it speeds through the farmland of South Central Pennsylvania. One has to imagine that the sight of these new and fascinating machines making their way through rural America had to have been a powerful symbol of hope for a very bright future for a young nation. Viewers may question the authenticity of such a dense and dark smoke plume from what appears to be a wood-burning steam locomotive. Of course, York 17 is actually a replica of an 1860s-era Rogers product, and for practical and safety reasons, she burns waste motor oil. Obviously, creating a dark plume for the cameras is easy for an oil burner, but would a wood-burner be able to create such a plume? Friends who have extensive experience with actual wood-burners tell me yes. While the wood that is generally available today for use by museums and tourist railroads does not produce a great deal of smoke, back in the day, railroads would have sought out wood with a high pitch content. It burns better, has a high BTU content, and does indeed produce a fairly dark smoke plume. So, while the color of the oil-fired plume is a bit off here, a dark dense plume is apparently pretty authentic.
This image was captured in November of 2021, on the new Northern Central Railway, Pennsylvania's newest tourist railroad, just over a quarter mile south of the former Glatfelter Station, in the town of Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania.
