I really enjoyed the video .
I'm from a small railroads town, My dad was a steam hogger , so were my uncles and most families on our street worked for the railway. Our town had all the railroad facilities , turntable, round house, ice house, sand house, big machine shop, Car dept. and a stock pile of coal that was about 30 feet high and about 1/2 mile long. 2 yards, station with restaurant built on a curve . dispatching office and of course the superintendents office building .... which leads for me the following questions... Is it hard on a engine to have the reverser in the corner with full throttle for extended periods of time?.... and in the video would the fireman also have manually throw coal in the firebox. (chunks going up the stack?) I believe there's a pedal that opens the fire box door when the fireman is ready to throw coal in with the shovel. Why does the fireman open and close the door between each shovel full?
I don't suppose the fireman would be too happy if the engine was a hand bomber which leads to another question.. if the stoker failed could the fireman actually hand bomb the engine or is it just too big?
