A friend recently asked me for information on compressed air locomotives used by the mining industry. At first I thought he was having me on but I located references to them on the Feldbahn Site. Can anybody help with information on compressed air locomotives?

-- Paul Napier (bandm@xtra.co.nz), March 01, 1999

Answers

Paul, There is one on display at the mining museum north of Colorado Springs CO. They have it blocked up and they run it for visitors

-- Mike Nix (2rivers@upstel.net), September 15, 2000.

Check out the group critterslist on egroups. There are photos of homestake and other enginges. Critter connection also has some photos of engines.

-- doc donaldson (doctrains@aol.com), September 13, 2000.

THEY USED A LOT OF THESE ENGINES UNDERGROUND. HOMESTAKE MINING HAD SOME, AND THEY WERE COVERED SOMEWHAT IN MILDRED FIELDER (FIDLER?)'S BOOK "RAILROADS IN THE BLACK HILLS" WITH SOME PHOTOS. THERE IS A THREE-TANK LARGE STANDARD GAUGE UNIT ON DISPLAY IN THE NEW ORLEANS AREA, MY MEMORY IS THAT IT IS A COMPOUND (WITH DIFFERENT SIZED CYLINDERS) BUT I AM NOT SURE OF THAT. IT BELONGS TO A MUSUEM GROUP DOWN THERE, BUT I DONT KNOW HOW TO CONTACT THEM.

-- DOC DONALDSON (DOCTRAINS@AOL.COM), September 11, 2000.

Paul,

Narrow Gauge Gazette in March 1984 and July 1989 issues has drawings, etc. of Porter compressed air locomotives used in mining. This is according to DataTrain, a searchable database.

Jerry

-- Jerry Dowling (jdowling@lcc.net), July 06, 1999.