That is dirk chandler at the throttle, he has been there longer then anybody, when he’s on the throttle, your in for a good train ride

TheNobleGamer I always noticed that 192 had a louder chuffing sound then 190. I always assumed it was because 192 just ran wide open.

@@mattdotsonrailfanproductio266 if my sources are correct, 192 sounds louder in stack talk because of many internal spark arresting mods and such. When I meant "healthier" i meant it in the fact it didn't seem like she was having issues recovering from those slips with a full train. The stack talk's volume didn't change to the "I think I can" sound every time she slipped. She just kept on going without much change in pace.

190 and 192 has two very different trips they make i work where 190 is n she does great does 12 both dont run wide open like 192 and 70 does plus whats funny is tweetsie fellers works on dollys trains

Yes, I think you are pretty much correct in your assumption of the controls. The long lever is definitely the throttle and I agree on the sanding control. The last short horizontal lever is the airbrake control. Lots to do in a steam engine, or so it looks. Cheers, Dan

Long lever is indeed the throttle. The driver is also manipulating the reverser- hooking up the engine to higher and lower cutoff. Using a shorter cutoff makes the engine more efficient, but also reduces its torque- and if the engine is slipping helps to recover from it. At one point you see him push the reverser forward and the stack talk gets louder, he's selected a long and inefficient cutoff in order to produce torque for getting the train up a hill. The gold colored lever is the airbrake, I've seen similar brake units in other engines. Meanwhile, the fireman is shovelling coal, turning the water pump or injector on and off to keep a safe water level, adjusting the drafts to keep the steam pressure in the desired range, and apparently on this engine ringing the bell is done manually.

David Williams The lever on the far right, as has been said, is the reverse. This engine has a "manual reverse", Johnson Bar as it's more commonly referred to. Instead of a power reverse, which uses air to move the valve gear, the Johnson Bar is directly linked to the valve gear. When the engine is slippery like that, as this engineer is doing, it's a good practice to hook back down on the Jbar. This creates less back pressure in th cylinders, thus, less torque. Less torque can help you slip less. You'll have to go slower, but you'll make it up the hill. Done it many times.

Heck with those steep grades they have up there in the mountains they kinda have to drive it like that jus to make it up the steep hills up until he shuts the throttle off and puts the Johnson bar all the way foward then it’s jus downhill all the way back to the station

I’ve had the pleasure of running one here in south GA since I was real young and compared to that we have really small hills and I don’t even have to mess with the Johnson bar on the loco I drive keep in mind we have grades at my stomping grounds but nothing like in the mountains, in fact, alot of times I can set the throttle for a good lil bit until I start going back down a small hill and I gotta shut the throttle off and I usually put the Johnson bar in reverse so I don’t have to use the brakes so much so it’ll extend the brake shoes life in the long run

Tom Tee the throttle controls the amount of steam leaving the boiler and once by, it travels through the super heaters before reaching the valves. Because the valves trap and “bottle up” the steam in the super heaters before being admitted to the cylinders to do work, it is more efficient to run the throttle wide open and control the speed of the train with the valve. The throttle is the long sideways handle coming from the back, and the valve is controlled by the bar that goes forward and then “hooks up” as the train gains speed. The only real reason to mess with the throttle is to control a wheel slip or significantly reduce power, which is what you see here because the track is nearly a 5% grade in a number of places and this particular engine is susceptible to wheel spin. The little red handle is a sanding valve which opens up and air line that blows sand on the rail either to the front or rear sander. That’s basically it and I’m sure others may chime in.

Most Southern thing. Never heard it elsewhere.

So let me explain throttle control… this engine has a dome throttle and it’s superheated. Whenever the engine starts to slip, there is a delay between closing the throttle and when the excess in expansion of steam is brought under control against the factor of adhesion. That being said, this is not how I would handle the throttle on this engine. Sanding preventatively works very well against reacting to slips. There are places on every railroad that always seem to be slippery, so sanding ahead of time prevents the engine from slipping to begin with, but that takes experience and knowledge of the particular line. The run at Dollywood is very steep only a couple of car lengths from departing, so that being said, I used to lay sand as I came to a stop so the drivers had a film of sand to prevent slipping on a start. Once we departed again, it was helpful to lay sand momentarily about every other revolution of the drivers to save sand and to prevent excessive wear from the sand on the driver tires. Usually after a trip or two you wouldn’t need to use sand again throughout the day unless it was raining. That was my experience and it worked well. I could generally then leave the throttle wide open and control the train speed with the expansion in the valve which used the superheaters to their best efficiency because the steam was bottled behind the valve on the cylinder but trapped in the superheater until needed. That might look dramatic to an inexperienced eye but it’s the most efficient way to run an engine and it saves water and steam by using the machinery as it was designed to be used. Others have their own techniques. I’m just explaining why I do what I do and the reasoning behind it. I learned on a much longer railroad where you had to be conservative with sand and fuel and water against an equally demanding pull over a much longer distance. Unfortunately theme park railroads don’t offer that experience because the engine is never taxed long enough.

Locomotive 192 Came from the WP&YR but now is in an amusement park in Pigeon Forge Tennessee

Meet the right people and ask the right questions. Next week I'll be aboard a century old steam tractor showing people how much work it took to run a farm in 1915.