File:Ash pit looking east, circa 1924.jpg

Summary

The ash pit looking east, circa 1924.

In the center of this James F. McMurry photo that was featured in the November 1982 Brunswick Citizen article on “The Age of Steam” is the coal chute engine, a light engine assigned to the area. The ash pit is to the far left.

The ashes would fall from an engine's ash pan, still hot, into the cooling water. Two or three engines would be handled at one time. In the back there was an inspection pit.

The fire was kept going, and steam was kept up, during the ash dumping procedure.

The pillar at the left is part of the coal tipple.

The Cumberland Division also had its locomotives serviced in Brunswick. The one on the right is ready to go: it has been to the ash pit and has been inspected, and is now on the "ready track."

The coal chute engine in the center is taking on water. It was a small, 2237 class, or 2313. The big engine on the left is an S-1, numbered in the 6100s and 6200s. It had ten drive wheels ("we called them five wheelers"). "They were the big ones in this area."

McMurray said his father used to fire a Mallet engine they had in the hump area. Even this engine he said, had to make a run in order to get four cars up on the coal ramp.

(Courtesy of Kim Myers; featured in an article in the November 11, 1982 edition of the Brunswick Citizen called "Brunswick and the Age of Steam" by James F. MacMurray)