Rare sight has one West Liberty man off his rails
by Sara Sedlacek · October 22, 2008

Like a kid in a candy store, West Liberty resident Steve Alt stood by the railroad tracks waiting, his eyes wide and full of excitement. Alt joined many others at the West Liberty Depot last Saturday, Oct. 18, as a rare sight pulled into town.

“I’ve never seen it in my life and I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again,” Alt said.

Early Saturday morning black smoke billowed from two chugging steam trains as they pulled into town, breaking a 21st century record for steam-pulled freight. Alt explained the two Chinese-built QJ 2-10-2 steam locomotives pulled more than 6,000 tons of freight through West Liberty on their way to the Quad Cities. Alt doesn’t work for the railroad, but he’s quite the expert on steam engines.

“I’ve been chasing steam engines for 30 years,” he said. “I started as a freshman going down to Old Threshers. I put in hundreds of hours every year down there in Mt. Pleasant.”

Alt said he’s always had a passion for steam engines.

“Anytime a steam engine comes through, you’ll find me there,” he said. Alt continued, explaining the sight Saturday, “They were two locomotives tied together. That’s really rare to see. They were pulling a load of freight. They were working really hard coming into town. The picture does no justice. To be there... Wow! The steam and smoke was overwhelming. When you’re there, seeing it happen, it’s just amazing. I hope to do it again someday.”

Alt explained even though the steam trains are usually considered to be old, these twin QJs aren’t old at all. Their birthday is 1986 and did service in China before being refurnished and sent to the United States for special service. The QJ engines were built from 1959 until 1988 and many are still in service around the world today. Around 3,600 of them were built mainly to move freight around China. They cost less than the diesel locomotives to buy and operate in China. Most all of the QJ models are coal fired-type boilers, which are still today hand fed by a fireman. The fireman’s only job is to hand shovel coal from the tender car, walk it to the locomotive fire box door, open it and toss one shovelful of coal into the fire box. That is all done while the locomotive is rolling along at about 35 miles per hour and repeated many times.

“On a run like we saw Saturday morning both locomotives might have had two fireman each on board,” he said. 

Alt said his dream is to someday own a steam engine but said he’d probably settle for working on one.

“The guy shoveling coal was from New Jersey,” he said. “They’re always looking for volunteers.”