Steam Engine Notes

We are wrapping up the first half of Local Geography & History (Southern Illinois) with a look at the importance of the railroad. In the second half, which I am combining with Personal Narratives, we will look at Industry.

Week One - Illinois State Symbols, Glaciers & Dinosaur Fossils

Week Two - Rivers & Drainage Basins, New Madrid Seismic Zone

Week Three - Mound Builders, Louisiana Purchase, Lewis & Clark

Week Four - Founding of Carbondale, Illinois Central Railroad

The railroad has been an interesting topic for kids. After reading portions of Illinois Trails & Traces: Portraits and Stories along the State’s Historic Routes (pp.171-179 and also the profile of Milton McDaniel), the children had lots of questions about how steam locomotives work. How did towns spring up along the train routes, and why did the trains specifically need water towers?

Today we are watching sections of this video on how a steam engine works, reading Locomotive by Brian Floca, and looking at a sheet of stamps for the 150 year anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

just a reminder that the lines shown snaking across the country are telegraph lines, not telephone lines

here are my notes on teaching Morse Code to children

Below I have organized my notes as to the sections of the steam locomotive video that I thought would be most accessible for ages 8-11. I am also starting by reminding the class that the Big Boy was the world’s largest and most powerful steam train! It is much larger than the locomotive in Locomotive, but the mechanisms of the steam engine are largely the same.

Begin video at 0:00

STOP after
“There’s a steam dome at the top where steam collects and flows out of the boiler.”

JUMP to 7:05

STOP after
“Water flowing into the boiler must be pumped or injected in to overcome boiler pressure.”

JUMP to 10:00

STOP after
“The piston and valve continue their synchronized movements, exchanging fresh superheated steam for spent exhaust, as the train chuffs down the track.”

JUMP to 25:15

STOP after
“It’s covered with critical instruments, gauges, knobs, and more.”

JUMP to 33:05 and watch to the end

We are extremely excited to have Daniel Overturf -- the photographer for Illinois Trails & Traces: Portraits and Stories along the State’s Historic Routes -- come in as a special guest on Monday to talk about Illinois rail history more with the children, and explain how the author and he organized all of this extensive information (which includes railroads but also land travel in Illinois more generally) into a 10 chapter book! Note: Their previous book together, A River Through Illinois, covered the main Illinois waterway.

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