[N&W] Re: Pennsy on the N&W

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Since there has been considerable discussion of the T-1's, I'll chime in 
with a tale told to me by our old Assistant Superintendent at the time I 
was transferred to Enola as Night Trainmaster (1981.)

It seems that T-1s didn't often operate east of Altoona.  One day a T-1 
showed up in Harrisburg (late 1940s or early 1950s) and there was no train 
for it to take back to Altoona.  Following Comp'ny protocol that "Engines 
don't run light," someone in management made the decision to couple the T-1 
onto a track of empty hoppers at Harrisburg and send her home.

Well, the T-1 couldn't start the 50 hoppers hoppers in the track, so an 
H-class Consolidation was coupled onto the rear to get the train started 
out of the yard.  A few minutes later, the operator at Rockville Tower 
reported the train "by" to the train dispatcher, and remarked that the 
engineer on the "pusher" was waiving his arms and frantically blowing his 
whistle.  By the time the train dispatcher figured out what was going on, 
the train had already rocketed past Banks Tower at a high rate of speed, 
and the Middle Division train dispatcher had to be contacted to stop the 
train at the first tower on his territory (View Tower, at Duncannon, Pa.)

Seems that, once the T-1 got the cut of hoppers moving, the little 
Consolidation at the rear couldn't even shove in the slack so the brakeman 
could cut away.  Oh, mercy... !

-- abram burnett
________________________________________________________________
This may open a can of worms again (remembering my comments on Garratts in
the US).  In the UK several classes of large express passenger loco's were
four cylinder, with two outside in the normal position and two parallel
inside, the valve gear often working through rocking links.  The advantages
put forward for this system were smoother running with less damage to the
track through "hammering" and less clearance problems, as often found with
large two cylinder designs.  Also traction would be better than the divided
design of the Pennsy as all driving wheels were still connected.  The
downside was more difficult maintenance (hence Ed Kings comments about using
children to oil the inside valve gear of a four cylinder locomotive in the
London Science museum).

This system was never tried in the US to my knowledge though a number of
three cylinder classes were tried including the UP 4-12-2 's.  These used
(and suffered from) the Gresley conjunctagated valve gear, which was hard on
bearings.  The GWR King Class and LMS Coronation class locomotives which
toured the US before the war were four cylinder designs.  Perhaps this would
have been a way forward for large drivered high speed express loco's in the
US.

Regards, Richard Hood

England

 >From: "N&W Mailing List" <mailing-list at nwhs.org>
 >To: "N&W Mailing List" <mailing-list at nwhs.org>
 >Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 1:22 AM
  ...snip...
 >>  >Personally, I love the sight of a T-1 leading the way; but the duplex
 >idea
 >>  >was not really a success.
 >>  >
 >>  >Jerry Crosson
 >>