Arrow Train Master article

[NW Mailing List]

On 1/20/2013 10:09 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>   I would guess that the reputation of FMs (and Alcos)to make more 

> smoke than "average" has some basis, but I haven't seen the hard data. 

Frank,
     Maybe Skip can ask some of his brethren about the FM smoking 
problems. The Train Master was one engine that I never got to run. A few 
were around Roanoke when I hired on, but, they never made it up the 
valley and the slug program was well underway.
     Maybe I have written about this before, but, I will relate a 
comment that Freeman Meadows told me about them. When I asked him about 
the T/M's, he said that you could stand on the ground at the front 
steps, have the engineer wind the engine up, release the brakes and by 
the time the rear steps got to you, it would be going so fast that you 
couldn't catch on. Maybe the brethren could comment on that too.
     I've been known to catch up on units going pretty fast, but 
honestly, with the way the steps were configured, I wouldn't want to try 
that either!

Jimmy Lisle