Starting coal trains

[NW Mailing List]

that explains the broken drawbar heard on Thunder on Blue Ridge...a lot 
of..."slack talk"

-Lynn-

On 8/17/2015 2:39 PM, nw-mailing-list-request at nwhs.org wrote:
> Subject:
> Starting coal trains
> From:
> NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
> Date:
> 8/17/2015 7:19 AM
>
> To:
> "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
>
>
> They didn’t start these trains all at once; they took advantage of the 
> slack in the cars (about a foot per car) as had been done everywhere 
> from time immemorial.  If they got the pusher at Pepper after stopping 
> with the train stretched, the road engine would (after he got the 
> signal at the east end of Pepper siding) sit with his throttle about 
> half open and whistle off.  The pusher would accept this as the signal 
> to go, and would commence pushing the slack in.  When the pusher took 
> up enough of the load, the road engine would start itself and then 
> they’d both get them wide open.  I’ve stood on top of the bluff in the 
> 2184 photo and listened to a “double”  get going, and could hear the 
> road engine starting and across the bend in the river the pusher going 
> faster shoving in the slack 130 cars back – very intriguing.  If they 
> started with the slack in, the pusher would sit with his throttle 
> about half open and when the road engine took enough of the load, the 
> pusher would start itself.
> The same held true if a double got his pusher east of the Walton 
> interlocking.  He’d stop and the train would be stretched.  The road 
> engine would sit with his throttle open; the pusher would couple up 
> and whistle off and start pushing.  When he’d taken up enough of the 
> load, the road engine would, as before, start itself.  Understand that 
> when the engines were sitting with throttles open, they were on sand 
> so they wouldn’t slip.
> They used  pretty much the same technique with diesels, understanding 
> that they couldn’t sit forever with the throttle open and the engine 
> not moving because of the short time ratings of the traction motors, 
> but they also had radio communications and could work it out. In 
> either case the object was to get the throttles wide open as quickly 
> as they could.
> These techniques also had to be used in the electric territory.  It 
> had been a requirement of the LC-1s and 2s that they could withstand 
> full throttle operation for five minutes with the engine sitting 
> still, which they could because of the AC motors.
> In all these instances, they took full advantage of the slack in the 
> cars.
> Class A engines didn’t start the 16,000 ton trains at Williamson all 
> at once.  They took full advantage of the slack, too.  And that 
> practice was carried on in diesel days; faced with getting away from 
> Williamson (and it was practically dead level) with two GP30s and a 
> 20,000 ton train, there was no way you could start them with the slack 
> stretched.  You jockeyed back and forth until you had them all coming, 
> and then advanced the throttle as much as you could. Starting them a 
> car at a time was a lot easier than trying to start them all at once, 
> as had been learned long ago.
> EdKing

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