Them Ol' Steem injines

Tue Aug 18 22:11:41 EDT 2015

This discussion reminded me of a conversation I had with an old head near Portsmouth while I (and he, along with some contemporaries and other railroaders) were chasing 2156 last May.  I got a recording of most of the conversation, along with another gentleman that shared his video with me.  The conversation was actually a recitation of short stories, all quite interesting.  Some of his relevant comments were:

Leaving Williamson northbound, with a Y6 (including 2156).
“We’d couple up to 200 loads of coal.  About the fastest we’d get would be 27, 28 mile an hour, and we wouldn’t reach that speed until we got west of Kenova, around Haverhill. That’s a lot of tonnage.”

“Now those class A’s, those 1200’s, they’ll pull 200 loads of coal too.  But.  They’ll run it a bit faster - we’d get up to 30, 35 mile an hour with one of those”

Re: Js
“We had this engineer with a beard down to here, his last name was Rich… We got out of Ironton, Ohio, one day about twenty minutes late.  He said ‘Bill, you want to go in on time?’.  I said: ‘Whatever turns you on!’.  I shouldn’t have said that - we came in on time and got up to 105 mph at Haverhill.  I was scared to death.  I couldn’t hardly see him - the metal apron was jumping up and down, and the coal dust was so thick in the cab there. He said ‘Come over here, look at the speedometer - 105!’, I said 'I’ll take your word for it!’  I wasn’t about to get off that seatbox!  We were movin’!”

He later said that they took that engine out to Indiana and got it up to 127mph - possibly a reference to the Pennsylvania tests.  This was second hand information, but still sounded like a stretch, even with story-retelling inflation!

General comments regarding riding (not sure which engine type):
“That dang armrest would like to break your arm if you’d lean on the window.  My left side, when I was a-firin’, always stayed sore and when I was a-runnin, my right side would” (because of the cab “wagging" through the curves).

Re: K2s
“The K2s, the 127 and 133, you couldn’t turn one of them things over.  Back then, they weren’t real strict. You could go around a curve marked for 35 mph at 50 to make up time.  You never even know you’re going around a curve”

“Those Js scared me on curves.  They were top heavy - a lot taller than the K2…  the K2s rode better than than any engine I ever rode.  But the Js, if a curve said 35mph, that’s what I went around it at”.

Great to listen to old stories!

Matt Goodman
Columbus OH.

On Aug 16, 2015, at 11:57 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

In the late forties and fifties, the Y-6s made an impression on me.  When I researched the Giant book, I realized what the Y-6s did.  Now I realize that they are underrated and have not gotten the credit due.

Bud Jeffries

From: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 10:44 PM
To: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Them Ol' Steem injines

All three OK up the river, not so hot on the mountain.  Check out the low-speed drawbar pull figures.

The Q2 (no hyphen in PRR notation) did not have more DBHP than the H8.  The figure you’re thinking about was calculated CYLINDER HP, not DBHP which was the HP available for pulling the train.  It would have taken three Q2s to get the train up the mountain if the wheel-slip butterflies were working OK.  

Two L-131’s equal 262,000.  They’d need help.

Two DMIR’s would have needed help.

EK

From: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 15, 2015 4:09 PM
To: NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: Re: Them Ol' Steem injines

Dear Ed,

How well do you think the following locomotives would've done?

1). DM&IR Yellowstone
2). PRR Q-2, supposedly more BHP than an H-8.
3). D&RGW 2-8-8-2

Patrick
pfwhalen at gmail.com <mailto:pfwhalen at gmail.com>

On Saturday, August 15, 2015, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>> wrote:
Here are two more for you steam performance guys to consider.

The 2184 is coming around the curve at Walton Tower with a 10,000+ ton coal train.  The 2179 is the pusher on the same train.

The “84” dropped down the mountain out of Bluefield and then went to work, lifting that train up the New River’s .2 per cent grade at between 29 and 32 MPH.  It was necessary for it to put 5,500 horsepower on the drawbar to accomplish this.  Then she, with the help of an identical sister, will have no problem lifting this train up to Christiansburg on Alleghany’s 1 per cent grade – they’re rated for 5,150 tons each.

Now, these two engines are capable of putting 332,000 pounds of low-speed drawbar pull (and/or push) to get this job done.  I remember one double which had to get its pusher east of Walton Tower on the grade itself.  It was raining.  The train was in several curves and on the grade and the two Y’s got her moving, and on up the grade she went.  That job took every ounce of the 332,000 pounds.

Now consider putting other locomotives in that position.  The two Triplexes would have done it, but neither would have made the mountain without stopping to blow up steam.  Two Virginian AE 2-10-10-2s would have done it, but one of them would have maybe made 15 MPH coming up the river.  Two Big Boys didn’t have enough low-speed oomph to get this train up the mountain; Big Boy was rated for 4,800 tons on one percent.  An H-8 could have brought the train up the river that fast, but it would have taken more than two of them to get it over the Mountain.  So pick your favorite and do the math.

Two more cents . . .

EdKing

 <http://www.avast.com/>	
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 
www.avast.com <http://www.avast.com/>

________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

 <http://www.avast.com/>	
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. 
www.avast.com <http://www.avast.com/>

________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20150818/d23c56c0/attachment-0001.html>