Locomotive Cab Rides

Thu Apr 5 23:00:34 EDT 2018

Gordon. Great story!I've heard you mention several of these thru the years, but not most of them.Thanks for sharing! If it was anyone but you,  I'd say it was  bragging,  but that's just not you.BTW, how did the EL2b ride? I'd guess pretty smooth. With 1M pounds on drivers!
Thanks, and keep your reminisces coming.
Jeff Sanders

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  On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 2:43 PM, NW Mailing List<nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:   
Recently, I was reminiscing about some locomotive cab rides that I have enjoyed down through the years, and I realized that some of these cab rides were so unique that brief accounts of them likely would be of  interest to Mailing List readers and warrant listing them here.  Another reason was that this might stimulate others to post accounts of equally unique, or more unique, cab rides they have had.  I would be disingenuous if I did not admit that I am bragging here about the uniqueness of some of the cab riding opportunities that I had.

The following locomotive cab riding accounts are in no particular order:

   - N&W 2300, steam turbine electric, "Jawn Henry," from Shaffers Crossing Roundhouse, Roanoke, VA, to Boaz Siding where it pushed a train over Blue Ridge grade, but suffered a component failure (I forget what, but probably a feedwater pump) and had to limp back to the Roundhouse.  But, hey, it counts as a cab ride in my book.
   - N&W streamlined K2 or K2a (I forget which) passenger locomotive, 22 miles from Meadowview, VA to Bristol, VA.  Although it was not a long ride, it is probably more rare or unique than cab rides on N&W 611 in excursion (which I never experienced, unfortunately ).
   - Former VGN EL-2b electric locomotive, 133 miles on empty hopper train from Roanoke to Elmore, WV.
   - Former VGN FM "Assistant Trainmaster" H-16-44 diesel locomotive on time freight Elmore to Roanoke.
   - N&W GP-9 "Red Bird" diesel passenger locomotive on Powhatan Arrow, 128 miles from Roanoke to Crewe, VA.
   - SOU RY F3a diesel locomotive on No. 18, the Birmingham Special being detoured over N&W Shenandoah Division account SOU's Tye River bridge destroyed by Hurricane Camille.  The F3a locomotive cab was shared with the N&W engineer and fireman, a SOU Road Foreman of Engines, Bruce Sterzing (later president of D&H RY) and John Rehor (who wrote the monumental book, The Nickel Plate Story).   About 146 miles out of Roanoke (near Stanley, VA), No. 18's progress was blocked by a derailed "double-barrel" (crew-speak for a train with a pusher) coal  train ahead.  The locomotives were coupled on the other end of No. 18 to go back to Waynesboro, VA, to get on the C&O Ry, but Bruce and I got off in Shenandoah and rode a caboose back to Roanoke.   

   - L&N M1 Berkshire steam locomotive about 183 miles from Corbin, KY to DeCoursey Yard, KY, near Cincinnati (in addition to signing a release, I had to buy a coach ticket from Corbin to Latonia, KY).
   - B&O RR Budd RDC at about 80 mph somewhere north of Washington, DC. (crew saw me looking through the cab door window into the cab  and motioned for me to open the door and come into the cab).
   - BC Rail Budd RDC through the Tumbler Ridge tunnel on a fan trip, including experiencing what the crew called "the car wash," which was a curtain of water pouring through a transverse crack in the tunnel roof.
   - Maryland and Pennsylvania RR (known as the Ma and Pa) gasoline-electric passenger car for the first half of the trip from York, PA to Baltimore, MD, or about 20 miles.
   - Flemingsburg and Northern RR Mogul steam locomotive on Kentucky fan trip, including not only a cab ride but also a ride on the top of the tender! (see attached photos, particularly the one of the fan hanging out to record the locomotive driving wheels in motion.  Liability?  Apparently, that wasn't of concern in the early 1950's!).
 In the following locomotive cab riding accounts I was operating the locomotive controls--probably the best type of locomotive cab riding:

   - N&W Classes Y, Z, M, S1, K1 steam locomotives around Durham Shop during my three summers there as a laborer.  The hostlers would often trade places with me by throwing track switches for me while I operated the various steam locomotives from one track and servicing spot to another track and servicing spot.
   - N&W Class K1 at Durham.  One day I was uprated to hostler helper, and I actually ran a K1 Mountain-type passenger locomotive about 1-1/2 miles to the wye at Duke Yard, around the wye and back to the shop while the hostler fired the locomotive and threw the track switches for me.
   - A variety of N&W and D&H diesel locomotives when I was temporarily assigned as engineer on the N&W between Bellevue, OH, and Buffalo, NY, a 248-mile run on what was basically a 60 mph railroad (except for 1-1/2 mile through Erie, PA, where the main line ran down the middle of 19th Street like a streetcar line).  Total miles run during this stint was almost 11,000 miles.  On one occasion I ran a train across an international border!  This was from Fort Erie, Ontario, across the 3,651-foot long International Bridge over the Niagara River and then over 9.6 miles of Conrail tracks to the N&W's Bison Yard in Buffalo.   

   - Swiss electric train on a fan trip where each person had a chance to operate the metre-gauge passenger train.  From a standing start I took the occupied passenger train up to track speed and shortly afterward applied the brakes to bring the train to a smooth stop.  At a little ceremony that evening we were surprised when each of us received an engraved Swiss railroad pocket watch to commemorate the event (see attached  image).
 Gordon Hamilton

Moderator:
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180405.F&N%20RR%20-%201004.jpg
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180405.F&N%20RR%20-%202003.jpg
http://www.nwhs.org/mailinglist/2018/20180405.SwissWatch001.jpg
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