Pusher vs. helper

[NW Mailing List]

Others have pointed out how in steam days on the N&W coal trains would 
leave West Yard in Roanoke with a Class A road engine next to the train 
and a Class Y6x helper in the front, and how a pusher engine would be 
coupled on at Boaz siding to assist the two other engines for the climb 
up to Blue Ridge where the pusher would cut off and return to Boaz while 
the road engine and helper engine would proceed to Phoebe where the Y6x 
helper engine would cut off leaving the high-drivered Class A road 
engine to hurry the train on to Norfolk.  But, there is a bit more to 
this operation that needs telling, because I experienced it while 
working in the Shaffers Crossing roundhouse the summer of 1956.

For one thing, eastbound coal trains leaving West Yard almost 
immediately faced an adverse grade of nearly 0.4% for about 3/4 mile, 
ending at the Shaffers Crossing roundhouse, where the grade began 
descending eastward.  This created a spectacle of sight and sound as the 
engines came just a hundred feet of so from the open roundhouse windows 
while attempting to accelerate the tonnage coal train on the ascending 
grade.  The spectacle was so great that numerous roundhouse employees 
would stop what they were doing and rush to the open windows to see the 
show.  These were not railfans, but machinists, pipefitters, 
electricians, laborers, etc.  They were simply people who were 
fascinated by the raw power of these mighty machines, and many also 
probably felt more than a little pride in their role in helping to make 
it all work.

On occasions there would be a train of empty hopper cars parked on a 
track between the roundhouse and the track used by the coal train, 
completely blocking the view of the departing coal train as seen from 
the lower elevation of the roundhouse floor.  On those occasions only 
the strong exhaust smoke from the engines would be visible over top of 
the hopper cars, and I observed something unusual.   There was a 
difference between the way the two engines discharged their smoke.  The 
road engine would discharge its smoke straight up whereas the helper 
engine would discharge its smoke upward /and forward/.  I eventually 
learned that the Class Y6x exhaust nozzle and stack were angled 10 
degrees forward in order to clear the front-end throttle and superheater 
header mounted near the top of the smoke box behind the stack, whereas 
the Class A smoke box arrangement allowed the convention vertical nozzle 
and exhaust stack.  I am just glad that I had the experience shortly 
before the drama disappeared forever.

Gordon Hamilton


On 8/11/2018 11:40 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> I had not planned to chime in on this one, as I thought it rather a 
> one-off question.  But others seem to be perplexed, as well, and the 
> nice disquisition by Senator Grantonius Carpenterensis leads me to 
> chip in my mite.
>
>
> Many, many moons ago, I asked men who had  hired circa 1906 about the 
> operation of Class W assisting engines between Roanoke and 
> Christiansburg. Their answers I published to this List some years 
> ago.  One element of that information was that, between Elliston and 
> Christiansburg, engines assisting ahead were termed Helpers, and those 
> assisting from behind were called Pushers.
>
>
> My regret is that I could never find a man who had worked over 
> Schooler Hill, before the Walton Cut-Off was opened in 1902.  "Born 
> too late," I suppose...  Does anyone have an extra ticket on a Time 
> Machine ?
>
>
> -- abram burnett, dilettante
>
>         a minore ad maius
>
>
> ===========================================
>                   Sent to You from my Telegraph Key
> Successor to the MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH LINE of 1844
> ===========================================
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> 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/



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20180819/201ce100/attachment-0001.html>