Forty Years of NYC Motive Power Progress

[gmpullman]

From a booklet in my collection, circa Late 1945:

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NYC_loco-progress by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0001 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0002 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0003 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0004 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0005 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0006 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0007 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0008 by Edmund, on Flickr

I tried my best at contrast and color settings to make these charts legible. The original printing has them in a very light gray and if I adjust the contrast to improve them the text then gets washed out.

NYC_Loco-9-10 by Edmund, on Flickr

{click any page to enlarge view}

NYC_loco-progress_0011 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0012 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0013 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0014 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0015 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0016 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0017 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0018 by Edmund, on Flickr

NYC_loco-progress_0019 by Edmund, on Flickr

I hope some folks find this information interesting. It is pretty much "old news" to many of the Central aficionados but it is nice to see it all in one place.

Produced by the American Locomotive Company, 30 Church St., New York, N.Y.

Thank you, Ed

 

 

 

[Overmod]

Once again, thanks for providing in full something that most of us probably didn't even know existed.  (But are heartily glad does)

[Flintlock76]

That's some good stuff!  Thanks for posting it 'Pullman!

As a rule when I go to a train show I don't pay too much attention to the ephemera dealers tables.  Maybe I should, there could be "gold" in those displays. 

[M636C]

The most interesting part of the book are the power and tractive effort diagrams.

I sometimes wonder how accurate these are, and exactly how many data points were recorded to produce the diagrams. I've never managed to get such smooth curves when I've tried to test equipment.

There seems to be a strange "public relations" aspect to the text.

So there were five types of Pacific?

Where did the K-11s and K-14s fit in? The K-6?

Peter

[gmpullman]

M636C

There seems to be a strange "public relations" aspect to the text.

Hello,

Well, um, yes. The booklet was written by Alco. They were pretty much blowing their own whistle.

M636C

I sometimes wonder how accurate these are, and exactly how many data points were recorded to produce the diagrams.

The Engineer of Tests in the motive power department took their work pretty seriously. They made many test runs under varying conditions thus collecting a large volume of data so they could plot many data points to produce those curves.

https://nycshs.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/roadtestingniagaras.pdf

From the NYC publications I've read and several books and historical society publications, the research and testing to try to exact every BTU out of an ounce of coal and turn it into efficient tractive effort was an on-going effort. That expensive dynamometer car didn't stay idle. NYC and many other roads (The PRR Test Plant) also had their engineering staff working to attain the "perfect" balance of speed, power and lower maintenance and fuel cost.

K-11 info here with some background of the earlier classes:

https://nycshs.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/pages-from-1981q2the-k-11s.pdf

 

 

 

 Regards, Ed

[Miningman]

Great stuff, as you say nice to have it all in one place. Saved! The K11 article is fabulous. 

Had some log in issues. Took a bit of time and persistence but finally and thankfully it took. Hope we are not going down that road again. 

I find at times that the digital age horribly inconvienient and an enormous time waster, not to mention hazardous to our sanity, probably more so to us Classic, i.e older, guys. 

Our expressions and liberties did not exist at the whim of a button pushed as we grew into the world. 

Perhaps we are the last generation ever to know that..??

[MidlandMike]

gmpullman

K-11 info here with some background of the earlier classes: https://nycshs.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/pages-from-1981q2the-k-11s.pdf  

Thanks for that photo journey link.  I used to ride on the Harlem Division, and have been thru North White Plains many times.  Of course by that time it was just RS-3's.