What were the toughest operating divisions during the steam era?
I read that the longest steam helper district was more than 122 miles in the western part of Arizona, on the Santa Fe, due to the relatively large amount of horizontal curvature combined with up and downgrades. They favored the 2-10-2's over the 2-10-4's because the 2-10-4's proved to be too slippery over that division.
Cajon Pass? Raton Pass? Sandpatch? Saluda? PRR Altoona to Cresson? Tennessee Pass? What do you folks think?
John
Tennessee Pass is up there. Seen it with a dozen or so Tunnelmotors at a time. Seen video -- "Rio Grande of the Rockies" and others -- with multiple 2-8-8-2s. The heavier trains often involved a "swing" helper cut into the consist, as well as the front and rear power.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I would go with the PRR New York Division. Keeping track of the hundreds of movements in and out of Penn Station and Sunnyside yard. Servicing the locomotives, even though virtually all were electric. Servicing the passenger cars, switching the consisits and replacing bad order cars. Making sure that the assembled trains arrive on the correct station track. On top of this handling the New Haven and Long Island traffic. And it had to be done on a very strict schedule. Makes your head spin.
Tough in what way? Adverse grades? Density of operation? Sheer tonnage to be handled? A good case could be made for the idea that every division and branch has its resident bears and butt-biters.
No place is 'tough' just because there's a geographic challenge, as long as the available motive power can handle the load. Any adverse grade is tough if the rolling junk on the head end isn't up to climbing it and the company can't, or won't, provide helpers.
I personally think the tough job for a dispatcher might be no sweat to the people in the cab. Case in point, Tokyo. The terrain is dead flat and the individual trains were usually over-powered. They also ran on extremely short headways through a plethora of routes connected by puzzle palaces of intricate switchwork. I wouldn't want to be in the area if things began to deviate from the master timetable. Hard to pull up the slack in a schedule where there isn't any.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan - NOT Tokyo - in September, 1964)
Could anything in the US exceed the Moffat Road's "Hill" between Rollinsville and Tabernash for sheer difficulty for the operating crews? It crossed the Continental Divide at 11,660 feet, which was, if not the highest standard gauge crossing in the US, very close to it. Winter was an eight month season, and miles of that line ran above timberline- they even made a movie, called "The White Desert," which I hope to see someday.
Ed Bollinger's books make it clear that the employees paid a high price: injuries and long term medical conditions we're tragically common. Bollinger worked on the Moffat, and I suspect he enjoyed recounting the story of how Wilson McCarthy abruptly terminated Bill Freeman, the penny-pinching president who kept the Moffat afloat on the broken backs of its employees.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Too many factors for us to agree on any one location.
The West End of B&O's Cumberland Division, from Cumberland MD to Grafton, WV, has to be a contender. Runing east to west, the line traversed 17-Mile Grade, then Cranberry Grade, then Cheat River Grade, then Newburg Grade. In steam days, a typical 60-car coal train (55 and 70 ton cars) required a 2-8-8-0 or 2-8-8-4 on the point, with two 2-8-8-0's or 0-8-8-0's pushing. When the F7's arrived, it was an ABA set on the point, with an ABBA set pushing.
Tom
PRR's Sandusky Line from Columbus to Sandusky Ohio. Coal trains off the N&W bound for the Sandusky docks would require helpers from Pennor yard to Worthington while heavier coal trains would require two J1s to Sandusky.Even today some heavy coal train requires 3 six axle locomotives.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Franklin King - author of a couple of book on the DM&IR railroad - got to ride along with his father on a test run when the first Missabe Yellowstones were delivered in the early forties. He said that the builder's rep who rode along said the Iron Range division of the DMIR was some of the roughest track conditions he'd seen. The grades weren't that great, less than 2%, but rolled up and down. On a long ore train, the engine and first cars could be going downhill, while the cars farther back were still going up, while the rear of the train was going down.
My vote would be Southern Pacific's Roseville Subdivision from Roseville, CA to Sparks, NV. 139 miles across Donner Pass. Elevation 164 feet at Roseville to 7,056 feet at the summit and back down to 4,413 feet at Sparks. Tunnels and snow sheds that lead to the development of SP's famous cab forward locomotives. The winter of 1951-52 saw 65 feet of snow at the summit. Part of the original transcontinental railroad and crested by Central Pacific in 1868. What an amazing feat.
Ray
I can think of quite a few routes that would have been tough. The Western Maryland had some runs that used up to seven heavy 2-8-0's because of the extreme curvature. That had to be rough on the draft gear. However, my choice for the most pleasant run for an engine crew would have to be the FEC's Key West Extension, Miami to Key West, Florida. Absolutely beautiful ocean vistas and breezes from the bridge crossings, not particularly high speeds, not a lot of traffic to contend with, and even the engines were oil burners! How could you beat it. Too bad it ended so tragically in 1935. I think the only serious mishap during its 23 years was a boiler explosion that killed no one. My father was a railfan almost since the turn of the century and he rode to Key West as a passenger many times and loved it. Once in 1928, for a pair of wrestling match tickets, he rode in the cab of a 4-8-2 from Key West to Miami. He said it was one of the best bargains he ever made in his life (and he lived to be 101).
the Mahanoy Plane was used to haul loaded anthracite coal cars up out of the valley to Frackville, PA using one of the largest stationary steam engines around the turn of the 20th century before being replaced with a tunnel.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
I would say it has to be Kicking horse pass around the area know as Big Hill. The mainline had a grade 4.5% or 4.4%. This CPR line was replaced with the spiral tunnels after just 25 years of use.
I'd have to give it to Saluda. Not for the going up, but the coming down. In the steam era without dynamics.
jim
Mheetu I would say it has to be Kicking horse pass around the area know as Big Hill. The mainline had a grade 4.5% or 4.4%. This CPR line was replaced with the spiral tunnels after just 25 years of use.
Ha! Mheetu beat me to it! Well done, sir!
Multiple manned and signalled escape tracks, nasty curved grades; there are still wrecks to be found nearby, 110 years after the Hill was decommissioned. I've often wondered if Field Station kept an extra supply of clean underwear for the brakemen...
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
Donner for the snow. Feather River canyon for the rocks...they (UP & BNSF) still use hi-railers (Broncos in days gone by) to lead trains through the roughest streches. It's an awfully beautiful route though. Used to run it 4 or 5 times a week back in the day. Only 1% compensated but dangerous none the less...
WP Lives
STEVE WERSING I can think of quite a few routes that would have been tough. The Western Maryland had some runs that used up to seven heavy 2-8-0's because of the extreme curvature. That had to be rough on the draft gear.
I can think of quite a few routes that would have been tough. The Western Maryland had some runs that used up to seven heavy 2-8-0's because of the extreme curvature. That had to be rough on the draft gear.
That woud be the Blackwater Canyon on the WM. The run from Elkins to Thomas was quite difficult. Sometimes they used 7 or more 2-8-0's. I have seen some short sniplets of video that had 7 of them.