A What was typical for track speed for non-priority passenger and freight trains in the late 1800's? With a 12 hour day and a 100 mile district, it makes me think they weren't just flying down the track. Of course that 100 miles probably involved lots of stops. So as Marty McFly and Doc Brown head down the track on some grainger line, how fast were they going on a typical day?
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The priority around that time is likely to be that expressed by William H Vanderbilt (extracting the sense from the rhetoric) that you minimize the cost while you maximize 'shareholder value' -- this in an age with relatively few government requirements on crew cost or requirements, but perhaps strong local regulations or 'brotherhood' presence. There would be no particular reason to whiz for higher equipment utilization, and likely no practical alternative to railroad service for many types of traffic, and in at least some types of traffic the adoption of 'drag freight' operation -- locomotives loaded with as much as they could just pull, or even as much could be doubled or tripled expeditiously en route -- but a granger might only see this kind of traffic around harvest times. Passenger traffic of course requires schedule keeping but it could be interurban leisurely, with mail and express the same -- track and locomotive balancing being prime determinants of speed and water consumption being a secondary operations concern.
In the age before power braking, and in at least some of the 'transition' era with pass through hose compatibility, slower speed would reflect lower braking effort and slower net application as an economical number of brakemen worked their way from car to car.
Expect to see some advantages from 'mixed' train service at many times of year on lightly-trafficked lines.
Murphy Siding A What was typical for track speed for non-priority passenger and freight trains in the late 1800's? With a 12 hour day and a 100 mile district, it makes me think they weren't just flying down the track. Of course that 100 miles probably involved lots of stops. So as Marty McFly and Doc Brown head down the track on some grainger line, how fast were they going on a typical day?
So as Marty McFly and Doc Brown head down the track on some grainger line, how fast were they going on a typical day?
In the 19th Century railroads at 12 hour day was just a utopian dream. Until the 20th Century there was no Hours of Service regulations. Even when those regulations did come into existance, crews rested on their trains where they went on the law in most cases - there were no means of ground transportation, other than other trains, to move crews about.
The nominal 100 mile crew districts existed because that was about all a locomotive could operate without having serious, time consuming, maintenance performed on it. Hot journals were common, fuel and water were constant needs of the locomotive - tank towns were a reality because they had a water tank.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Lots of 1880s - 1890s Off Guides linked at naotc.org -- you can calculate start-to-stop schedule speeds. Don't think any of the pre-1900 empl timetables I've seen listed speed limits; suspect few passenger trains needed to exceed 50 mph to keep their schedules.
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