Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Old Timer, I think some eastern steam fans, including the Ed King article in Classic Trains don't really understand what the Western railroads were doing. It's true that the Northerns, Challengers, Big Boys, and Yellowstones were designed to haul a certain sized train over a particular ruling grade at a certain speed without double-heading, but there was a lot more involved in how these locos were used than just dragging tonnage up a short hill. An important factor was greatly extended engine runs, which meant the loco had to get over all the intermediate sized grades without helpers at timetable speeds. Many of the Western roads have somewhat rollercoaster profiles with long gentle grades both uphill and down. On the Northern Pacific for example, the modern roller-bearing Northerns reduced engine change points from 7 with the old Pacifics to 1 between St Paul and Livingston. At Livingston, they were sent back after a 4 hour turn-around. Challengers on the U.P ran all the way across Wyoming. Others ran on the line from Green River to Portland. They did get helpers or were double-headed on the ruling grade but handled the train the rest of the way. Because the western grades were often so long, dealing with slow moving helpers like the Y-classes was a problem because what goes up must come down. They either had to be run all the way across the division or run them light back a long way downhill. During WW-II U.P. acquired some compound & non-compound articulateds from the Eastern roads. They tried them as helpers on the Wyoming grades and they ended up tying up the line getting back down. Big Boys and Challengers did run at high speed downhill, the mallets couldn't do that without tearing up the track and themselves. Even with diesels the Western roads try to avoid helpers. U.P. had tried mallet compound 2-8-8-0''s earlier but they ended up in helper service on the Oregon grades after being simpled and had the original 57" driver tire size increased from 3 to 5 inches. That experiment lead to the 4-12-2 which had 3 cylinders, 67" drivers, 4300 hp, 96,000 TE, and could pull the same trrain as the mallets at double the speed. Of course that engine would be no more suitable on an Eastern coal-drag as the mallets were on the western grades. [:)] [:)] Also consider that the western roads were hauling a lot more perishables than coal, so getting the trains over the road was more important than dragging every freight car an engine could pull out of the yard. And most of them were quite profitable [:)]
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag