Southern railroad SD24

[IA and eastern]

Southern railroad used to run sets of four SD24 on the Rathole line. What was the number of cars and or the tonnage of these trains. Gary

[oltmannd]

Looks like the ruling grade northbound is worse than southbound and is 1.25%.  An SD24 has min continuous TE of 73,200# at 9.3 mph.

So, four of them would be good for about 11,000 tons.  

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Trains had a couple of articles about the Rathole - 1 in the early 1960s, and another in the late 1970s or early 1980s, if I recall correctly.  The latter might have had a map with the basic details about each train, such as no. of units, tonnage, number of loads/ empties, etc.  I think it was called something like "The Beagle chasing the Rabbit", or vice-versa.  Unfortunately, the Magazine Index function here doesn't seem to be working now (and hasn't for several months), so I can't provide specific dates/ issues from that.  Instead, I suggest looking through the Annual Indexes - which start from 1980 forward - and which can be found here:

http://trn.trains.com/magazine/annual-index/2012/12/trains-magazine-annual-index 

- PDN.  

Edit: From https://www.american-rails.com/rathole-division.html  

(Thanks to "Into The Clear" piece by David P. Morgan from the January, 1964 issue of Trains and "As The Rabbit Chases The Beagle Up The Rathole" by Mike Iczkowski from the April, 1976 issue of Trains as primary references for this article.)

Details about the April 1976 issue can be found here:

http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?view=ViewIssue&issueId=6023 

From http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/153564/1697292.aspx?page=1 

 "Sometime I don't remember when SR went to the city of Cincinnati and got them to partially pay to daylight or expand the tunnels so they could carry double stacks. this resulted in an increase in their payments to the city. Anybody in Cinci know what they get each year from NS?  [emphasis added - PDN.] 

That's [improvements to the line] happened at least twice, I believe.  Once in the 1940's I think, and again most notably in the 1963-1964 era for sure.  See:

Into the clear 
Trains, January 1964 page 17 
photo essay on the rebuilding of the Rathole the CNO&TP 
( DIVISION, "MORGAN, DAVID P.",  PHOTO, SR, CONSTRUCTION, TRN )

As the Rabbit chases the Beagle up the Rathole  Trains, April 1976 page 22  Southern's Cincinnati-Chattanooga line  ( DIVISION, "ICZKOWSKI, MIKE", KENTUCKY, SR, TENNESSEE, TRN )

Hot Spots: Southern's Rathole  Trains, August 1989 page 60  Danville, Kentucky, to Oakdale, Tennessee  ( "HODUN, DON", HOTSPOT, MAP,  PHOTO, SR, TRN )

On location: Tough course for the Thoroughbreds  Trains, January 1995 page 72  Norfolk Southern's Cincinnati-Chattanooga Rathole line  ( "DANNEMAN, MIKE", DIVISION, KENTUCKY, NS, RAILFANNING, TENNESSEE, TRN )"

 

[Deggesty]

Yes, Paul "The Beagle Chasing the Rabbit" sounds right. However, I am unable to help you find it; my collection of the magazine before the middle of 2015 is at my daughter's house--and I do not want to ask her to find it.

Back then, Kalmbach published an index annually--and from time to time I would loook through such indices for a particular article.