double heading two or more steam engines

[locoeddy]

how does the engineer match wheel speed with the other engine so he is working as hard but pulling his share, what does he feel.

[challenger3980]

When the engineer in the "In Charge" Locomotive whistled a proceed signal both would open their throttles, and adjust to avoid wheel slip. Engineers work assigned territories, and would often be use to working together, they often would know how another engineer would operate his Locomotive, and know what to expect from the other engineer, and would work together. That being said, there were cases where an engineer might "baby" his own Locomotive, and NOT pull his own share, but rather let the other Locomotive pull a disproportiante part of the load. This would be another case where an experienced engineer would realise what was going on, and later there could be a bit of a heated discussion about that subject.

                                                        Doug

[txhighballer]

It would depend on several factors,the main one being the lead engineer. He will whistle off,then the second engineer will and they start pulling together. Knowledge of the railroad,tonnage and the skills of the individual engineers makes it happen. I',ve only seen it done a few times and that's what seems to occur.

[henry6]

Manual and mental skills.  "Feeling" the locomotive and the train in your seat.  Listening to the sounds of each locomotive.  Listen to the sounds of your train. Listen for and obey whistle signals. Be one with your locomotive and train.  Know your railroad like the back of your hand, virtually be able to do it with your eyes closed.  Know your time table and your book of rules and everthing else your employer has taught you and know what you can ignore or disregard to make it happen right. Rely on yourself because everybody else, and everything that happens, does.

[wjstix]

The difficulty would be particularly high when the second engine was a helper was at the back of the train, rather than two engines double-heading up front together. If the rear engine should lag while the front one accelerated, it could pull out a drawbar in mid-train somewhere. In the days of wood cars, if the front engine made an emergency stop, the rear engine might smash thru some cars before stopping.

[daveklepper]

If you are running a helper, in addition to listening for everything else, you pay particular attention to listening for slack action.