PRR EF-36 SD45 (10-1966) is listed at 389,000 lbs. The EF-30a SD40 (1-1966) is listed in PRR diagrams at 391,000 lbs. I guess that makes the SD45 -1 ton "heavier". Source prr.railfan.net. The SD45 got an extra 100 lbs of tractive effort (82,100 vs 82,000), despite being lighter.
How is that possible? Better wheel-slip control? Or different gear ratio?
I intentionally phrased it as a trick question - in part to see how folks would react when they found out. As Bugs might say, Interestin', isn't it?
Hahn (where I got this tidbit) says it is because the SD40s were ballasted more, probably similar to the current generation of 'heavy' locomotive versions. Yes, I suspect improvements in wheelslip control (Hahn also went into detail on how bad synchronous slip on GP30s could be) might account for the absence of similar ballasting - as could a desire to lessen the perceived drawback of the SD45's higher specific fuel consumption by showing it is 'lighter' to move more train for its nominal tonnage rating.
Hahn lists the SD40 at 390,000 and not 391,000 which makes me wonder if some of them received equipment after construction that increased their weight 'enough' to make the Britherhoods or whoever interested enough to adjust the weight number.
Both classes had the same gear ratio, expressed by PRR as 62:15 ('permissible top speed' over 70mph).
The tractive effort number is calculated, not measured, so the horsepower difference may account for the higher number despite the lower weight. I doubt that EMD made much better wheelslip control available in the 9 months that elapsed between the SD40 and SD45 deliveries.
From http://evilgeniustech.com/IdiotsGuideToRailRoadPhysics/HorsepowerAndTractiveEffort/
After converting units you get
T = 370 * (nP/V)
T is tractive effort in pounds
n is a 0-1 multiplier for unit efficiency (about .82 for SD40/SD45)
P= horsepower
V is velocity in MPH (calculated at 11.1 MPH)
The tractive effort calculation gets n =.82 for an SD40, .684 for an SD45. This is pretty consistent with what other railroads found, which is why SD45s tended to get moved away from drag service.
Hard to believe that SD40/45s are already over 50 years old...
A joint track arrangement existed in the early 1900s that even then had been around for a couple of decades. Just before WW I one of the railroads thought about how to break it, and give itself a competitve advantage. To do this, the railroad would have had to build about 15 miles of track to connect its portion of the joint line to the rest of its system, bypassing the section owned by the other railroad. The project was an early NIMBY victim, for though it was surveyed completely, property owners balked at settling, particularly at one end where the line would have run through a politically well connected artists' colony. The financial difficulties after 1914 doomed it completely. The original arrangement remained in place until 1970, a modified version until 1987, and a remnant of the joint track arrangement remains to this day. Name the two railroads and the artists' colony.
I think the railroads are the AT&SF and the DRG&W, the Denver - Pueblo Joint Line, with the Pueblo Creative Center or Corridor the artists colony.
No, it's a little further east than that. The Joint Line does have an interesting history, right up to gun batles, but it was always (or at least mostly) between the railroads, and not the landowners.
The artists' colony included several nationally known illustrators, a novelist, and close friends of the then-President, who made the colony his summer White House for a couple of years. The right-of-way would have skirted what is now a National Historic Site named after an internationally famous sculpter who died just as the planning was getting under way.
Well, I'll help the matter along; the colony was in part founded by the man commemorated in the NHS, Augustus St. Gaudens of gold-coin fame; the colony was at Cornish, NH, and the summer White House was owned by a Winston Churchill ... just not the famous British PM.
Railroads are likely as not the B&M and the CV, but I have no idea about the connecting line and so will hand it over to someone with better knowledge.
OvermodRailroads are likely as not the B&M and the CV, but I have no idea about the connecting line and so will hand it over to someone with better knowledge.
I'm going to take that as a complete answer. The B&M and CV shared the Conn River Line as a result of an incredibly complex bunch of leases and stock transactions. At the turn of the 20th Century the line consisted of the following segments north of the junction between the CV's line to New London and the B&M's line to Greenfield and Springfield:
E. Northfield - Brattleboro VT via Hinsdale NH B&M (Ashuelot Railroad)
E. Northfield - Brattleboro VT via Vernon VT CV (Vermont and Massachusetts)
Brattleboro -Bellows Falls VT B&M (Vermont Valley)
Bellows Falls-Windsor VT via Charlestown and Claremont NH B&M (Sullivan RR)
Windsor -White River Jct VT CV (Vermont Central)
The names in parentheses are the original owners, though ownership was not a straight line in some cases. The line was operated as paired track between E. Northfield and Brattleboro, northbound via B&M, southbound via CV (except for one train that carried northbound mail). Line was operated under B&M rulebook, and dispatched by B&M, even the CV-owned sections.
Around 1910 someone at the B&M figured out that if the B&M built a line from Cornish NH, just across the bridge from Windsor, up Blow-Me-Down Brook through the village of Meriden (town of Plainfield NH) and down Great Brook to a connection with the B&M's own Northern RR line from Boston in the town of Lebanon NH, trains could run all the way from Springfield to White River Jct on B&M rails. Keep in mind that the B&M ran all the way to Stanstead Quebec at the time, and considered CV's Grand Trunk ownership a real threat.
Of course the whole project came unstuck. Even before CV dropped the Southern New England scheme money was getting tight, and trying to fight Woodrow Wilson's personal friend Winston Churchill (the novelist) and his associates was a non-starter. The line would not have been all that easy to operate - there is a 1.5% ascending grade out of White River Jct towards Lebanon that was a helper district in steam days.
The joint/paired arrangement remained unchanged until B&M's bridge at E. Northfield had a complete abutment failure in 1970, and all trains began to use the CV in both directions. In 1987 CV got ownership when Amtrak sued B&M for reducing maintanence to near zero. Successor New England Central still plays host to Pan Am (B&M) trains running on trackage rights granted in the 1987 settlement. Today's Conn River is CTC-signalled with a 79 MPH speed limit, far greater than the 50 MPH max on the line in B&M and CV days.
Great information rcdrye. New England railroading has always been a bit of a confusing mystery to me. My understanding has advanced considerably with these questions and answers over time.
Now if someone can explain railroading in the Deep South in ten million words or less that would be a start.
Miningman Great information rcdrye. New England railroading has always been a bit of a confusing mystery to me. My understanding has advanced considerably with these questions and answers over time. Now if someone can explain railroading in the Deep South in ten million words or less that would be a start.
The Southern served the South--along with the ACL, SAL, L&N, CG, GA, WPRte, GM&O, FEC, and a little bit of the Frisco. The C&O and N&W were Pocohontas District roads that served Virginia.
Johnny
Deggesty- Well of course I know the birds eye view picture but Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana always look like a birds nest of trackage. The East to West routes and all their intersections and lots of smaller short lines. Of course this isn't the place to do that.
Maybe start a thread "The South explained A-Z!
Miningman Maybe start a thread "The South explained A-Z!
Better make some sweet tea first, and lots of it!
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70M-2Dude Miningman Maybe start a thread "The South explained A-Z! Better make some sweet tea first, and lots of it!
When I was taking the Organic Qual course in college, one of my unknowns was citric acid. At the time I did use sugar and lemon in my tea, so after I determined what it was, I took the leftover citric acid to the dining hall (in a 50 ml. Erlenmyer flask), and used it in place of lemon juice until it was all gone.
Now thats an accident waiting to happen. ChemLab 101...never ever use any flask of any kind as a drinking or storage vessel.
How do you tell liquid cyanide from water....you cannot.
Cyanide made me think of this:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.4417898/man-treated-for-cyanide-poisoning-from-apricot-kernels-says-selling-them-like-nuts-is-nuts-1.4417904
and OM, the question?
MiningmanHow do you tell liquid cyanide from water....you cannot.
Au contraire - you can tell quite easily. But by the time you do, it may be too late... Death is ever vigilant, and his friend Finagle loves to help out.
I confess I'd expect there would be more in an organic qual sample than just one comparatively simple unknown... part of the lesson being taught in differential diagnosis that combinations of unknown compounds rule out whole families of others. An important reminder, though, is that chemically pure ethyl alcohol is not something to treat the same way you did the citric acid!
Part of railroading in the Deep South involves penury, another part involves various levels of corruption and carpetbagging, later another part involved empire-building and collusion. I am still a bit sick at heart that the 150mph straight route north through Louisiana and Mississippi was never built. THAT would have become an interesting railroad corridor today. Likewise the result if Scott of the PRR had finalized his plan to consolidate southern railroading, and someone like Cassatt then engaged in systematic strategic construction and physical improvements...
You know what? I can't take credit for that answer; every bit of the critical information was stuff I didn't know. I say rcdrye should ask another.
That's a hard bar to jump over! Here's another New England railroading question.
This shortline's daily (except Saturday night) Pullman ran from New York to what, even now, is a place frequented by the rich and famous. It was discontinued because a change required by a New York City ordinance would have made it impossible to continue. By the time the condition was corrected the former Pullman passengers had either gotten used to the line's coach or had hired chauffer-driven cars. The "fix" remained in service until the line was abandoned in the 1930s (with occasional private car traffic) and then re-used - it's still in use today at an important scenic spot.
Railroad and approximate year. This was well documented in a small book by an author who wrote a bunch of similar books about New England short lines.
Narraganset Pier Railroad, Kingston - Narraganset Pier. The two sleepers they owned were wood.
The last passenger service was as steel-wheeled blue school-bus hauling or pushing a four-wheeled utility trailer. Rode it. Ran backward one way.
I think they also had a GE 44-ton to move freight cars. Rode it winter 1949-1950. Rode the New Haven Boston - Kingston and return.
May find the negatives some day.
The shortline could have handled steel cars after 1911... What changed?
Possibly neither the Owl nor (later) the Federal stopped at Kingston anymore, or the NYNH&H did not have a night switchers available to remove the car and attach it, or there may not have been any place to keep the sleeper on heat and power at Naragansett, or the track layout at Kingston changed to make shifting a sleeper a more complex operation.
None of those had anything to do with the NYC ordinance, and the change the railroads (esp. NYNH&H) made to respond to it. You need to get away from the coast...
Wouldn't have anything to do with gas lighting, would it?
The short line was not the Narraganset Pier and was away from the coast?
It wsn't the Naragansett Pier. Even after the Pullman was dropped, the line lasted int the late 1930s running to a town noted for wealthy residents. The "fix" that would have allowed the Pullman to resume is still in service, though not for railroad purposes.
"Late Thirties" immediately makes me think of the Fall River Line boat train for some reason.
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