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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by feltonhill trainjunky29, Thanks for the title. I'd forgot about the reference. For those who don't have the book, it's an impressive looking thing, with various chapters written by well-known railroad history authors. The chapter you cited, Hard Times, was written by H. Roger Grant, author of several railroad history books outside Rails Across America. Currently Professor of History at Clemson, too. However, he makes one step into technical material and stubs his toe. Probably believed something he read along the way somewhere and didn't stop to check it out. I'm surprised that it got past the consulting editor, Bill Withuhn. In a larger sense, how does one combat this sort of misinformation? Book looks good, prestigious writers, what chance do any of us lesser mortals have against that? Why, you can easily imagine people looking down their noses and saying, "How do you know more than he does? You're not an author!" Yep, he who publishes first wins. Just one more example of how hype keeps going, and going, and going...... [/quote] The other thing is that steam locomotives could in reality do some incredible things--a class A hauling 160 cars on the level, an FEF-3 cruising at 100 just 10 miles out of a station stop, etc. It's hard to know where the capabilities end and the misinformation begins. When you see a book like Rails Across America, with the aforementioned prestigous and authoratative looks, you tend not to question it. Equations help, but they are not perfect, nor are the measurements of a locomotive's tractive effort, horsepower, etc. And just to make matters worse, there are so many numbers floating around for horsepower on big locomotives that agreeing on what is larger in one area is itself difficult. Sincerely, Daniel Parks
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