John R Crosby, author, Penn Central engineer

[7fdl]

Hi fellow Train Nuts

I recently discovered a wonderful article by the late John R Crosby, that described his adventures as a Penn Central engineer on the Fort Wayne Divison in the early 1970s.

Crosby is a fun writer, and as a former Chicagoan, I got a chuckle or two about PC trains back in that era getting Police escort when exiting some South Side yards and the train crew doing battle with the local bandits only armed with a wrench or lighted railroad flare!

I believe there might be another companion article from the old July 1972 Trains that has Crosby writing about being a road foreman on some coal trains with SD45 power.

Would some kind souls out there snap a few iPhone pictures of that 1972 article if you have it?  It's probably not very long, I would be in your debt.

thanks, and stay safe at Home reading some nice train stories!

Jonas

[matthewsaggie]

Please share your original article with us.

[Overmod]

I was not quite as enamored of Mr. Crosby after he attempted to say that PRR T1s had 120mph speedometers as a key detail in one of his stories ...

[samfp1943]

OK!  It is Saturday, and it's raining here....Time to kick this can of worms down the railfan road!

"...How Fast was the Pennsy T-1....?   "  It was so fast... it would suck the trash out of the ditch on BOTH sides of the railroad..."   

To start the ball rolling; a couple of You Tube videos:

"PRR T-1 Duplex Top Speed 140mph (Volume 1)"

@https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6z_CBnzE7E  

PRR T-1 (volumn 2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6z_CBnzE7E

Then there was the PRR S-1  9127 mph to 156mph)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-0-Ex6LH2g

and if you want to investigate further.. There are plenty of other railroad's speedsters to check out.  

The you can check out the 10 Fastest Steam Locomotives [Not my list, but intersting!]  Enjoy!

@   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5O-g5r3YnY

 

 

[zugmann]

Overmod

I was not quite as enamored of Mr. Crosby after he attempted to say that PRR T1s had 120mph speedometers as a key detail in one of his stories ...

I mean, teh GP38s I use have 80mph speedometers.  Don't know if they could hit that if you pushed one over a cliff?

[Overmod]

The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

The speedometers on PRR T1s only go to 100.  Even the S1's only went to 110.  I won't know until the one for 5550 is replicated exactly how far the needle on a Jones-Motrola goes before it 'pegs' internally but I suspect not that far.

Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

[Flintlock76]

Overmod

Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

Yeah, I remember that myself, but honestly I don't ever remembering anyone I knew pushing their car that fast.

Unless it was on Route 80 in New Jersey on a Saturday night, but that's another story.  

I wouldn't try it with the Hyundai Accent I'm driving now!  I don't even like pushing it past 75!  

[jeffhergert]

I believe the original was called "Extra Board Diaries."  The other something like the "Day in the life of a Road Foreman."  There was also a fictional story, probably using experiences from early in his career, about firing the second engine on a double headed passenger train.

I have the magazines, but there all boxed and in storage for a month or two due to moving.

Jeff

matthewsaggie

Please share your original article with us.

 

[zugmann]

Overmod

The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

I don't even understand the issues you are having. 

[Backshop]

Overmod

I was not quite as enamored of Mr. Crosby after he attempted to say that PRR T1s had 120mph speedometers as a key detail in one of his stories ...

 

Yes, but he had decades of real world experience and all of us mere mortals make occasional errors.

[Backshop]

jeffhergert

I believe the original was called "Extra Board Diaries."  The other something like the "Day in the life of a Road Foreman."  There was also a fictional story, probably using experiences from early in his career, about firing the second engine on a double headed passenger train.

I have the magazines, but there all boxed and in storage for a month or two due to moving.

Jeff

Those were some of my favorite stories and I've never understood why Classic Trains has never reprinted them in one of their special issues.

[Flintlock76]

Backshop

Those were some of my favorite stories and I've never understood why Classic Trains has never reprinted them in one of their special issues.

Maybe they need a reminder of their existance?  There's a lot of stuff in the Kalmbach library, and with no one on staff today (probably) who remembers them from the first go 'round...

Send an e-mail to Bob McGonigal, the "CT" editor bringing it to his attention.  He does read his e-mails and does respond to the thoughtful ones, trust me.

[e-mail]  

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

Yeah, I remember that myself, but honestly I don't ever remembering anyone I knew pushing their car that fast.

You just knew the wrong people ... or they had the wrong cars. 

I still remember driving on the Palisades Interstate Parkway (top down, beautiful day) with my best friend in high school, back in the upright, 10-and-2, watch-your-mirrors-and-obey all speed limits days  -- the stuff that most new drivers swear they'll always observe.  This was at the then limit of 50mph.  I mentioned to him in passing that my father had once said he'd gotten the Thunderbird over 120mph, but of course it was an old car now ... he said something to the effect that 'we could always try to see how fast it would go' -- and so I gently pressed on the accelerator.  Car went smoothly up to 75 - then 80 - then 90 - then 115 - then up over 120, and I lifted my foot off the accelerator and we went back down to 50 and motored on...

Unless it was on Route 80 in New Jersey on a Saturday night, but that's another story.

A girlfriend's father had an AMX, which we borrowed one evening.  I think we made it to the Water Gap and back in something like an hour. But that is not where the fast driving ever was -- in those halcyon days too soon for the fascist enforcement of the double nickel, just as Rt. 22 in Union was the true haunt of the Jersey Driver, the place of high speed was the Turnpike.  Everyone everywhere went 100mph or better, even the police working traffic in those King Kong 460 Police cruisers probably burning green gas then.  I knew my childhood was over when I was doing what I thought was a safe 105 in the middle lane and was PASSED by a whole family in a '68 Chevy station wagon... there were some giants in the earth in those days.  

Of course it isn't safe.  One of the very significant results of the Firestone 721 case was that the claim 'it had to be safe because otherwise my speedometer wouldn't read that high' was that automakers agreed and dropped it.  First the '76 Eldorado went to 100mph, then subsequent cars to 85.  And it worked!  We all got to appreciate that 65mph as on New Haven in the '40s was Really Moving, and 80 statutory-reckless-driving fast... and I had whole generations of cars that were never driven fast enough to reach their highest mileage in overdrive.  Still haven't entirely unlearned that now... but have happily nearly forgotten the days when the curve from west to south on the north loop of I240 in Memphis was a parking lot of marked and unmarked cars running relays of interdiction, just as I have nearly forgotten getting from my driveway in Englewood to being parked in Lot 22 in Princeton in 43 minutes. 

I wouldn't try it with the Hyundai Accent I'm driving now!  I don't even like pushing it past 75!

We have a 2016 Accent for my wife's business and it will happily go well over 100mph, so perhaps some Accents were built better than others.  Amazingly it was perfectly stable at that speed, even changing lanes in traffic.  It is a small car, but not a cheap one.

[Overmod]

Backshop

Yes, but he had decades of real world experience and all of us mere mortals make occasional errors.

Hence my problem.  With people of that caliber you bend over backward to find the exception that could justify what they said.  It was the same with Bill Withuhn when he said early in his career that PRR T1s went over 125mph, and by extension with Alfred Bruce when he hinted in print that Milwaukee As went faster -- perhaps quite a bit faster -- than 128mph.

[Flintlock76]

Overmod

You just knew the wrong people ... or they had the wrong cars. 

You had me on the floor, man!  'Scuse me while I pick myself up!

You want to have some fun?  Google "The Route 80 Rant Page" for some vicarious adventures on that major artery.  You'll love it, trust me!  

And no doubt your wifes Accent performs like it does, Accents are very  good cars indeed.  I should have qualified my statement, the Accent I've got will go past 80 MPH easily enough, I just don't like  to push it past 75.  I bought it for basic transportation, not a race car.  And the gas milage is pretty good too. 

[NKP guy]

   On our way to the beach in 1966 my buddy's F-85 hit 120mph on I-271 and was still accelerating when he regained his senses and slowed back down to the speed limit.

   By 1996 he was running a rubber extrusion & molding company.  He told me, "If I had known then what I know now about rubber I would never have gone that fast."

   Here endeth the lesson.

   

[Backshop]

1983--I had a brand new Kawasaki GPZ750.  I rode it from Detroit to Pensacola Beach in March to visit my brother.  He lived the last street before Gulf Islands NS started on Santa Rosa Island.  My bike had an 85mph speedometer but I knew what each 1000 of RPM in top gear was worth.  The Seashore road was smooth asphalt without any intersecting roads.  I nailed it and got up to 9600rpm in top gear.  When I got back to the house and pulled out the calculator and found out I'd hit 128mph.  Once was enough.

[7fdl]

matthewsaggie

Please share your original article with us.

 

send me a message (conversation), i will share a link where i found it on the web.

[tree68]

Backshop

Once was enough.

I'm sure a good many of us - especially those "of an age," have touched the century mark at least once, if for no other reason than to say we did...

Can't forget the story of a NY Central engineer, taking over a train at Harmon, being advised "do not arrive at Albany before..."

[ruderunner]

About 20 years ago I took my 69 Roadrunner for a late night blast on I 90. Car is equipped with a 150mph speedometer and I used most of it. 

The aero lift got pretty noticeable at 130.

[Juniata Man]

I remember reading a comment from a Georgia DOT official about 17 years ago regarding how they determined speed limits on the I285 Perimeter around Atlanta.  

His statement - perhaps liberally laced with sarcasm - was that GDOT set the speed limit at 55 in hopes the people who were going 80 would move to the right to allow those going 90 to pass.

[SD60MAC9500]

 

Overmod

The issue was like you saying you pushed a GP38 until you saw the needle hovering near 100mph.  

The speedometers on PRR T1s only go to 100.  Even the S1's only went to 110.  I won't know until the one for 5550 is replicated exactly how far the needle on a Jones-Motrola goes before it 'pegs' internally but I suspect not that far.

Meanwhile of course car speedometers commonly went to 120 and that would be a familiar number to drivers...

 

145 in a 96 Mustang GT 4.6L Only mod was flowmaster exhaust. This was done on marvelous St Clair Hwy. I know Backshop lives here in Michigan. So if he hasn't been down St Clair Hwy. at that speed. You'll know I wasn't in my right mind.. Not sure if I am now..

 

 

 

[tree68]

As long as we're telling stories - this was related to me by the medic on the call...

Ambulance enroute to the hospital - critical patient.  Driver was pouring the gas to it (big gas motor, before Diesels became common).

Medic noticed they were clipping along pretty good, so he called out to the driver "how fast are we going?"  

The reply:  "MPH."

Yep - the needle had gone all the way around the 120 MPH dial and was pointing at the MPH at the bottom of the display...

The medic advised the driver he could slow down substantially.

I spent my formative years in MI, but left for USAF after high school, so never really got a chance to ram the roads.

[jeffhergert]

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System 

[Murphy Siding]

jeffhergert

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System 

 

All I know is, "when that thing hits 88 m.p.h., you're going to see some serious sh.....shtuff".

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

You made a time machine out of a Delorean??

[BaltACD]

Murphy Siding

 

jeffhergert

I've seen a locomotive's speedometer (digital dial) hit 173mph many times.  It's when testing the Automatic Train Control on engines with a certain type of computer screen.  The ATC test drives the speedometer to certain speeds when performing the test.  It's first supposed go to 73 mph, the high speed setting, but often for a second will register 173 mph first.

On the pre-intergrated EMS*/PTC if the EMS was already engaged, the speed test drove the EMS and it's speedometer's accelerometer nuts when seeing the speed going from 0 to 73 (or 173). 

Jeff

*EMS = Energy Management System  

All I know is, "when that thing hits 88 m.p.h., you're going to see some serious sh.....shtuff".

Only if you can bring all those giggawatts of power to bear in the proper time frame.

[Overmod]

CSSHEGEWISCH

You made a time machine out of a Delorean??

Well, no, but if you can make one out of a steam locomotive, why not a dash-9 or rebuilt SD70 with appropriate electronics?  

Don't Canadian units already have coffeepots that could be switched out for Mr. Fusion easily when the technology is allowed out?

[tree68]

Overmod

Don't Canadian units already have coffeepots...

I believe they are teapots...  Microwaves and mini-fridges, too.  

[Overmod]

tree68

I believe they are teapots

If Mr. Coffee can furnish an Iced Tea Maker, surely Mr. Fusion can design a 'cold' fusion tea machine replacement ...