N&W vs. ACL

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

O. K. Fellows,  You can pull the fangs out for heaven's sake.   Even an idiot
like me knows that the ACL is built on flatter terrain  than the N&W, and we
are comparing apples and oranges here.   Boy, when you step into this crowd,
you draw back a nub.   Lighten up a little boys, life is not that serious.
I have a
query for Ed King.   On the ACL 1800 4-8-4's,  the front drivers were
furnished with   lateral motion driving boxes  which shortened the  rigid
whelbase of the locomotive to  13 feet 10 inche4s.   The Prince book on the
N&W
did not divulge the rigid wheelbase on a "J" class locomotive.  Explain why
it would not have been possible to operate an 1800 over the N&W mainline
between Norfolk and Cincinnati?     Were there dcurves that could not be
negotiated  with a 13 foot 10 inch rigid wheelbase?   If so, that is truly a
corkscrew railroad.   As for the "purple people eaters" on  "Auntie's
Clothsline
Railroad", N&W's Stuart Saunders could hardly wait to get his hands on
some of them and bump those wonderful J's to the scrap line. Tell me I'm
wrong about that little detail.   Bill Sellers