Operations along the Valley Line between Stuarts Draft and Hagerstown from 1979 and 1981

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Fri Mar 29 09:46:17 EDT 2013


On 3/28/2013 10:29 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

> but on those unit coal trains going up the Shenandoah Div.,

> to Hagerstown, it wasn't unusual to exceed the ratings by as much as

> 1800 tons.Taking into account

> the load meter, I think it's known as "operating in the red".

Harry,
I know of only one time that the over tonnage was actually
mentioned, although you could tell many a time the train wasn't pulling
as it should. Many a time those old GE's would just crap out with "Hot
Diodes". You would have to stop on the hill, let them cool down and then
go a little farther. It wasn't unusual to have to stop two or three
times between Pkin and Lofton to cool down the diodes. We were glad when
those things went to the scrap yard!
I have probably mentioned this before, but, the one time that I
know we were way over tonnage was on a double coal train with a set of
three SD40-2's. It was a bit slow, however, those engines never slipped
a bit and over the hills we went. On arrival in Shenandaoh, the clerk
asked if we knew how much tonnage we had? We had no idea. I can't
remember the exact figure, but, the clerk said it was between 2000-2500
tons over. That was a good set of units!
I know of another time when a coal train didn't even make to Four
Mile Crossing. That day it had been raining to beat the band. The crew
had struggled with the train past North Roanoke and looking back going
down through the dip at Tinker Creek they could see water sloshing out
of the tops of the cars. They stalled out before Four Mile Crossing and
had to back into the yard to reduce tonnage.

Jimmy Lisle
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