Them Ol' Steem injines

[NW Mailing List]

Here are two more for you steam performance guys to consider.

The 2184 is coming around the curve at Walton Tower with a 10,000+ ton coal train.  The 2179 is the pusher on the same train.

The “84” dropped down the mountain out of Bluefield and then went to work, lifting that train up the New River’s .2 per cent grade at between 29 and 32 MPH.  It was necessary for it to put 5,500 horsepower on the drawbar to accomplish this.  Then she, with the help of an identical sister, will have no problem lifting this train up to Christiansburg on Alleghany’s 1 per cent grade – they’re rated for 5,150 tons each.

Now, these two engines are capable of putting 332,000 pounds of low-speed drawbar pull (and/or push) to get this job done.  I remember one double which had to get its pusher east of Walton Tower on the grade itself.  It was raining.  The train was in several curves and on the grade and the two Y’s got her moving, and on up the grade she went.  That job took every ounce of the 332,000 pounds.

Now consider putting other locomotives in that position.  The two Triplexes would have done it, but neither would have made the mountain without stopping to blow up steam.  Two Virginian AE 2-10-10-2s would have done it, but one of them would have maybe made 15 MPH coming up the river.  Two Big Boys didn’t have enough low-speed oomph to get this train up the mountain; Big Boy was rated for 4,800 tons on one percent.  An H-8 could have brought the train up the river that fast, but it would have taken more than two of them to get it over the Mountain.  So pick your favorite and do the math.

Two more cents . . .

EdKing

 

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