Them Ol' Steem injines

[NW Mailing List]

Well now, that's pretty good stuff but let's put some numbers (estimated, very estimated) on that.
Tractive effort, 2 Y6's - 332,000 lbsDrawbar pull (that which does the work) - 311,600 lbsTotal train resistance at zero mph - 258,026 lbsStarting margin - 53,574 lbsPiece of cake, right?  Not so.There's starting inertia to consider, and overcoming that would take every pound of DBPull from the Y6's and every ounce of skill from both engineers to get things underway, on the grade, in the rain, or any other time, for that matter, without breaking something.
Using the same estimating method (Davis equations), the whole assemblage would make about 11 mph up the hill.  I believe Ed told me some years ago that the actual speed was about 12 mph, give or take, so it looks like the estimating method is passable. 

Ed, how did they manage to get those trains started using slack in their favor??
Dave Stephenson

      From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
 To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> 
 Sent: Friday, August 14, 2015 3:10 PM
 Subject: Them Ol' Steem injines
   
I'm attaching a poor photo I made in the summer of 1957 of Y-6b 2180, the highest numbered Roanoke-assigned Mallet.  He's running by Seven Mile Ford with the 34 cars of time freight 88, and he's doing 45 MPH.  I made the photo out of the back seat of a car pacing him.  The Engineer was A. T. Holland.

It should be understood that there was never another Mallet, ever, anywhere, that would run like this.  88 is not coming out of a dip.  He's been on level or slightly ascending track ever since leaving Glade Spring after setting off cars for the Saltville Branch.  All of Roanoke's refinements are working here - everything the Mechanical Engineers learned after putting the Y-2 on the road in 1918.  Not the least of these is the counterbalancing - the engineer is obviously not experiencing a bad ride.  You say what's the point?  There were many engines, including the J, that would move this train that fast there.  But the point is that none of the other engines were compounds.  None.

Now shift your attention to Link's Mockingbird recording which depicts Y-6 2146 bringing tonnage into Glade Spring on the Saltville Branch.  The engineer is obviously running the engine standing up so he could handle the throttle more quickly and easily.  The "46" actually slips still at one point, but starts moving again and gets the train over the hill and into Glade.

Understand that about the only other reciprocating steam locomotive that could have gotten this job done might have been Virginian's AE 2-10-10-2. The Triplexes might have done it but would have had to stop and blow up steam several times.  But Big Boy wouldn't have done it; H-8 wouldn't have done it; no Yellowstone would have done it; GN's big 2-8-8-2 wouldn't have done it . . .

And the 2146 was capable of doing the same thing the 2180 was doing in the photograph.

So let's keep things in perspective.  Here was a locomotive with the boiler the size of that of a big 4-8-4 doing jobs that no other locomotive could have done, at least not as economically.

Just my two cents . . .

EdKing

Moderator:
 http://nwhs.org/mailinglist/2015/20150814.NW_2180_Seven_Mile_Ford_Summer_1957.jpg

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