Starting coal trains

[NW Mailing List]

They didn’t start these trains all at once; they took advantage of the slack in the cars (about a foot per car) as had been done everywhere from time immemorial.  If they got the pusher at Pepper after stopping with the train stretched, the road engine would (after he got the signal at the east end of Pepper siding) sit with his throttle about half open and whistle off.  The pusher would accept this as the signal to go, and would commence pushing the slack in.  When the pusher took up enough of the load, the road engine would start itself and then they’d both get them wide open.  I’ve stood on top of the bluff in the 2184 photo and listened to a “double”  get going, and could hear the road engine starting and across the bend in the river  the pusher going faster shoving in the slack 130 cars back – very intriguing.  If they started with the slack in, the pusher would sit with his throttle about half open and when the road engine took enough of the load, the pusher would start itself.  

The same held true if a double got his pusher east of the Walton interlocking.  He’d stop and the train would be stretched.  The road engine would sit with his throttle open; the pusher would couple up and whistle off and start pushing.  When he’d taken up enough of the load, the road engine would, as before, start itself.  Understand that when the engines were sitting with throttles open, they were on sand so they wouldn’t slip.

They used  pretty much the same technique with diesels, understanding that they couldn’t sit forever with the throttle open and the engine not moving because of the short time ratings of the traction motors, but they also had radio communications and could work it out.  In either case the object was to get the throttles wide open as quickly as they could.

These techniques also had to be used in the electric territory.  It had been a requirement of the LC-1s and 2s that they could withstand full throttle operation for five minutes with the engine sitting still, which they could because of the AC motors.

In all these instances, they took full advantage of the slack in the cars.  
 
Class A engines didn’t start the 16,000 ton trains at Williamson all at once.  They took full advantage of the slack, too.  And that practice was carried on in diesel days; faced with getting away from Williamson (and it was practically dead level) with two GP30s and a 20,000 ton train, there was no way you could start them with the slack stretched.  You jockeyed back and forth until you had them all coming, and then advanced the throttle as much as you could.  Starting them a car at a time was a lot easier than trying to start them all at once, as had been learned long ago.

EdKing


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