Dis anybody on this list run this Texas? How did she run?
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I didn't run it, but I did ride it on a trip it made on the N&W in 1977. It had all the power in the world, but suffered a hot lead truck journal and didn't make the whole trip.
It rode well at the speeds I was on it; not too fast because of going up a mountain.
I don't think the engine was ever right after it was restored, suspension-wise. It was down at the front. You reference such things by noting the location of the piston rod and comparing it with the center line of the driving axles. The piston rod was below that line when it should have been on that line or slightly above it, depending on design, and I think that was the cause of the hot lead truck journals - too much weight in the front.
It was a MAN, though; on the trip from Roanoke to Bluefield, on Alleghany Mountain's 1.3% with 22 cars she found a good lugging speed about 25 MPH or a skosh more. She blew out her fire in Montgomery Tunnel, and staggered out into the clear. Bill Purdie relit her fire. After getting steam back up, within a mile she was back up at that lugging speed after starting that train on the grade.
At the east end of Bluefield Yard, there is a sharp crossover to get from the westbound main over to the track to the passenger depot. This is all on a 1.7% grade; she got down on her knees and walked them through the ctossover and right on up the mountain to the depot she went.
I'd never seen a T&P Texas before; I was impressed with that one.
EdKing
The front truck overheating problem was finally solved by shaving a bit off the inside surface of the axle boxes to provide more sideplay. On the Independece Ltd trip one year the key that holds the piston rod to the crosshead dissapeared between Knoxville and Newport, TN. Upon starting in Newport the piston slammed foward and cracked the front cylinder head. This was about 3 in the afternoon. By 2 AM in a thunderstorm the head had been removed, welded and remounted. Bill woke Newport up as we left, as he sounded the whistle from one end of town to the other. Made it to Asheville and left on time the next morning for Salisbury.
I was in the diner when the fire blew out in the tunnel. When I saw Bill and the rest of the crew in Bluefield they were covered in soot. Bill took his hat off and was black below but that silver hair shown where the cap covered.
A big engine but better suited for straight and flat in Texas.
George Lasley
