Mountain Railroad'in!

That's a step back in time for sure, not only in the equipment, but in the railroading.  I like the last scene, where the rear-end Brakeman has turned the angle cock on the caboose and is holding up the cut lever, both by use of the packing hook.  The pusher Engineer slowly backs off, allowing the slack to run out gently, and then -- Pow!! -- the train separates from the pusher, which goes into emergency braking due to the open angle cock on the front.  Then a crew member dismounts and closes the angle cock so the Engineer can reset the PC switch and recover brake pipe pressure.

Depending on the makeup of the pusher crew, that employee could be the Engineer, Fireman, or a pilot from the Conductor or Brakeman board.  If it is the Engineer, then the Fireman was running the engine.

Good stuff, Ed.

Whoa... only been retired from railroading since April 20... and THAT video really makes me homesick for railroading. As soon as the crew's started talking, the RR-ing memories started flooding me! (Their dialect is very similar to the Ozarklahoma dialect you hear around my parts.) Looking back, I feel I was so very fortunate to be a part of railroading before the nanny state of railroading gained so much control. Many are the times I've shoved trains in the same manner (cutting off on the fly/etc).

Thanks a bunch Ed for that post.

Andre

EDIT: Typo - Typed "here" instead of "hear"... what a maroon.

Neat video Ed; thanks for posting!

I used to really like that Chessie paint scheme when I’d see them running through Pittsburgh and west along the Ohio River on the P&LE.

Curt

Thanks Ed. Makes me appreciate again the effort trainmen go through to safely get over the mountain.

I even got a kick out of that lone old offset side B&O hopper, which was surely serving out the last days of it's time hauling coal!

Ed

LUUUUUVE those Allegheny accents!

Love that name, "Dagwood"!  

Yeah, "Dagwood and Squirrel"....I use to have an old friend that worked on the Big Sandy Division, he was short, thin, with a Pot belly, so someone, and I don't know who it was, started calling him "Wormie"....Pi**ed him off to know end, and that only made it worse...Lol... !

You know, if the manufacturers have to do cab chatter (on diesels, it's anathema for steam!), it would be better to use conversations like this.  As silly as it may seem at first blush, it makes much more sense that the drivel you hear on O scale engines, and it's much more interesting.

In the video, did I hear correctly that the pusher 8572 would quit working (loading up) if the speed got above 25 mph? Thank you.

Dan Weinhold

Lancaster, PA.

That is correct Sleepmac.

Wouldn't make the needed transition in order to continue delivering usable amps.

Andre

Andre, thank you.

Dan

sleepmac posted:

In the video, did I hear correctly that the pusher 8572 would quit working (loading up) if the speed got above 25 mph? Thank you.

Dan Weinhold

Lancaster, PA.

Transition problems were just one of the many troublesome traits/conditions discovered by Chessie after the SD50's were delivered. There were times when they were new and operated in consists entirely made up of SD50s, all units would make transition so close together they would literally tear trains in two (train separations, due to coupler/knuckle failure caused by rapid changes in slack). The new electronics including the digital controlled speed indicator (which governed other functions also)and RADAR controlled wheel slip system were just a part of the overall problem with the model.  As testimony to other reliability issues associated with the SD50s, most, if not all were rebuilt and horsepower rating downgraded many years ago. For whatever reason, they just didn't seem to have the muscle they should have had. Like the GP38s, they seemed to give up on accelerating with even a light train around the 46-50 MPH range.  Their only saving grace from most engineers perspective were they were new and had an excellent dynamic brake (which Chessie was mandating to be used instead of stretch braking for fuel conservation). 

What strikes me most about the video is how railroading was on the verge of change when it was taken. The "new" SD50s locomotives are not equipped with the now required "Ditch Lights". No rear of train telemetry here, full crews and cabooses are still the norm. Four men, possibly five, if there happens to be a fireman/student engineer are aboard on the coal train, with an engineer and flagman on the helper locomotive. All of this would be changed in the very near future. This brought back a lot of memories for me from the earlier years of my railroad career. 

Thanks for the link. Great post.

C.J.

C.J. Thank you. Great education on this topic.

Dan