Pacing SY and repairs on the fly

The Knox & Kane 58 (now New Haven 3025 at the Valley Railroad in Connecticut) might disagree with you.  Knox & Kane was known to operate 14 car passenger trains during the fall color season.

I was up there in October 1999 on a very rainy day.  They had a diesel that day for assistance, but 2 days earlier in bright sunshine, it was the 58 solo.  Either way, the diesel got dropped  in Mount Jewett (about 3 miles south of the bridge), and the 58 was alone from there on.  Once they got to the bridge, they did the normal runby, then proceeded to wye the train.  The tail track just wasn't long enough, so they put as much train as they could on the main, then wye-d the remainder with the 58 (roughly about 7 cars).  The problem is the tail track of the wye drops off at about 3% and with the wet rail and downed leaves, they had a heck of a time ever getting out of there.  There was a bunch of slipping and they stalled twice before they managed to get to the main and recouple.

Make no mistake though....those SYs can lug.  Have a friend who was at Jixi (I believe), and there was an SY there with a loaded train on the grade solo making about 1-2mph and slipping every couple of seconds.  How they ever kept that thing moving without stallling is beyond me.

Of course, post-fire, the new Valley 3025 now lives in the lap of luxury, and I doubt she will be tested that hard on the mostly flat Valley line.  The K&K was one of a kind though, and it's unlikely we'll ever see the likes of that again.

Not sure if Susquehanna ever worked the 142 that hard or not.  Probably got in some good climbs, but not every day.  Still remember that thing running about 45-50 like a scalded dog during the 1998 NRHS convention between Syracuse and Binghampton, NY.  Fun little engines, and loud also.

Kevin

That WAS impressive... I couldn't get a car count but it looked like a decent-sized train for a little 2-8-2 on that grade.  Also amazing how quickly the engineer got back up to speed after they got the sand going again.  He got a pretty good run at it in the beginning, too. 

Must be powerful little engines.

The engineer let the first 2 or 3 slips go a longggg time. Pretty good sound though even if it's a rice burner!

Amazing what a little sand will do.

I rode several of the 142 powered excursions sponsored by the NYS&W Technical and Historical Society between Susquehanna Transfer and Warwick during the late 90s. The 142 was positioned on the west end with two units on the east end of the train. There were no turning facilities at Warwick so the diesels powered the return trip. I once asked a crew member if the diesels did any work westbound and he told me they used them only for braking down Sparta Mountain. Pulling a consist of 10+ cars filled with passengers and a couple of diesel units on a winding railroad with plenty of tight curvature, the 142 turned in impressive performances on the way to Warwick. I've got the tape recordings to prove it.

Bob      

This is one highly entertaining little vignette.  A stout little steamer, and a classic

Chinese operation, caught on video.  Will watch this again, and recomend to Ron

over at RVQ. 

Try a little sand to clen the grates on UP 3985.  Produces great smoke cloud!