Pete, sorry it took so long. Here we go...
September 5, 2015. 10:40 am. Scranton, Pennsylvania. I'm sitting in the right-hand seat of steam locomotive NKP 765, waiting for the highball from the conductor. We're spotted at the Steamtown passenger station in Scranton. We're running a trip out of Steamtown on the Delaware Lackawanna Railroad, the former DL&W Pocono Main. Right out of the station we've got almost 20 miles of 1.4% grade to climb, but with only 13 cars in the train, the grade should not be all that tough. Sitting there at the station, I can see the grade start uphill right in front of me.
765's Chief Mechanical Officer Steve Winicker is firing this morning. Knowing that we have to work hard right from the start, he's used the shovel to lay a nice heel in the fire along the sides and in the back corners. A nice “horseshoe” shaped fire, thicker around the sides than in the middle. Once underway, the stoker will handle the coal. The water glass is 2/3 full and the steam is sitting at 245 psi, just sizzling at the pops. He's ready.
The radio crackles to life with the word from the conductor. Everyone's on board...highball east! I drop the power reverse all the way forward, kick off the train brakes and whistle off. I open the throttle a little and ease off the engine brake. Almost effortlessly, the 765 eases the train into motion.
It's a bright, sunny morning, and it's already pretty warm. In this kind of weather, slippery rail conditions are rare, but I want to be sure. Steamtown Pilot Engineer Rob Straley tells me we've got a couple of miles of a 10 mph slow order ahead of us before we can accelerate up to track speed of 30 mph. I work the 765 pretty hard accelerating up to 10 mph, so I can feel out the rail conditions. It feels good. Other than a little slip on a grade crossing, the 765 is holding the rail very well, even when working 200 psi in the cylinders, which is a fairly heavy throttle.
Still within the slow order, the 765 marches up the grade at a steady 10 mph. We come around a curve and ahead of us is Nay Aug Tunnel. It's not a very long tunnel and it used to be double-tracked, so there's a lot of room in it. It won't be a big deal getting through. This ought to be easy.
About 4 car lengths from the tunnel, the drivers let go with a violent slip! What the...? Where did that come from? I slam the throttle shut, hit the sanders and carefully open the throttle again. And the 765 slips again! And again! Just a few seconds earlier I had been working 200 psi in the cylinders and she was holding the rail just fine. Now, with only 50 psi in the cylinders, the 765 is slipping! That can mean only one thing – GREASE on the rails!
The slips caused us to lose speed and we enter the tunnel at 5 mph. Still using heavy sand, the 765 is gripping the rail well inside the tunnel. I got a couple of those lost miles per hour back going through the tunnel. I figured we had weathered the storm would be OK now. I was wrong.
Just as we exit the tunnel, the 765 slips again. And once again it is painfully apparent that someone has greased the rails here, too! The rails are so slippery that even with emergency sand and careful manipulation of the throttle, I can't keep the train moving. We stall!
I quickly set the engine brake and put a light set on the train brakes to keep us from sliding backwards. After waiting a moment to allow everything to settle down, I release the train brakes and attempt to get the train moving again. The whole train is now stopped on a 1.4% grade. I know it is going to take about 150 psi in the cylinders to get the train moving. The sand is still on. I open the throttle a little and ease off the engine brake. The 765 doesn't move. I gently ease the throttle open a couple more notches and the 765 moves a few inches...and slips. I slam the throttle shut and put the engine brake back on full. I find that the engine brake will hold the train by itself. That's good. It will make things a bit easier and keep the slack stretched.
Once again I try to get the train moving by opening the throttle and easing off the engine brake. And once again the 765 moves a few inches and slips...with only 100 psi in the cylinders! I try several more times, using every trick in the book to get the train moving, but it is a futile effort. The rails are just too slippery and I cannot get enough momentum to get past the greased section of rail. We have no choice. We have to back up and get a run at it.
The Pilot Engineer calls the DL dispatcher and gets permission to make a reverse move. The conductor hustles to the rear of the train to watch the shove. When all is ready, I ease off the engine brake and we start rolling backwards, back down the hill. I put an 8 pound set on the train and add a little engine brake too, to try and keep the slack stretched as we roll slowly backwards. I don't want slack action back in the train to knock people down.
I let the train roll down the hill until we are about 150 yards from the entrance to the tunnel, sanding in reverse all the way. I bring the train to a gentle stop. We are stopped on sand. Once again the 765 and I are going to do battle with this slippery, greasy rail. I am counting on the fact that I've now sanded all the way through the tunnel to provide enough grip for us to get enough momentum to get past the greased rail east of the tunnel that we have not run over yet.
OK...here we go. Reverse all the way down in the corner. Sand on full forward. Throttle open. Brakes off. We start to move. WHAM! The first big exhaust blast is welcome music to my ears. The 765 is holding the rail! The second exhaust blast hits, followed quickly by a third, and a fourth...we are moving. I have the throttle open pretty far, but not all the way. At this slow speed with a heavy throttle, a slip will be violent and quick. I have to be ready for that. But we get into the tunnel and she doesn't slip. All right!
The 765 is really digging in now, accelerating through the tunnel. We come out the other side of the tunnel at 9 mph and the 765 is working hard. But I know I've got a few more feet of greased rail that we have not run over yet. And I just KNOW she is going to slip again when we hit that spot. About 10 feet past the point where we stalled, sure enough, the 765 slips again. I slam the throttle shut and attempt to recover from the slip. I'm a little too quick on the throttle and 765 gets into a secondary slip. I have to shut off and recover a second time. By the time I recover from the secondary slip, were almost stopped again! But when I widen out on the throttle after the secondary slip, she holds the rail! We are past the grease!
Carefully I ease the throttle open a little more...no slip. A little more...she's still holding the rail! A little more...and finally, as we get up to about 10 mph, I have it on the roof. We're past the 10 mph speed restriction now, so I can keep going with her wide open. We slip once more on a switch, but this was a “normal” slip and the recovery is quick and solid. The 765 is really working now, rocking slightly back and forth in step with the power strokes from the cylinders. There's a grade crossing coming up. I use my right hand to blow the whistle. My left hand is still hanging on to the throttle...just in case. Over the crossing and no slip. I think we're OK now. We're on the way up the hill and accelerating nicely back to track speed. Whew! That was tough...on me and the 765.
You can see that secondary slip and the recovery in this video..
That narrative may be a good read and an interesting story for many of you, but the whole incident made me angry. The person who greased those rails has no idea how dangerous it is. The 765 could have been seriously damaged in a violent slip. If I had not been able to get the train moving again on our second attempt, the excursion would have been delayed for several hours while the DL scrambled get a diesel up on the mountain to help us out of that mess. Some people familiar with the railroad said that it was likely not grease on the rails but just condensation from the tunnel. I don't think so. Wet rail is one thing, greased rails behave altogether differently. These rails were greased. 765 had no trouble at all getting through that same spot at the tunnel on the Monday trip.
What can we learn from this incident? Quite honestly, I have never seen a group of more self-destructive people than railfans. You profess to love the railroading industry and steam locomotives, yet you know almost nothing about either and make no effort to learn. You trespass, you climb up on signals and standing freight cars to get the “perfect” shot, you stand in the gauge as the train approaches, you curse and swear at innocent people who “ruin” your shots, you grease the rails...you get the idea. You don't realize that in behaving like that you have the potential to destroy the very thing you claim to love so much! When the powers that be at the railroads decide that the problems you are causing are no longer worth the hassle, it's over. The main line steam excursion industry comes to a screaming halt.
If you truly enjoy seeing steam locomotives running on the main line, some of you need to take a serious look at yourselves. Are you one of the irresponsible railfans like the ones who greased these rails? Or can you take a more responsible view of your hobby and actively discourage this kind of blatantly stupid behavior?
The future of your hobby is in your hands...
