11-07-2010, 09:11 AM
Well, Gary, I'd agree that it does sound like a bit of a chore ... but then, he did say you had to pay attention to the slack! I'm certain running two locomotives, one at each end of a string of cars takes more than a little practice to get it right and not "overgather" the slack.
Imagine what I must have been like for the 1:1 scale guys, at either end of a half a mile of loaded hoppers, no radios -just whistles to communicate with! And sometimes there would be two or three stout Consolidations at the point, maybe another one or two mid-train and three or four more at the rear, putting a shoulder to the load, struggling to get those black diamonds up, out of the valley and on their way to market! It must have been very tricky, indeed!
I have a photo in one of my books about the Reading in the coal fields of Pennsylvania that shows such a train struggling up a fairly steep grade out of Shamokin at Buck Ridge, heading for Locust Summit. I often look at it and imagine what it must have been like to be a crewman in one of the locomotives, playing the throttle from the seat of your pants! I mean, you can just see the plumes of smoke from the lead locomotivess off in the distance and in the forground of the photo there are three camelback Consolidations at the rear, with the little wooden Class NMa four-wheel bobber tacked on behind!
The caption under a similar photo of a trio of Jersey Central Mikados in a similar setting refers to the locomotives as being "on their knees" climbing the grade ... there is a brakeman walking alongside the last hooper before the first of the three locomotives ... on their knees, indeed!
I find it amazing!
More power to you JGL guy for even attempting to run two locos independantly!
Imagine what I must have been like for the 1:1 scale guys, at either end of a half a mile of loaded hoppers, no radios -just whistles to communicate with! And sometimes there would be two or three stout Consolidations at the point, maybe another one or two mid-train and three or four more at the rear, putting a shoulder to the load, struggling to get those black diamonds up, out of the valley and on their way to market! It must have been very tricky, indeed!
I have a photo in one of my books about the Reading in the coal fields of Pennsylvania that shows such a train struggling up a fairly steep grade out of Shamokin at Buck Ridge, heading for Locust Summit. I often look at it and imagine what it must have been like to be a crewman in one of the locomotives, playing the throttle from the seat of your pants! I mean, you can just see the plumes of smoke from the lead locomotivess off in the distance and in the forground of the photo there are three camelback Consolidations at the rear, with the little wooden Class NMa four-wheel bobber tacked on behind!
The caption under a similar photo of a trio of Jersey Central Mikados in a similar setting refers to the locomotives as being "on their knees" climbing the grade ... there is a brakeman walking alongside the last hooper before the first of the three locomotives ... on their knees, indeed!
I find it amazing!
More power to you JGL guy for even attempting to run two locos independantly!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln