Recently there was a thread which started with a question about what kind of a passenger train to couple to a 5010Class 2-10-4, and expanded into a discussion of what use Santa Fe might have made of its 2-10-4's in passenger service. The evidence showed that the 2-10-4's did indeed appear at the head end of some passenger trains, but only occasionally, and this information, copied from a 1954 Plains Division (Waynoka-Amarillo-Clovis) employee timetable, demonstrates why:
STEAM LOCOMOTIVES
100 MPH
- 4-8-4 2900-2929; 3776-3785
- 4-6-4 3450-3465
- 4-6-2 3403-3435
90 MPH
- 4-8-4 3751-3775
- 4-6-2 3516
70 MPH
- 4-8-2 3715-3744
60 MPH
- 2-10-4 5000-5035
- 2-6-2 1001-1133; 1801-1882
- 2-8-2 3168-3236; 4013-4014
All other steam locomotives were restricted to 50 MPH or less. As additional information, here are the motorcars and diesels:
100 MPH
- E1, E3, E6, E8m, DL-109, DL-110, PA1, PB1, F-M Erie-Built (all)
- F3 16-36
- F7 36-42 (4-unit), 300-314 (bobtail)
80 MPH
- F7 325-344 (bobtail); 191-192 (RDC); M 190 (motorcar)
70 MPH
- M 160-M 162 (motorcars)
65 MPH
- M 115-157, M 175-M-187 (motorcars)
- All road switcher units except RS1 (GP7, GP7m, RS2, H16-44, RSD4, RSD5)
- FT 100-199, 401-430 (100 MPH for units painted in rednose "warbonnet" during 1940's and very early 1950's but by 1954 all were 65 MPH)
- F3 200-201 (blue/yellow)
- F7 202-280 (blue/yellow)
After 1954, when RSD7, GP9 and F9 units were delivered they were 65 MPH. Switchers, including RS1's were 40 or 45 MPH. Critters were 30 or 35 MPH. 65 MPH engines were allowed 70 MPH after 1958.
The above maximum speeds were sometimes exceeded. Sometimes the crew got away with it; sometimes they did not. But the above information represents Mechanical Department instructions for safe speeds for continuous operation, and, if exceeded, risk of mechanical failure was increased.
