D500 posted:geysergazer postedThe T1s were arguably the most advanced steam power ever built...Well, no. But they were indeed outstanding, if rather poor performers, on balance. They looked wonderful, though, like they were from Mars. NYC Niagaras they were not, but they might have been, without all that slipperiness.
Scrapping T-1's and Niagaras and Hudsons and SP AC-9's and all the rest (not just RR-related) amounts to cultural crime. GM demolished the home of the modern diesel-electric locomotive, too, probably to make room for a Chevrolet Chevette assembly line in the 80's. In the US, this passes for "progress". It is not.
It is my understanding that much or even most of the poor performance was because of poor training. Those things would produce 6,000HP and would go into wheel-slip at nearly any speed if the throttle was not handled correctly. Also, at speeds over 100mph the poppet-valves hammered themselves to death and more than a few Hoggers habitually ran them well over that speed out Warsaw-way. I guess you could call it poor performance to design a locomotive capable of such speeds but with certain components not capable. I wish I still had my collection of Trains magazines because they did an article on the T1s and interviewed people who ran them and worked on them. IIRC the writer's take was that no one ever learned how fast this things would actually go.
The truth is that yes, of course they were poorly designed poor performers as was any steam locomotive designed/built after the nation-wide testing and blooding of the EMD FT set. The fate of steam in yard service was already decided and the FT doomed steam in any kind of road service as well.
