Rich Melvin posted:We were literally 4 car lengths from where this grade started. There was no chance at all to run for the hill. I dropped the Alco Power Reverse down in the forward corner, opened the cylinder cocks, turned the sanders on full, released the brakes and carefully opened the throttle. We had moved only a couple feet when we got the word from the rear that we were "All movin!'" That meant that all the slack was stretched and I could open the throttle a bit more without yanking the train in two. By the time we had moved one full engine length and I had the 765's throttle wide open! The sound was deafening! Each exhaust was like a cannon shot going off! The 765 leaned into the grade without so much as a quarter slip, accelerating as best she could with a 29 car train behind her. We got up to about 6 or 7 mph, but with each turn of the drivers we pulled more of the train onto the grade. Slowly but surely the speed dropped until we reached a point where there was more than a second between each exhaust! . . .
Operating this slowly, with maximum throttle and cutoff, full boiler pressure was being used in the cylinders. I had the throttle wide open, the sanders on and the reverse down in the corner...I couldn't do any more than that. In a situation like this, it's actually in the fireman's hands as to whether you make it or not. If Kim let the steam drop back just a couple of pounds, we would stall. But he's one of the best fireman I've ever seen, and it looked like he had the steam gauge welded on 245!
Wham......wham.......wham......that sharp, Baker-timed cannon-shot exhaust kept blasting to the beat of a very slow drummer. Ever so slowly we dragged that big 29 car train up and out of the hole. All the while I was ready with both hands on the throttle in case we slipped, because if we so much as quarter slipped, we would have stalled. But the 765 hung in there and never slipped once! We made it, but this was the hardest pull I've ever seen with the 765. They made 'em good in Lima.
No argument about the quality of Lima steam locomotives. No matter how good the engine is, though, it's still the apex of manually-operated machinery. It is the engine crew that makes the difference in the most difficult situations.
My hat is off, to you and to Kim Besecker.
