Hot Water posted:No. Steam locomotives essentially have no braking ability, unless they are running/moving light, i.e. without any train. One of the golden rules of operating a steam locomotive is; NEVER use the engine brakes when slowing a train!
Or does the need for a diesel on grades reflect some other change in the way 4014 would be operated today, vs when the Big Boys were in regular service?
Back in the days of steam, the train brakes were used, as that was the ONLY way of maintaining train speed on depending grades. With the advent of diesel, which were equipped with dynamic brakes, the use of train braking was drastically reduced, resulting in major reductions in brake shoe wear and wheel wear. The UP thus adds a modern diesel unit which can be used as need for addition pulling power with a heavy passenger train, and saves disc brake shoe and wheel wear, by using the dynamic brake on the diesel unit.
And, today, where there are sustained descending grades of 1.5 percent or greater, there is normally a timetable speed restriction for trains without dynamic brake in use. Some railroads simply forbid it.
The institutional knowledge of how to descend steep grades using only air brakes went out the door with the retirement of Engineers and Road Foremen who had done it.
