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M J Breen posted:
Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

 Question about the inspection, how long does that typically take assuming everything is A-Okay with 611 from top to bottom? 

42 

Going off the top of my head - I think that's a nod to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" if I'm not mistaken.  "The answer to everything is 42."

For Art's benefit ...

trumptrain posted:

Great photo M.J. Breen!   So 611 is fired up during the move.  

Absolutely.

I was thinking that the 611 was going to be pulled dead in tow.  

A steam locomotive can not be towed dead, unless the main rods are removed, which then limits the towing speed because the running Gera would be out of balance. The lubrication for the valves and pistons is carried by way of the steam, i.e. water soluble valve oil, thus it is much easier to simply fire up the steam locomotive, and work a little bit of throttle so that the valves and pistons are always lubricated during movement.

 

Hot Water posted:
trumptrain posted:

Great photo M.J. Breen!   So 611 is fired up during the move.  

Absolutely.

I was thinking that the 611 was going to be pulled dead in tow.  

A steam locomotive can not be towed dead, unless the main rods are removed, which then limits the towing speed because the running Gera would be out of balance. The lubrication for the valves and pistons is carried by way of the steam, i.e. water soluble valve oil, thus it is much easier to simply fire up the steam locomotive, and work a little bit of throttle so that the valves and pistons are always lubricated during movement.

 

Thanks Hot Water!  Great info and I much appreciate it! 

611: BEAUTIFUL, as always!  ☺ I have ridden behind her many times, but my spouse actually got a cab ride at speed on one excursion! While a friend was "babysitting" her one night in Chattanooga in 1984, I was able to shovel some coal onto the banked fire and work the injector! I last rode behind her on an excursion from Charlotte To Asheville and return on October 31, 1993.

Last edited by Tinplate Art

I wish 611 could have come to Pennsylvania without a mainline excursion ban as they could have run longer excursions to Rockville Bridge and return using the modern coaches that were used during the more recent NS excursions minus the five red ones NS sold off. NS apparently kept the generator coach Tennessee for some reason. Oh well, I’ll be riding behind it for the second time on Strasburg in September. First time was the 102 mile excursion from Manassas a few years ago. What prompted NS to say no to more excursions and to make Amtrak host future 611 excursions then Amtrak started the charter ban thus preventing 611 from running any more public excursions on NS? On Strasburg you get open windows though.

Last edited by Robert K

Steam locomotives don't have dynamic braking 

Hot Water posted:
Southern6482 posted:
M J Breen posted:

Video courtesy of my friend Tyler who owns the Red Caboose motel. 

 

Neat to see 89 providing some dynamic braking so 611 has to work a little harder... 

Nope. The 89 wasn't doing anything. However, the Engineer on 611 apparently may have had a small amount of train brakes set.

 

Steam engines don't do dynamic braking.

Robert K posted:

I wish 611 could have come to Pennsylvania without a mainline excursion ban as they could have run longer excursions to Rockville Bridge and return using the modern coaches that were used during the more recent NS excursions minus the five red ones NS sold off. NS apparently kept the generator coach Tennessee for some reason. Oh well, I’ll be riding behind it for the second time on Strasburg in September. First time was the 102 mile excursion from Manassas a few years ago. What prompted NS to say no to more excursions and to make Amtrak host future 611 excursions then Amtrak started the charter ban thus preventing 611 from running any more public excursions on NS? On Strasburg you get open windows though.

Wick Moorman, the reason the second Steam Program and Heritage Units existed/exist, retired from NS as CEO. The new CEO pretty much didn’t think it was worth having, so he cut it. Amtrak is a similar story. I believe (I’m not certain) that the pro-steam CEO retired or was removed and replaced by Richard Anderson, an ex- Delta Airlines CEO/board member. He wants to run the railroad like an airline with out the unnecessary entities such as a steam program. The PTC implementation also killed off steam for a while until a package can be installed into such locomotives. It wasn’t just NS and Amtrak, but also PTC mandates issued by Congress.

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