Good deal, Jim. I knew I could trust you to keep it confidential.
I will look forward to seeing you in Muncie...for sure.
Jim,
I hope I have the honor to meet you in Muncie. Looks like my schedule will permit me to be in Muncie and Bellvue for the trips. Hopefully more!
I'm waiting for 765 to complete its' aborted "Harrisburger" run from '88!
Originally Posted by Kent Loudon:
I'm waiting for 765 to complete its' aborted "Harrisburger" run from '88!
Oh my God! Now I'm going to have nightmares for the next week!
Those 1988 trips in New Jersey were by far the absolute WORST trips we ever ran. To say that the sponsoring organization had no clue would be very polite. To top it off, we had to sue them to get paid.
The only good thing to come out of those trips was that I learned a valuable lesson about how to plan steam operations. It is a classic case of, "If you want it done right, do it yourself."
rich, you don't have to go into new jersey. just stop at scranton.....
Originally Posted by DL&W Pete:
this is good news rich, 765 is getting closer to pennsylvania.......
is steamtown looking good for the 765.......
I'd be happy to see the 765 in Altoona. Can you imagine seeing the 765 on the Curve?
The only thing better would be to be in the cab of the 765 on the Curve.
Andy
Rich; Bring the train Past Altoona to Harrisburg and I'll come out of retirement.
Forest.
Fellas...fellas...cool your jets!
We're going to run out of Fort Wayne, Bellevue, Toledo, Elkhart and Muncie. That's it. And the last time I looked at a map, none of those cities were anywhere near Scranton, Altoona, Harrisburg, etc.
I still remember the TRAINS headline about the '88 convention.... "Garbled State" LOL!
Dave
Hinton to Clifton Forge & back again would be just fine.
Originally Posted by Scorch The Ballast:
Hinton to Clifton Forge & back again would be just fine.
You know, I did that run a few times and really enjoyed it. Chessie had a crazy Road Foreman down there, though. Name was Ichabod Finklebaum if I recall correctly.
That's a great run and I would love to do that again. Too bad it's on the wrong railroad.
How 'bout saddling-up an H-8 and 150 empties to Hinton? Are you up for it?
An H8 on 150 cars going up Alleghany Mountain? Oh baby! If we aren't going 30 mph at Lewis Tunnel, I'll stop and get off if you don't mind. You can take her through the tunnel!
I would love to handle the throttle on one of those huge locomotives. The C&O H8's were the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. 7,498 DRAWBAR HP. In fact, the (over)weight issue almost bankrupted Lima.
Scorch, I enjoyed your long post back on the bottom of page 1. You said a lot of things there that are interesting food for thought. One thing you did not mention was the challenge and enjoyment of running 40-car loaded trains and 60+ car empty trains on a former trolley line, with 1.5% and 2% grades on almost the entire route...and 85-pound rail! Those were difficult trains to keep under control. The track was so bad we had to stretch-brake going down the hills. Remember?
Rich, those 150 cars had better be emptees if an H8 is going it alone on the e.b. .57 grade. C&O employed 2 of the monsters, one fore, one aft, to lift e.b. loads up the Mountain, and even then the speed was around 20 mph, far below the h.p. curve for such locos.
Jim, we are talking about an H8 westbound out of Clifton Forge over Alleghany Mountain and on to Hinton with 150 MT's. Wouldn't THAT be a show!
Do you want 1601 or 1604? I'll write a check...........
RP: It's interesting that while the C&O was never a splashy outfit, they certainly fielded some of the greatest steam locomotives....H8, T1, the heavy Hudsons, etc. However, when it came to diesels, they were quite conservative---such as their reluctance to jump into the 20 cylinder EMD game. As an engineer at C&O, I was always disappointed that C&O never bought any so I'd have an opportunity to run them, but after the merger with the Gators I did get to operate several former Clinchfield SD 45's on helpers around Richmond, VA. They were strong but I never could see an appreciable difference from a properly tuned SD 40. As you know, my personal favorite for performance is the GP 40. Yes, their starting tractive effort and at MCS was not as much as an SD but oh man they gripped the rail. The IDAC (Instantaneous What an awesome experience it was to get five of them in a consist with 140 empty grain hoppers out of Portsmouth, VA over the old SAL to Weldon, NC and then a northeast connection to the ACL double track race track north to Richmond. Too bad approximately half of that double track was rationalized by CSX since my time there.
The trolley line was quite an experience too, wasn't it? May have been just a trolley line but therein lies the meat of the challenge that we overcame masterfully with those five unit Geep consists horsing 40-50 loads in a full-throttle 7 MPH show on the 3.0% at Indianola Avenue, or, as you pointed out stretch braking the same trains over the roller coaster between Youngstown and Negley in order to control the train smoothly and prevent derailments. That would be difficult to replicate but I have no question that we could do it again!
Originally Posted by OGR Webmaster:
An H8 on 150 cars going up Alleghany Mountain? Oh baby! If we aren't going 30 mph at Lewis Tunnel, I'll stop and get off if you don't mind. You can take her through the tunnel!
I would love to handle the throttle on one of those huge locomotives. The C&O H8's were the heaviest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. 7,498 DRAWBAR HP. In fact, the (over)weight issue almost bankrupted Lima.
Scorch, I enjoyed your long post back on the bottom of page 1. You said a lot of things there that are interesting food for thought. One thing you did not mention was the challenge and enjoyment of running 40-car loaded trains and 60+ car empty trains on a former trolley line, with 1.5% and 2% grades on almost the entire route...and 85-pound rail! Those were difficult trains to keep under control. The track was so bad we had to stretch-brake going down the hills. Remember?
Originally Posted by Andy Hummell:
Originally Posted by DL&W Pete:
this is good news rich, 765 is getting closer to pennsylvania.......
is steamtown looking good for the 765.......
I'd be happy to see the 765 in Altoona. Can you imagine seeing the 765 on the Curve?
The only thing better would be to be in the cab of the 765 on the Curve.
Andy
All in good time... 
Originally Posted by OGR Webmaster:
Tunnels and the throttle in the roof? Naw...I've never done that before. I heard you can get pretty dirty doing that!
However, I did meet this one crazy Road Foreman on Chessie years ago. He was nuts! Download the attached PDF and you'll see what I mean.
In case some of you have not yet put 2 and 2 together, the OGR Forum member named Scorch The Ballast is the "crazy Road Foreman" I referred to in THIS STORY. Terry was also General Manager and my boss at the Ohio Central in Youngstown, Ohio. We have done a lot of railroading together.
Yes we have---been a hoot hasn't it? What's the next adventure?
your next adventure...........
"run to harrisburg and then up to scranton with a trip down to delaware water gap."
Originally Posted by DL&W Pete:
your next adventure...........
"run to harrisburg and then up to scranton with a trip down to delaware water gap."
Patience...patience...
However, I doubt that we will go to Scranton.
