Steam & Excursion > Fall Colors and SP 4449

Those of us on the crew of SP 4449 had a blast in Montana last year.
The fall colors were the icing in the cake of a
wonderful "road trip"!

Martin

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Here is one near Garrison, MT.

Martin

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LOGGERHOGGER Wrote:
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> Those of us on the crew of SP 4449 had a blast in
> Montana last year.
> The fall colors were the icing in the cake of a
> wonderful "road trip"!
>
> Martin


How much of a grade were they working, if you know? Did the diesel have to come up against him at all?

At the locations in the two photos above - barn at Jens, MT and along the Little Blackfoot River east of Garrison, MT - the grades are insignificant. The main factor in producing the magnificant exhaust plume that day was the cool air of the Montana morning.

However, when 4449 reached Elliston, MT a bit later that morning, she encountered the west slope of Mullan Pass, with a ruling grade of 1.4% from Elliston to Blossburg. As I recall from riding the train and shooting video that morning, F45 #391 was not doing much of the work - 4449 was moving the train uphill smartly. However, I have to say that #391 operated quite stealthily, so it may have done more than I realized.

After reaching the Mullan Pass summit at Blossburg, #391 assumed its main purpose on the trip - supplying dynamic braking as the train drifted down the 2.2% grade through Skyline, Weed, Austin, and Birdseye to Tobin, where the grade eased for the remainder of the trip into Helena.

My impression was that 4449 probably received a bit more uphill assistance from #391 than SP&S 700 had received from #392 over the same route in October 2002. This was based on the relative speeds and exhaust notes at the high-stress locations such as West End, MT on the eastbound trip and Skyline and Evaro, MT on the westbound trip.