Steam & Excursion > Hook up the booster and come all out

Baird hill, or part of it begins to eat into the speed of a Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 as it climbs up hill from Putnam Tx to the sub division point  and crew change of Baird. Tx.  Note the white steam in front of the Class I-1dr engine indicating the trailing truck booster has been cut in for the 1.4% climb.  Even the yard in Baird was on a .6% grade offering little relief.  When the engineer wanted to stop all he had to do was close the throttle and shortly all was still.  Baird Hill was not thru with this train however, because immediately at the end of the yard the hill became a 1.3%  7 mile climb up to the town of Clyde.  When ready to leave Baird the engineer had backed down to the train on sand.  Getting that excellent traction and the fact the engine was a 60%  maximum cut off meant that even tho the engineer opened the throttle all the way the engine and train would not move until the booster equipped 0-8-0 yard engine pushed the slack in.

A memory of Clyde Tx.  The year was June of 1938.  Many people were killed by a   tornado which  derailed a 2-10-4 as it passed over the track. and cut the train in half derailing many cars.   Newspapers of the day did not say anything about the crews pants getting-  ahem  -wet.  So, other than the derailment all has passed silently into history. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/19 12:19 by tomstp.

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tomstp Wrote:
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> A memory of Clyde Tx.  The year was June of 1938.
>  Many people were killed by a   tornado which
>  derailed a 2-10-4 as it passed over the track.
> and cut the train in half derailing many cars.  
> Newspapers of the day did not say anything about
> the crews pants getting-  ahem  -wet.

Newspapers did mention that the body of a transient was found in the wrecked train.

A story from that tornado hit the national wires.  A three year old boy carried his infant brother to safety in a ditch when they were blown from their parents' car.  They were found with the boy holding his brother's head out of standing water in the ditch after the storm passed.  Their parents did not survive.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Makes a great screensaver pic, also. Thanks.
Bill in Ft Worth

On the UP chart, the grade at Baird yard is around 1%.

http://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/1zukas_track/1988UP_Dallas-ElPaso_TracksCharts-TimZukas.pdf

Baron Vuillet rode a 2-10-4 west to Sweetwater--
he said when the engine slipped the fireman
dropped off and shovelled ballast under the
drivers, which was enough to make the grade.

Wish that photo had sound.   Doesn't look like much of a booster exhaust.   Nice photo.

Timz, here is the chart from which I took the figures.  According the 2015 chart my figures are correct.

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Which goes to show the 2015 chart isn't to be trusted.

Acutal grade or compensated by curves.   When NS took over the pennsylavania middle division most of the grades were "reduced" on paper.  Just an indivual railroads preference.

> When NS took over the pennsylavania middle division
> most of the grades were "reduced" on paper.

Where?

Oh to see and hear that today.....Great photo

There's barely any ballast on that mainline!!

Also see:    Page 90, “Steam’s Finest Hour”, by David P.Morgan...
Where I saw that picture, first.

(Ballast? You don’t know how deep the trench is that the ballast is laid into.   It’s not how much is laying off to the side, it’s what’s  under the ties, that counts. Nice and trim ballast lines are a good sign of caring section gangs...)
IMHO...

​W.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/19 06:27 by wcamp1472.