Jump to content
 

Railroads in a Giant Landscape


trisonic
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium
38 minutes ago, Wendell1976 said:

 

I totally agree. It is only six cars on that train behind two locomotives. It looks like a local turn.

 

Wendell

Idaho, USA 


Just wondering, when did it become standard practice to have two power units on trains like these - I’m presuming it’s for safety (so there is always a leading short hood)?

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Here's a couple of pictures of the Trona Railway near Trona, California. The train is passing by the Trona Pinnacles in the northern part of the Mojave Desert. The Trona Railway is a 30.5 mile(48.8 kilometer) shortline railroad that serves primarily the mining industry and interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad(formerly Southern Pacific Railroad) in Searles, California. Trona(town) is near the southwestern border of Death Valley National Park and is about 170 road-miles(272 road-kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles.

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/341259/

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/538442/

 

Wendell

Idaho, USA 

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:


Just wondering, when did it become standard practice to have two power units on trains like these - I’m presuming it’s for safety (so there is always a leading short hood)?

 

Good question, Keith. According to the Rail Pictures website, there had been some railroads that used two or more locomotives on local trains in the 1980's.

 

Wendell

Idaho, USA 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:


Just wondering, when did it become standard practice to have two power units on trains like these - I’m presuming it’s for safety (so there is always a leading short hood)?

Were there any double ended loco's in the US?

 

  • Like 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, JZ said:

Were there any double ended loco's in the US?

 

I certainly can’t think of any mainstream examples amongst diesels (as opposed to electrics, where there are several that could be cited).  Across the continent, different railroads variously specified the control stands in cabs to be set up to run primarily short hood or long hood forward (or provided dual controls).

From what I can tell, the move towards doubling up hood unit power as standard even on short trains was mainly to de-risk the problems that would be caused by a single locomotive failure (ie: not a regulatory requirement).

For a quick, non-technical overview answer, that’s probably the best summary I can offer, Keith.

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

As Keith says, there are some double-cab electrics, for example:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8rcqg7cRR58/UVfcnfDj6yI/AAAAAAAAvds/uO1uCV9uhGc/s1600/Milwaukee+Little+Joe+E74.JPG


https://www.railpictures.net/photo/393900/

 

Union Pacific had a double-cabbed gas turbine, but (I believe) only one:

 https://i0.wp.com/digitalrailartist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/UP-50.jpg

 

And this appears to be the only double-cabbed diesel to be produced for the North American market (as Jack has just posted):

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnj/cnj2004n21.jpg

Edited by pH
Replace link
  • Like 2
  • Informative/Useful 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

From the Facebook page of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources:

 

"Choo Choo! The mountain train chugs along in Graham County, circa 1943. Constructed over steep grades through the Nantahala Mountains between Topton and Robbinsville in 1925, this 12.6-mile line was one of the nation's last railways to use steam locomotives before it shut down in 1970. Do you remember hearing the locomotive steam by?

 

Image: Mountain railroad between Robbinsville and Tofton in Graham County, NC, October 1943, taken by Patrick. From the Department of Conservation and Development, Travel Information Division Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina."FB_IMG_1614409515870.jpg.e09946eb660edf07edda0107fe124e32.jpg

  • Like 10
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, Regularity said:

Is that running tender first, or pushing up the hill?


The Graham County was included in Kalmbach’s 1978 “More Railroads you can Model.”  There are a couple of pictures in the article showing engines pulling trains bunker first, but no references I can see in the text (I’ve just had a quick skim through).  The steam locos were all geared Shay locos by the look of it.  The photos aren’t entirely clear to me, and I don’t know much about Shays, but I think the gearing extends beneath the coal bunker / water tank in all cases.  Some Shays weren’t tender engines.  The track layout diagrams suggest there was a small Wye at the terminus, but not at the junction with the Southern, so turning might have been an issue anyway.

 

Edit: see also additional post below after watching video in @long island jack’s post that follows this one.

Edited by Keith Addenbrooke
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Having watched the video link posted by @long island jack, I’ve had another look at the photos on the Kalmbach book:

 

The principal locos of the Graham County were Shay locomotives Nos. 1925 / 1926.  The video indicates these did have tenders, but with the gearing extended to the tenders.  It is probably #1926 in the photo posted above by @DanielB

 

A different loco, #1923 was used for a while and was a two truck engine (with no tender), as there’s a clear side-on photo of title.  Apologies for my confusion earlier.

Edited by Keith Addenbrooke
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...
  • RMweb Premium
18 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

When I looked at that photo I thought that it was from some years ago with all that SP gray till I looked at the date it was taken.

Yes, the Trona railway is in a pretty bleak part of the Mojave desert. There was a fabulous article in Trains, some years ago called RX for a broken jawbone, all about what happened  when the timber lining of a tunnel on that route caught fire and they had to reinstate a shoofly from construction days with 1 in 30 gradients and very severe curves. I'll have to dig it out.

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...