Mark Dash said:
I doubt they hooked up the brakes, I believe the reason for the 3 extra locos and the grain cars are all for brakes
I’m sure it is for braking. I recall reading about 8444 making moves on its own and it had to have some freight cars to add more braking effort, as the loco and tender brakes alone weren’t deemed adequate at speed.
Not just a question of the loco brakes being adequate, but they worry about riding the independent brake too much, heating up the tire and having it move or come off the wheel. They rarely let 844 run light, it generates so much power, it’ll tear itself up without something to do. Somewhere in the archives I have a negative of 844 (then 8444) pulling a freight train.
When the Trains Magazine crew was chasing the 4014, they said that Ed Dickens, the UP guy in charge, had told them that the hoppers were indeed for braking. The brakes had been hooked up on one set of drivers, but they should be thought of more as parking brakes than service brakes. The air compressor on the tender would operate that set of engine brakes. It would also blow the whistle, although not in all the glory of 300 psi steam.
Its common in mainline steam moves like with 765 or back when the 1218 and 611 were in service…if they weren’t moving the excursion train along with them to have a cut of freight cars to assist in braking…I recall an articel where one of the guys on the 765 talks about running a coal train through some tunnels in WV…
Great info and thanks for the video links.
Thanks, This a really good thread, Keep it coming.
Nicky