Update on the Kink and the 765

Well, it seems that the August 20, 2012 operation westbound of the 765 steam locomotive was without assistance of the diesel locomotive. According to the November issue of Trains Magazine at page 80, "765's Glory Moment," reports that Norfolk Southern's Charirman, Wick Moorman was in the cab. The diesel was idling and the steam locomotive solely pulled the train using all its steam capacity to do so. The speed dropped to 10.9 miles per hour. The ES44AC diesel locomotive (Built at Erie, PA by GE) was used to assist the steam locomotive in reaching the curve from Altoona and then again after 765 had completed the westbound leg of the Horsehoe Curve. Going round the curve, steam energy did all the work.

I have to say, as dramatic as the transit was for the 765, I hope the Fort Wayne Historical Society, its owner, never puts such stress on the machine again. Perhaps it would have been more prudent to have used the extra power of the ES44AC on the curve.

The Kink or the Horseshoe Curve

On August 13, 2012 the Norfolk Southern Railroad operated a special train with a steam locomotive westbound over the Horseshoe Curve. Here is a video of the Horseshoe Curve trip made from an open door of a following baggage car. Here is the video link:



At 0:09 seconds the locomotive is above Bakers Run at milepost 241.7. This is a 9.0 degree curve with a 4 inch right rail elevation. The speed limit has changed from 35 mph to 30 mph for freight and 44 mph for passenger trains on the Horseshoe Curve. The degree of climb is 1.34.

At 0:33 seconds the curvature stiffens to 9.4 degrees at milepost 241.8. The degree of climb remains 1.34.

At 0:44 seconds the public observation area with many onlookers is seen. A PRR GP9 locomotive is on display representing the first fleet of diesel locomotives that replaced steam locomotives in the early 1950's.

At 1:47 the steam locomotive ahead is nearly at the end of the 9.4 degree curve. The degree of climb increases to 1.76.

The steam locomotive used by the Norfolk Southern Railroad to acknowledge its thirty year corporate existence is Number 765. It was built after WWII for the Nickle Plate Railroad, a predecessor component of today's Norfolk Southern Railroad. Number 765 was built by the Lima Company. Today it is preserved and operated by the Fort Wayne Historical Society. In addition, the steam locomotive was assisted by a new diesel locomotive painted in the colors used by the Nickle Plate Railroad when it dieselized in the mid 1950's. Assisted might be the wrong word as the diesel locomotive is an ES44AC model built by GE at Erie, PA. It has 4400 horsepower. In reality is it the steam locomotive that assists the diesel locomotive?

Then there was the sound. The locomotive had both its nickle plate whistle and a PRR whistle. The second sounding of the whistle as the train passed the observation area was the higher pitched scream of the PRR whistle. Add to the sound its amplification off the rock face to the right and the giant amphiteater that is the Horseshoe Curve was demonstrated.

What the sound of a steam locomotive working against a steep grade and severe curvature demonstrates is how the 1850's civil engineering of the Horseshoe curve is a kink in the Pittsburgh to Harrisburg line.

Compare photographs of a steam powered passenger train operated by Conrail in October of 1976 over the Horseshoe Curve. Conrail had been formed from bankrupt railroad companies in April of 1976. Its principle component was the Penn Central Railroad Company which had earlier been the product of a merger between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad.

The steam locomotive was a Reading Railroad T1 steam locomotive built after WWII assisted by a GP30 locomotive with 2250 horsepower. The T1 steam locomotive was owned by a group of persons at Akron, Ohio wanting to operate and maintain a steam locomotive.

Seen below and expressed by the large cloud of white steam is the point where the steam locomotive lost traction and wheels spun wildly as the engineer cut the throttle in order to regain traction. This is at about 0:25  on the video.

 

  This photograph portrays  the position of the train in the video at 0:33.

 

In 1957 the steam locomotive to the left was put on static display. It was a PRR steam locomotive built at Altoona's Juniata Shops. It was part of the 435 K4 type passenger locomotives built. The K4 was removed from static display in 1986 and returned to operating status in 1987 for a brief period of time. It is now located at the Railroaders Memorial Museum at Altoona, PA.

 

The location of the locomotive in the photograph below is at 1:38 in the video. The steam locomotive has again lost its footing and the enigneer is in the process of regaining traction. The lazy plume of smoke is indicative of the slow speed near a walk as the smoke plume is being blown forward. 

Note that in 1976 there were four tracks over the Horseshoe Curve. The track second from left was lifted by Conrail and the materials recycled for use elsewhere. The ballast is fouled and the ties are covered with stone. That was the result of deferred maintenance. The blackened area on the stone ballast shows the result of friction wheel bearings. In 1976 a substantial portion of the freight car fleet had wheel sets with friction bearings. The axle ends rested in an enclosure with a pool of oil. The decades long conversion of the freight car fleet to roller bearings was just beginning.

 

Here the photograph is at 1:38 in the video. The 1976 trip was a struggle for the steam locomotive and diesel used then. The operation shown in the video was anything like that in 1976.

 

It was a kink in 1976. The Horseshoe Curve is a kink today.

"Railway Age" Comments 8th World Conference HSR Philladelphia 7/10-13/12

Comments in the trade journal, "Railway Age" about the 8th World Conference on High Speed Rail held in Philadelphia 7/10-13/12 can be found on page 30 of the August issue. Go to www.Railwayage.com.  In the upper right corner click on "digital edition." The next page will show three issues of the magazine. The left image is for the August 2012 issue. Click on the August issue and go to page 30.

For the 6/27/12 comments about the conference from an international perspective, see "International Railway Journal" at http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/blogs/david-briginshaw/when-will-the-usa-join-the-high-speed-rail-club.html?channel=#.UDrDS0Qri39

Comments New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Route

What is most interesting about the proposed route for the New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago route is that its location had such favorable grades and its location was direct. While the line's curves were not to exceed 4 degrees, that degree curvature is too severe for Higher Speed Rail (HrSR).  So, the proposed location needs today to be looked at from the standpoint of location with 2 degree or less for curves. If the location were considered for high speed rail (HSR) curves should be 1 degree or less

Recently sketches of the map for the proposed NYPC RR with grade profile have been provided to this testplant blog from the Interstate Commerce Commission,  Finance Docket 4,741,  February 27, 1930. It is noteworthy that closer examination finds that at its crossing of the Allegheny Frontal would be a grade of 1.337% for a distance of 7 miles. The line was to use a 1560 foot tunnel. A longer tunnel and / or combination of using the face of the Allegheny frontal to ascend could have lessened the grade. In fact, a five mile long tunnel was also proposed that lessened the grade to .03 per cent.

The steep grade was to have been from Houtzdale to a place about 5 miles northeast of  Tyrone, PA using Emigh's Gap.

Thomas Moran woodcut looking east from Emigh's Gap, published "Pennsylvania Railroad Historical and Descriptive" 1875.

The Pennsylvania Railroad in an apparent competitive contingency to the NYPC RR planned a shorter low grade line across Pennsylvania that today's historians name the "Sam Rea" line after the PRR president who's name is on it. It crossed the Allegheny frontal between Tyrone and a place south of there that was north of Bellwood, PA. It did so with a longer tunnel and but heavier grade proposed by the NYPC RR yet remaining less than 1%.

Both The NYPC RR and "Sam Rea" line would have used dramatic viaducts likely rivaling the one built across the Tunkhannock creek known as the Nicholson Viaduct 1912 - 1915 by the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad.

 

See http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/tunkhannock/photos.htm to learn about the construction of the viaduct with the tools available in 1912.

If the rough location of the NYPC RR were followed across Pennsylvania for a new high speed rail (HSR) line, structures like this one in Germany would be built. A viaduct on this magnitude together with a longer tunnel at the proposed NYPC RR (Emigh's Gap) route over and through the Allegheny frontal would result in a lesser grade.

 

Check out http://1x1.fi/9130 for more photographs of German high speed rail (HSR) construction in topography similar to Pennsylvania's.

The NYPC RR would have required 19 bridges / viaducts and 35 tunnels. Today, the number would be different due to the ability to create cuts and fills with diesel powered hydraulic construction equipment not possible with woven wire propelled steam shovels, pneumatic drills, dynamite, temporary narrow haul spoil haulage trains, and towers supporting  buckets of concrete on woven steel wires.

The New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Reborn 1925

 

New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago RR Promise

The proposed New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railroad's route is what is so interesting about the project. It would have created the shortest route from Chicago to New York. It would have had favorable grades. Had it been been built as first proposed by Ramsey in 1906 as an electrified railroad, together with the favorable grades and shorter route; it would have had operational and maintenance costs substantially less than those of steam powered railroads. A little thing called the 1907 Panic interfered.

The 1907 Panic was a banking crisis that caused a severe economic downturn.

Here was the promise as published August 21, 1906 in the New York Times:

HSR and Map New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railroad

Kalmbach Publishing Company in 1942 published a map of the railroads of Pennsylvania. The map included then existing railroads, abandoned railroads and proposed railroads. The map showed the proposed route of the New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railroad. Traced in white in the following photos of the map the route is shown east beginning at Pittsburgh. The dotted line represents an alternative route to Pittsburgh. The solid line represents a connection with the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad at North Bessemer, PA. The Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad today is owned by the Canadian National Railroad.

This route was to have had no curve exceeding 4 degrees and the ruling grade eastbound was to have been .03 and .04 westbound. Had it been built it would have been a more direct / shorter route between Chicago and New York. 

 The general location of the proposed New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railroad could serve as a new route for a new HSR Higher Speed Rail line. Such new right of way could also accommodate conventional speed and HrSR Higher Speed Rail lines using separate parallel tracks. Both the NS and CSX might operate across such a multipurpose right of way in addition to whomever might operate passenger trains at whatever service level speed.

Another advantage for the right of way is that it passes through State College, a place with a large transient population due to the Pennsylvania State University.

 

 The dotted line represents the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Easton, PA east.

This route was to have had no curve exceeding 4 degrees and the ruling grade eastbound was to have been .03 and .04 westbound. Had it been built it would have been a more direct / shorter route between Chicago and New York. 

The general route together with its favorable ruling grades offers a potential higher speed rail route across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.