2013 Season of 21 Century Steam kicked off with SOU 630 running a great trip from Chattanooga to Attalla AL. 12 coaches and a concession car in the consist. Was very cold and that goes great with steam.
OK I realize this is a 'newb' question, but why do steam excursion trains always seem to have one or two diesels in the consist? Is it purely for insurance purposes, or does the steamer not have enough power to pull the train? To me, it kind of puts a damper on the overall effect, like it's just there for show and the diesels are doing the work.
It depends on the territory the train is going to run on, and yes, train length.(Weight) It is also for insurance purposes in that if the steamer fails, they have back-up right there to pull the train so the main-line is not tied up for hours and their freight trains start backing up, which if that happened too many times, steam trips would come to a fast stop. SOU 630 is a smaller steam locomotive and not made to reall pull high speed heavy consists, but she did do most of the work and the diesels were only used when needed, and this was a graded run so they were used to dynamic brake down some of the grades too.
Great photo, Jerry. Must have been a wonderful sound echoing off the bare hillside. Thanks for the explanation of the diesel backup. I didn't realize that they actually did some work along the way. Though I guess 12 coaches, a concession car, and 2 DIT diesels is a lot of tonnage for the old girl.
But UP found out last year that a diesel "helper" can be the source of problems too. Up in East Texas, the 844 was trying to stop its train when the diesel behind it went into notch 8 while the steamer wheels locked up. Nice flat spots on the drivers. UP said it was a mechanical malfunction. However, many others speculate that it was human error.
The diesel was controlled by an MU stand mounted in the cab of the 844. Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
Drifting even further off topic- Didn't I read or hear the error was actually in a connection between the 844 and diesels?
Jerry, nice shot of the 630 excursion. NS has their own reasons for diesels. When mainline excursions are scheduled on BNSF here in the west, the insurance is the main expense, so the excursions are run under Amtrak auspices to use their insurance. Therefore there are Amtrak diesels in the consist. In some places they are used for dynamic braking, saving the steam engines from trying to hold back the cars. In most cases they are also used for HEP for the passenger cars, as those cars must now be Amtrak certified and do not run with steam heat. :startled:
