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DateTime |
Author |
Posting |
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12/25/02 22:06 |
Chris Frissell |
Lately I've had a little bit of time to ponder late-1960s
consists for the Mainstreeter and North Coast limited as they passed through
the Rocky Mountain Division.
Occasionally one sees photos of these trains with the usual A-B-A
combination behind an additional A unit tagged on point as helper. The examples I have seen have all been
from Bozeman Pass or Homestake Pass segments of the line. So, some questions: Under what conditions were helpers used on
these passes? I assume it had a lot to do with consists and tonnage, so that
meant mainly in the summer and early fall months for the NCL and, at least
through the mid-60s, the December express freight shipping and mail surge for
the Mainstreeter. Did winter
conditions ever factor in to warrant passenger helpers in this decade? Any one have specific recollections or
records of how frequently and what season helpers were used and how were
helpers operated on these Passenger trains?
I assume helpers joined westbound trains and uncoupled from eastbounds
at Livingston, but once a helper was on point, did it stay the distance to
Missoula (or clear through to Paradise for an assist over Evaro too?). Did Mullan Pass and/or Evaro rate helpers
of their own accord? |
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12/25/02 23:03 |
Bill Kuebler |
As a point of technicality, a fourth diesel unit in a
locomotive such as you describe in your question was really not a
"helper." It was simply one of four units in a four-unit
locomotive. The engine crew's pay, however, was directly related to the
number of units in a diesel locomotive, because their pay was based on total
"weight on drivers" of the locomotive they handled. For that
reason, passenger crews liked having a fourth unit, whether they needed it or
not. In any case, they usually didn't refer to a fourth unit as a
"helper", but merely as one of the units in their locomotive. As for conditions warranting four units on
trains 25, 26, 1, and 2, the usual factors were: running times required for
schedule, tonnage, ruling grades, availability of units, and sometimes
weather. There is a common misconception among some NP fans that four unit
passenger locomotives were reserved for lines west of Livingston. While this
is generally true during the 1950s (and even then there were exceptions), by
the 1960s there were enough F-units in the transcontinental pool--and few
enough passenger trains using those units (trains 5 & 6, for example,
were discontinued in 1960)--to allow more four-unit passenger locomotive
operations than was the case in earlier years. I am unaware of any written
rule or company policy that said there had to be four units if there were
more than a certain number of cars in a passenger train, but Special Instructions
did contain tonnage ratings that were to be observed. Judging from numerous
photos of trains covering the NP diesel era, when trains 25 and 26 got up to
about 14 cars or more, a fourth unit was not uncommon, even in the 1950s--but
neither was a fourth unit mandatory. The NP used four-unit locomotives more
liberally as time went on, so that by the mid-60s, four units were much more
common all over the system. As for trains 1 and 2, the length of the train
that might get four units was also up around 14-15 or more cars. There were
times when trains 1 and 2 (the Mainstreeter) had five units. The longest
Mainstreeter I know of was train 1 that passed through Fargo on July 4, 1966.
It had 26 cars. That was a freak deal, though. Its usual max length in those
years was around 16 or 17 cars. As
always, there were exceptions to whatever "pattern" one might
observe. I know of instances where a 14-car North Coast Limited operated with
three units, even west of Livingston (three could handle a 14-car train
anywhere on the NCL route), and other instances where, say, a mere 13 cars
got four units, even east of Livingston. In the coldest winter weather, a
fourth unit was quite common, even on trains that were less than 14 cars,
because steam generators were prone to malfunction. If all three units' steam
generators were working, however, three units could usually handle a 14-car
train, even in very cold weather--IF they were all working. Sometimes it took
a great deal of effort by the engine crew to keep them (or get them) working.
In February 1969, for example, No. 26 nearly froze up west of Staples because
a broken water line effectively rendered all the steam generators useless for
providing heat to the train. In desperation, the engine crew ran 83 miles per
hour (right up against the governor) in a grand effort to get into Staples
before the train froze. They made it--barely. In that particular instance,
however, the number of units in the consist was irrelevant to the crisis that
had developed. On other occasions, an extra unit made a big difference as to
steam generation. Basically, a fourth
unit on a 14 or 15-car train translated into higher rates of acceleration
from stops--and thus a better chance to make up lost time on the schedule. A
fourth unit also translated to a lower throttle setting to maintain speed on
ascending grades. For example, a 14-car NCL with three units would require an
average throttle setting of "Run 7" (Run 8 was the highest) to
maintain a train speed of about 30 miles per hour during the climb of Butte
mountain (2.2% grade), whereas four units could do the same job with an
average throttle setting of Run 5. Frequent throttle adjustments were always
necessary, of course, because of curvature and slight changes in grade and in
train speed, but you get the idea.It is interesting to observe photos of the
1947 North Coast Limited. During the summer season, it was a 16-car train in
those days, and many of the cars were heavyweights. Even so, three F-3s
usually handled the train over Bozeman Pass and Butte mountain without
helpers. I'm sure they were in Run 8 the whole time and could barely keep
schedule, but they did it. On other occasions, helpers were added to the
train for the steepest grades, such as Evaro hill west of Missoula. Jim
Fredrickson has film footage of train 2's helper, the 1356 I believe,
uncoupling from the rear of the train at Evaro, circa 1951-52. I have seen
one photo of the NCL (train 2 in the pre-dome era) with a steam helper on the
rear of its obs--again, ascending Evaro Hill. Helpers on the rear of the obs
was pretty much forbidden, but there was at least one exception to the rule.
I suspect that was a 16-car train, but don't know for sure. I just checked the tonnage ratings for
passenger F-3s on the 2.2% grades, and it was 460 tons per unit. The rating
for three units, then, would have been 1380 tons. Average car weight for the
1947 NCL would have been somewhere around 80-85 tons, so a 16-car train would
have weighed 1280-1360 tons. Those figures aren't precise, but they're close.
As you can see, a 16-car 1947-era NCL would have almost maxed out a
three-unit set of F-3s. |
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12/25/02 23:48 |
Chris Frissell |
Wow, that was a fast rise, Bill! Clearly I assumed too
much from a fairly small sample of photos with 4 units. Besides the association of the photos with
those scenic passes, reasons I suspected helper service include the
present-day use of helpers in freight operations on those grades, the
steam-era helper operations for these trains on Evaro Hill that you
mentioned, and the fact that in most of the photos I can recall, a third cab
unit was tacked on the point of the usual A-B-A diesel set (i.e., A-A-B-A as opposed to an A-B-B-A combination
or A-B-A-A). Your description makes
it clear there was a single engine crew, which I take it means that any time
one sees a photo of these four-F-unit couplings, as a general rule the engine
set was running through between the usual points of power change-out for
passenger trains. Thanks for 'helping' set that straight. |
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12/26/02 0:48 |
John Moore |
Extreme weather conditions, especially in the Dakotas and
Montana often dictated an additional unit just for the additional steam
generator capacity. In the fifties a helper would sometimes be added on at
Whitehall, Montana, east of Butte, and this was usually a steamer. This time
of year often saw extra power due to the increase in ridership, and in
headend traffic. I cannot say for
sure how often or even whether a steam generator car was added to the NCL from
time to time since I did not ever observe one on the NCL through Montana.
They saw a lot of use when non steam generator freight equipment had to be
used or added to a consist. |
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12/26/02 8:48 |
Bill Kuebler |
That's right. Engine sets, whether three or four units,
operated in the transcon passenger locomotive pool out of Livingston.
Locomotives ran out of there on a 16-day cycle that included most of the main
line passenger trains--and this cycle included some of the locals, such as
trains 3, 4, 5, and 6. On some occasions, depending on the year, fast
freights on the west coast were part of this pool operation as well. Having said all that, however, a four-unit
set, and for that matter even a three-unit set, didn't always stay together
during the entire 16-day cycle. For example, in 1959, the standard three-unit
set that came into Seattle on train 407 (Day 2 of the 16-day cycle) was
trimmed to only two units for its next-day trip out on train 6 and return the
following day on train 5. Then, after arriving Seattle on train 5 on Day 4 of
the 16-day cycle, that third unit would rejoin the other two and the trio
would take train 2 out the next evening. Trains 5 and 6, Spokane-Seattle
locals, usually didn't need three units in those days, so the third unit just
sat out the local run. Four-unit sets were handled much the same way. Units
not needed for part of the 16-day cycle would be taken out of the set for a
day or two and then coupled back in when appropriate. That 16-day cycle
always began at Livingston on train 25, and ended there 16 days later, also on
train 25. If major maintenance wasn't scheduled, there was a 24-hour rest and
minor maintenance between cycles.
Though rare, there were instances when train 25 or 26 had only two
units. Quite surprising to me, and I don't know why there would be only two,
other than perhaps a temporary shortage of units for some reason. In one
photo, it was train 26 at Billings, circa 1956, an A-B set. In another
instance, it was train 25 at Fargo in April 1958, also an A-B set. Strange,
because in both cases the train was 12 cars long. Reminded me of CPs
operation. That road was fond of maxing out two units on their 13-car
"Canadian", even through the mountains. I never could understand
that. As for the NP's typical A-A-B-A combo on four-unit sets, that was strictly
a matter of availability. In those years, there were about three times as
many cab units as booster units in the transcon passenger locomotive fleet.
Even so, other combinations occurred from time to time, such as A-B-B-A;
A-B-A-A etc. I've even seen A-A-B-B, but A-A-B-A was the most common. |
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12/27/02 7:47 |
Bob Plaehn |
I had the opportunity to watch (and occasionally ride the
cab) of both the NCL and Mainstreeter while living in Missoula and later
Dickinson from '68 to the demise of passenger service. I do seem to recall a few rare times when
a steam heater would be on #26 at Dickinson when it had been extremely cold
for several days. Then there was the
extremely interesting morning in when my new wife and I awoke one morning
while aboard #25. We were standing in
Dickinson, ND and I could tell we were already two hours behind
schedule. The trainman related we had
been there for over an hour and the lead F unit would not move. After another two hours and the diagnosis
of an electrical cabinet failure, the local switcher (a GP9)removed the
offending unit was then put on the lead ahead of the B-B-A units
remaining. We then proceeded all the
way to Livingston with that combination.
We kept the schedule and even made up a little time. It was quite a sight to watch the GP9
approach station stops with the steam loco type bell clanging away. Some time
I will relate about the night that #25 disappeared! Great forum. I enjoy
reading the various posts. |