Re: C&S Operating Practices

Posted by Rick Steele on Feb 03, 2015; 3:07am
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-S-Operating-Practices-tp287p679.html

Chill Derrell,

You're giving too much creedence to what should be significant insignifica. I can show you drawings of three stacked UP 800's, 4000's with Wind Wings and oil burners, and all kinds of modifications. These were done, sometimes at the behest of Master Mechanics and sometimes at the behest of Research and Development.

What we tend to forget is that the C&S wasn't static. They experimented. They cut hatches into the top of Box Cars, they put drop ends on wooden gons and then reinforced those ends with truss rods (or tie rods if you prefer), on the broad gauge they used wooden and steel ingoldsby dump cars, they used plug doors in their early broad gauge box cars and later replaced these doors with sliders.

In other words, they did what they felt they needed to do to compete and to make due with what they had. Changing the main rods on the locomotives? Fine. Go look at the 60 and tell me where the eccentrics for the Stephenson links are. What? You found them on the two inside drivers? Fancy that...

Yes, we get grumpy, but the railroad is a constantly evolving place. You can model a Coal Car based on a photo that was taken on September 1. If that car went into the shop on September 2nd, then you'd have to rebuild your model if you wanted it to look like the car that emerged on September 4th.

Hell, man, you know that. You also know that the 2-6-0's were converted to oil long before the 70, and converted back to coal permanently after a couple of summer seasons.

So the short mains didn't work out, at least not on the C&S, but neither did the compound New York Air Pump on the 71. But you don't know if you don't try. Just be glad that we have the photos to look at and wonder about.

It just makes life interesting, it's nothing to get irritated about.

Rick