Bill and Tom, I spent time working for the railroads 30 years ago. Everybody in the Operations Department would have given up their higher paying management jobs to be at the throttle of a Steam Locomotive again.
The Maintenance Department killed steam. Most railroads ran extensive shops where they could virtually build/rebuild a locomotive from the ground up. The N&W shops are a good example of this. But a steam locomotive is a leaky tea kettle on wheels. They spent 50% of their time in the shop being patched/repaired/boilers cleaned out. Diesels spent 90%+ of their time in service. It was really no contest... more availability, simpler maintenance, less costs. And something about the 8:1 figure troubles me. Trains got longer and slower with diesel equipment. The physics of railroading has a lot to do with the friction of steel wheels on steel track (very slippery). The weight of a locomotive determines how long/heavy of a train it can start rolling. A 2-8-8-2 is one heavy locomotive, but I'd bet 2 diesel-electrics still out weigh it. So the pair is capable of pulling a longer train. This is what happened in the '50's. Steam locomotives were replaced by diesel-electrics and trains got longer because the diesel-electrics could get a longer train rolling. One long train required only half the crew of two short trains. The Operations Departments weren't rocket scientists, but they figured the costs out. The real shame for the steam fans among us was the horsepower end of the equation. A steam locomotive had power to spare. Any train that you could get rolling (remember friction), you could do 60 miles per hour with. Trains were shorter and blazed past us belching fire, steam, and smoke. A pair or triple of diesel-electric locomotives could get longer trains rolling, but didn't have enough horsepower to do high speeds. 20 miles per hour became a good operating speed for a freight train. This also made the Maintenance of Way Departments happy. It was much easier to maintain 20 mph roadbed than 80 mph railroad. So that's why steam died in the US. Every railroad needed to keep costs down to compete with truckers, who were stealing the business. Regards, Bob S. Graywolf writes: > The 8:1 figure came from N&W for mountain routes. Apparently they just do not > run a long a train anymore. > > -- > > Bill Owens wrote: > >> Norfork & Western did not agree with your premise. They only dropped steam >> when they could not get critical parts any longer. It took 8 diesel >> locomotives to to haul the load of one of their steam engines. It is >> another case of once the infrastructure is gone it is insanely expensive >> to replace it. Which we are going to probably eventually find out is >> the case with film. > >> The N&W built their own steam locomotives in the Roanoke, VA shops, >> including the best looking and most efficient steam locos ever built, the >> J-series.
