How often the throttle has to be moved depends on your train(tonnage,length) and the terrain, going up hill, down hill and all the little knots in between plus swapping over from power to dynami
zug - OK, thanks, got it now ! [:-^] [whistling like a birdie, don’cha know . . . [swg] ]
Yup, that’s pretty much it - except that it’s even worse than you surmise ! Here’s “Note 1” from former (now retired) BNSF locomotive engineer Al Krug’s website (and blog) page on “C44-9 Specifications” (“Dash 9 - 44CW”) under “C44 Fuel Use & Horsepower by Throttle Position” about in the middle of the page, at: http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/dash9.htm
“Note 1: Notice that the Hp increases by 150% from throttle 1 to 2 and by 100% from 2 to 3. These huge increases make yarding trains at 10mph difficult. You must either constantly move the throttle up & down to maintain 10 mph or else apply independent brakes and work the power against the brakes making them hot. Perhaps GE had something with the 16 notch throttles on the 1960s era U25Cs.”
You might enjoy and find informative browsing among more of Mr. Krug’s “Railroad Facts and Figures” topics at: http://www.alkrug.vcn.com/rrfacts/rrfacts.htm , and his “RR Photo Essays” / “Tales From The Krug” at: http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/
Hi Randy-this is from Mary Stahl in MO. Haven’t seen your comments lately, so just thought I’d say hi. I know we did talk in the past. My Dad was Frisco employee and so was Mom, 3rd generation in her family.
Read your comment and switching is something that takes skill & knowledge. I know when Frisco was sorting cars, they would “kick” them loose on a slight downgrade. Some would bang very loud when they hit together and others made hardly a sound. Just the difference in who was doing the “kicking”.
Hi Mary ,
I hope you have been well !
I havn’t been doing a lot of switching to speak of , Mostly been on road jobs and switching my train on the road . Why is it that the customs agents always want the last car setout on a 100 car train, on a hill??
Good to hear from you !!!
Randy
adding that one to my dictionary[bow]
(have not yet gotten into rheostats yet, but they are useful at coal loadouts and dumps)
And sometimes ya gotta take the speed reduction as a hedge against the slight increase in speed on the next slight downgrade.
I knew engineers that were masters of drifting–that is running in the 2nd or 3rd notch, all without making any scrap iron (well, at least they usually didn’t make any).
And since the CNW was so anal about speeding (1 over was considered a violation), most of us kept our trains around 3-5mph under the limit so we wouldn’t get busted when a surprise run-in gave us a little boost.
MC mentioned rheostats…I had a discussion with a highly-placed Chessie System locomotive official (IIRC, this was before Chessie got this SCL-inspired option on a locomotive order). He pointed out its viability as something that could bring down and hold the speed in train-order territory.
Train speed is determined by: track condition and posted speeds; by type of train and commodities in train; by grade up, down, or level; by weather conditions; by size or length of train; by the amount of working horsepower per ton; signaling or no signaling, by factors seen and unseen, known and unknown. All of these things added together but controlled by the expertise and skill of the engineer. Some guys can walk a train at a half mile per hour and also at 90 mph with the same aplomb. Others couldn’t get a train below 2 mph before stalling nor over 30 on a tangent down hill glide. A skilled engineer doesn’t need all the electronics and doodads to do his job but he uses them to do his job better. But that doesn’t mean that one who’s never run without electronics and doodads isn’t a skilled engineer. The point is that train speeds have to be controllled, in the end, by the engineer, even with remote control…even computer operated trains have finite control by sensing. A human engineer knows by the seat of his pants, a computer by electronic sensing and programming.
The Leader system the UP (and others) has started to deploy, when enabled will try to keep the train running at maximum speed for any given situation. It displays prompts for the engineer on a screen on what action is needed. Depending on the lay of the land, once you’re up to track speed it will constantly give prompts; up one notch, down one notch etc. Sometimes the change is so frequent that by the time your hand reaches the throttle the system has changed it’s “mind” and wants you in the throttle position you’re still in. (It doesn’t just prompt the throttle for power. It will tell you when to go into dynamics and how much. It can also prompt you to set air and when to release it.)
I’ve had a few trips using it where possible. It takes into account slow orders, both temporary and permanent, but can’t “see” restrictive signals. It only sees green signals. It does well in some areas, not so well in others in my opinion. It can be a bit of a distraction when the prompts for changes are coming one after another. Ri