“Shoot from the hip. You’re sure to hit your own toes.” Bat Masterson
The “boob of a curator” (your words, not mine) was, last time I checked, Robert Withuhn - a steam expert and historian. If he doesn’t know himself where the PS-4s might have run, he almost certainly knows who does.
Chuck [modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - without 4-6-2s (they couldn’t handle the grades)]
Yes,
Thank you, but we already settled “the boob of a curator” thing on the last page. Thanks for the response.
Cheese
Kalmbach’s Guide to North American Steam Locomotives makes the following statement (about 4-8-2 operations):
With their 73" drivers they probably could have handled medium length heavyweight consists between Asheville and Knoxville without too much trouble; the inference here is that Southern did not assign the PS4 - at least on a regular basis - to their more mountainous territory. It was used on “The Rathole” since the same citation has a photograph of 6482 at Cincinnati.
Thanks,
That is most of the info I was looking for. I just now want to know if a Ps4 ever made it to Asheville at all.
Cheese
I’m willing to venture a WAG that PS4 #1406 was in Asheville on the 23rd of August, 1946. Any other WAGs out there?
I recall a recording of that engine doing service over Front Royal. Surely Asheville cannot be too bad except it sits on top of a small mountain chain. (Big for the east, but SMALL compared to the Sierras.
Hmmm,
What is a WAG?
Cheese
Proabably a Wild Ass Guess. As a retired scientist we used to use what is referred to as the swag method of analysis. That would be a scientific wild ass guess.
That be it, sometimes for really thorny decisions, I flip a coin if I can find one in time.
I do remember running across the name of Ashville in an edition of “Classic Trains” I read sometime this year—just not sure if it was about Ps4 Pacifics. It rang a bell with me because it reminded me of Ashland, OR…a cute little town we visited a number of years ago in southern Oregon. If you haven’t seen this reference I’ll be glad to look for it to see if it might be of interest to you.
Ah ha,
Well if WAG is indeed what you have said it is, then I have made many of them.
Cheese
Cheese,
I believe there was an article in Trains Magazine on the PS4 where in the last years of their service to Southern a few PS4’s worked as helpers at Saluda grade. I am unsure if that meant a base in Asheville, NC or Spartanburg, SC as I can not recall which yard/division was responsible for the helper runs. The 4-8-2 mountain types were used in passenger service and wore the same green livery as the PS4’s. There was an article in PTJ years ago about the Carolina Special and photos of the train behind the mountain types.
Hope this helps.
Alex