Nudge Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> George,
>
> It wasn't an accident. The FRA had a maxium speed
> allowed that went way back, as follows:
>
> Dark Territory with Train Orders 49 mph Frt - 59
> mph Pass
>
> ABS with Train Order 79 mph
>
> ABS, TO and Cab Control Signals 90 mph
>
> ABS, TO, Cab Signals and Automatic Train Stop 110
> mph.
>
>
> A lot of the SP was 79 for passenger and the F
> units were set with 84 mph over speed. Trouble
> was, with those type brake valves, you could cut
> the over speed out, right in front of you. And
> back with steam, the GS engines were balanced for
> 110 mph. (Or was it 108. ?)
>
> As far as getting a diesel on the point that got
> the over speed at 67-68 mph was easy. You just
> opened the relay cabinet behind the fireman, found
> the OSR relay and pulled off the lower left wire.
> No Over speed. This was shown to me by an Audit 1
> officer when I got an old SP unit on the point of
> Atk one afternoon.
>
> Then there were the big Barco's on Atk with the G
> to H wire jump...... the list goes on, at least
> back then.
>
> You just wanted to get over the road as fast and
> as safe as possible. You had to cut a few corners.
>
>
>
> Nudge

And what was it, the ER10 wire you pulled to limit the lead locomotive to 5 or 6 notch on and SD40-2? Made for a quieter ride while trailing locomotives stayed in 8. I remember a crew on an assigned job that had 3 assigned locomotives. They isolated the leader going west and isolated the leader coming back east and the middle locomotive ran out of fuel. The two day round trip was over 500 miles with older smaller tanks.