Long ago (1967) and far away (C&O, Walbridge, OH) a crew I was observing was told to take a 147-car coal train straight from the hump receiving track to "the Harbor" (Presque Isle coal pier). In those days, there were large numbers of 70-ton, 80-ton, and so-called Super-80 hoppers in service, so the gross weight of our train was probably about 15,000 tons. The approach to the hump was 6% and twice our two GP-9s stalled out. Upon receiving a ration of flack from the Hump Yardmaster about coming down to show our Engineer how to start that train, the Engineer said something largely unintelligible about the ultimate destination of all 147 cars.

Now our train was still stretched after our last stall-out. With a “Watch this” he called for the conductor on the rear end to open his conductor’s valve, put the brake (a No. 24-RL, if memory serves) in “Full Release,” and backed down hard to bunch the slack as much as he could. When we stalled out in reverse, he moved the brake valve back to “Release,” applied the Independent, and told the Conductor to close the conductor’s valve. When the Conductor advised him he could near the brakes well ahead of the caboose starting to release, the Engineer went to run-8 forward. Now I expected there would be a virtual storm of scrap iron, but we crept over the crest of the hump at about 2 mph with the ammeter pegged well into the red and the traction motors smoking so badly you couldn’t see back more than 10 or 12 carlengths. As more cars came over the hump, and we started down into the bowl, the weight began to shift and momentum started to build. By the time we reached the Terminal Supertindent's office at Walbridge Road, we were up to 10 or 12 mph, the ammeter was back in the green, and the traction motors had stopped smoking. We proceeded to Presque Isle without further delay -- all of which would probably have gotten us fired if done today.