In the summer of 1959 I visited with my grandparents some relatives in Penna. Most memorable was Uncle Mark, who was a retired hostler on the PRR at Altoona.

Naturally about my first question was what did you think of the T-1's. Right off they were dirty and they slipped. My take was something about the design was problematical, not imaginary. My take was the lack of deflectors caused cinders, etc from the stack to go back toward the cab and into the faces of the crew, more than ordinarily. You have to figure those engineers were pros of many years and they would have tried everything they knew to deal with the slipping. On the other hand they may have grasped after a few years the engines were already toast in the mind of management and the sooner they departed the better.

I also asked him about the J's; the driving rods were too heavy and damaged the rails in his estimation. So I tried a different tack - what class did you like the best? K-4's. I might have mentioned the M-1 4-8-2's but they were kinda like a bigger K-4 for freight to my thinking.

Clearly the PRR was a fundamentally conservative line and never got into modern northerns or articulateds. But they really went experimental at the last with the T-1's and the S2 turbine. You would think an N&W A type 2-6-6-4 with all roller bearings would have been less tricky to maintain than a T-1 or a turbine and a better match than the C&O 2-10-4 clones they chose during the War. But the PRR had more flat territory in the west than the N&W, pretty much all in the mountains. And the PRR did lease some Santa Fe 2-10-4's ca 1956. I wonder what grade of oil they used?