Oh, there were a bunch of ways. Paper cups were the best to keep an engine loading, even after it tried to make transition. (If it did, you would not get it to load again.)

We had two SW-8s in the Army that were the only ones allowed to go off post and interchange with the C&O at Lee Hall. Trouble was the FRA would deadline one and the other one was already out with a crew.

When you picked up at Lee Hall there wasn't enough room to run round the train, so, we would drop the train back up into the USA main and when the engine cleared, let the train roll back to clear. There was only one problem, in order to make the drop, you had to get it to make transition. Well, when you went to work with either one of these, motors, you would look at the firemans door, facing the front. If it was cracked, you knew you had to slam the door to knock it into loading. The old saying, "If there is a will, there is a way. ".

You hate to do that but the Army wasn't very good at fixing things. Out of 10 other diesels, these were the only ones allowed off post. Don't even talk about the 3 #2-8-0s. Frozen boiler checks, valve gear that would "float"off settings, etc.


Nudge