Re: [Ausloco] Re:Smaller locos leading larger locomotives

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

gm49class@bigpond.com wrote:

> I have to disagree with Eddie. In steam days in NSW if one loco was assisting another through a section then the larger loco usually led.
> This was because with double headed steam locos only the compressor of the leading engine operated. Accordingly, regulations stated that the engine with the larger capacity air pump and main resevoir was to be placed in the lead. Generally this rule was observed, but exceptions did occur.

And I have to disagree with Peter. Whatever the regulations may or may
not have said (and that is an interesting study in itself - WHICH
regulations?) I would still say that it was commoner for the smaller
engine to lead. 

One can easily take some test cases - for instance on the south, 36 + 38
combinations were quite common. I would claim that the 36 almost always
led. No doubt this claim can be objectively tested to some extent by a
survey of photographs? (Of course someone may claim that the 36 was an
assistant engine from Goulburn to Demondrille or Kapooka or somewhere,
thereby falling under the rules for assistant engines over short (!)
distances...)

And at the opposite end of the scale, in cases of 30T + 32 combinations
on (say) the Mudgee line, I cannot recall ever seeing the 32 leading -
but admittedly the number of instances is scarcely enough to be
statistically significant.

> On the short north on passengers this was usually the case. The exception was down goods where the smaller loco led the larger one.

Except that is one area where I would claim that the opposite most often
occurred - e.g. 59 + standard goods combinations with the 59 leading.

But presumably we are all agreed that if the "big" engine was a 57 or 58
or 60, the little loco led. 

Eddie

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