[Ausloco] Re: Smaller locos leading larger locos

["Robert Bushby" <romanabt@tassie.net.au>]

Everyone's favourite used to be the NSW North Coast Line 1½ combo of a 48
leading a 45 after the crews banned the 45 class from lead engine status.

This practice was quite common for a number of years up that way, but meant
you had no dynamic brake to drop down the grades with and made train
handling more difficult. And on a passenger train, the 48's could be quite
lively trying to run to time. They also had no auto staff exchanger from my
memory, nd that really cost time up that way as the Limited and the Express
(Brisbane of course) needed to run through most stations on the auto to run
to time. There were a few pretty keen enginemen up that way in those days
who could not only make up  bit of time, but do it without breaking all the
crockery in the RS's and the RBS's.

On QR in steam days, the train engine led, and it was always the big engine,
as it had the bigger compressor. There were very few places anything larger
than a PB15 was allowed to be the second engine anyway, because of the
bridge weight limits up there in those days. But Gowrie Junction to
Toowoomba on the Western Line was one place where big locos commonly double
headed assisting up Gowrie Bank on the last stretch into Toowoomba - very
common during the wheat season. There is a great sound track of that on the
ARHS record "Steam in the Sunshine State".

My two bobs worth,

Rob Bushby
South Coast Extended (HO - NSWGR)
(under construction)
Queenstown, Tasmania.
romanabt@tassie.net.au


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Failed tests, classes skipped, forgotten locker combinations. 
Remember the good 'ol days
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