Re: Question for Earl on double heading

Well, I'm not Earl, but I can answer your question since I am frequently the one running the helper. Normally, both engineers work their engines to pull their portion of the tonnage. Neither engine is loafing or working at capacity. This way it is an easier trip for both crews and locomotives. If one crew is having problems for some reason the other crew will pick up a little extra load to help them out.

463 is capable of pulling a 6 car train up the 4% grade so it requires a helper with the standard 7 car train. We try to keep it in the regular rotation as often as reasonably possible, particularly when we only have four engines in service. We will sometimes double head a train just to lob it over the hill so we can position other locomotives for scheduled maintenance or special events and still keep a K-36 available for back up in Chama. That was the case with the train this past Saturday when we ran the 463 with 488 as a helper.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2017 10:26PM by Russ489.