jcpatten Wrote:
=======================================================
> There's several tales in the Maine two foot books
> about crews running (on the flats anyway) at 60
> miles per hour on passenger trains. SR&RL, WW&F,
> and maybe even B&SR. However the ride was pretty
> rough in the cars behind the engine!
>
> Passenger engines are counterbalanced differently
> than freight engines, of course. Maine 2 foot
> engines are smaller compared to the South African
> engines - thus they weigh less. Maybe weight
> makes a difference in this case.
>
> On the WW&F one time we did a speed test on an
> engine and got up to 40 MPH. I guess the ride in
> the cab was pretty rough.
I would love to have seen WW&F 10 doing 40 mph! She's a very light engine with 28" drivers. The rods must have been flying!
The most specific stories of 60 mph runs on the Maine Two-Footers concern Dana Aldrich at the throttle of SR&RL 10, an outside-frame Baldwin 2-4-4T with 36" drivers that was very similar to B&SR 7 and 8 at the Maine NG Museum (though they have only 35" drivers). All three were primarily passenger engines. As I've posted before I once had a cab ride in B&SR 8 at Edaville in which I had trouble keeping my balance because of the engine's hunting at speed (a behavior that's apparent even in 1930s silent film footage of 8 on the B&SR), and I doubt we were doing more than 30 mph -- probably more like 20 mph. Yet SR&RL 10 is supposed to have ridden so smoothly that she was known as "The Dancing Lady", and on one fast run Dana Aldrich was so unconcerned or unaware of his speed that the conductor had to climb over the tender to tell him to slow down because the passengers were terrified.
I understand the Maine NG Museum's new ROW in Gray, ME will include a long, flat tangent, so perhaps when they have B&SR 7 running again they can do a speed test.
-Philip Marshall
