I_love_D&RG Wrote:
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> First off, what were the max speeds of the D&RG
> Class 25 2-4-0, Class 35 2-6-0, and No. 13/101
> Mountaineer? Second, what were the max pulling
> capacity of these locomotives. like how many
> freight wagons or passenger cars could they pull?
> Third, where do the names of Tabi-Wachi (No.2) and
> Shou-wa-no (No.3) come from? Fourth, what was the
> range of these locomotives, like how far could
> they run before running out of fuel? Any answers
> will be appreciated.
Understand that "maximum speeds" are almost never achieved in normal operation for numerous reasons. Fast running was very destructive to iron rails, hard on the equipment, and unsafe in an era of wood frame equipment and light rails with no tie plates and light ballasting. Speed was expensive and most railroads did not want to run very fast.
Normal running speed for class 25 engines on the D&RG was about fifteen miles per hour, up to about twenty miles an hour if time had to be made up. It was found the engines were insufficiently stable and even by 20 MPH they oscillated to a fair extent. Hence why the D&RG switched to purchasing 4-4-0's and later 4-6-0's for its later passenger power. Normal passenger trains in the early 1870's was about three cars, sometimes four. Illustrating how railroads sometimes built up their own traffic base, passenger traffic grew quickly. By 1876/1877 the class 37 4-4-0's were running at 20 MPH normal cruising speed, faster to make up time, with normally four cars but sometimes 5 or 6. By early-mid 1880's the normal train on that same front range route was 7 or 8 cars at schedules that demanded 30+ MPH running in places.
Normal freight trains ran about ten mile per hour schedule speed--a little slower uphill, a little faster downhill to make up for it. Mogul and consolidation-type engines were regarded in that era (the iron rails era) as very hard on track at speeds greater than about 12 to 15 miles per hour. Strings of ten cars or more were not uncommon on the modestly-graded Denver-Pueblo route.
All the above is taken from period journals and correspondence from various sources.
Fuel range depends essentially on how much coal you want to pile in the tender combined with how hard you're working. I have not read any period correspondence stating their range between coalings--such a mundane matter was usually beneath notice during a period when even the "express" trains usually stopped at nearly every station anyway. Figure about a pound of coal burnt per gallon of water evaporated for an engine of that era on average, subject to the usual variables. The engine would have to refill water numerous times before it ran low on coal. Wood-fueled engines had to take on wood much more often because wood has so much less energy density than coal but that's a nonfactor here because the D&RG used coal right from the start.
I do not know much about the double fairlie--it doesn't get mentioned often in period writing--but with its flexible wheels and lack of guide wheels coupled with its axle load being higher than other D&RG engines of the time it would not have operated at any but slow speed with any regularity. I've read that it was mostly used as a helper on steeply-graded sections which would probably be its best use.
