Re: ?? for SV guys

I don't pretend to be the answer guy for SVRy, but here is what I have been told and learned from previous discussions of the subject. TE may not have been reduced at all. The factor in the TE equation that changes of course is the weight on drivers, but what the original weight on drivers was considered is unknown. If Baldwin figured it based on full water tanks, 1/2 full tanks or near empty tanks would affect whether the stated TE changed appreciably. It makes sense that the original TE would not have been figured on full tanks, because that could mean you would have an engine only capable of pulling it's full rating up a 6% grade if the tanks were full, which would seldom be the case. The story passed down has been that after a few trial runs SVRy added scrap rail to the running boards and scrap metal on the fron pilot deck to increase the factor of adhesion, making up for some of the lost weight.
A story that has been told here before I think is of when of the first runs going up the east side of Larch which is the steepest grade they encountered on SVRy, the engineer spun the drivers, backed off and got some sand under it and when the wheels griped the rail they took off up the grade like a racehorse. The slack action was reported to have ripped the stove loose from the floor in the caboose.