Part 4 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - action on the grade

[trainman203]

Part 4 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - action on the grade

Note:  all DCC references are for grade operation with an NCE pro cab running steam engines with tsunami 2–2 decoders.

The Midland Western is a subsidiary of the Gulf Coast Lines, operated by both the Missouri Pacific and the Frisco.  The year is 1940.

Working from switch lists and waybills, the train crew always knew that they were going to have a steep climb up the westbound grade out of Laskey.  The shop crew in Midland accordingly assigned one of several Russian decapods available to take No. 3 to Thunder Grove.  Two from the Missouri Pacific and two from the Frisco are always on the property, along with two that belong to the Midland Western itself. Long ago the Midland Western realized that Russian decapods were the ideal power for this line, good tractive effort combined with light axle loading suited to the lightly built track.

On occasion in the past, a mikado from either the Missouri Pacific, or the Frisco had been on the property.  These engines were generally assigned only to switching in the yards at either end, thought to be a little heavy for the light trackage out on the branch.  Today, though, none were in Midland, so a decapod was assigned instead of one of the several Missouri Pacific consolidations also always on the property.

Before departing Laskey, both brakeman had walked the length of the long train, checking all the couplers and the air hose connections, while the hogger (engineer) pumped up the air brakes to service pressure.  Long ago in the past, when the line was first built, a train had actually accidentally parted while going upgrade.  On that day of all days, the air had not been properly checked. The last four cars and the crew in the caboose enjoyed a wild unrestrained ride all the way back down to Laskey, where they were finally able to set the hand brakes and stop.

With the air brake pressure up and all inspections completed, the hogger sees the highball sign from the conductor way back at the caboose at the depot. He sounds two shorts on the ATSF six chime whistle (F3), opens the cylinder cocks (F4) eases the throttle open with the Johnson bar (F5) in full forward position, and begins to creep forward. He closes the cylinder cocks after a few seconds (F4 again), and runs the train a little past the depot, to where underbrush begins to reclaim the right of way. Here he blows down the boiler (F10) good and hard to clean it out and ensure maximum steaming capacity where it will be needed on this demanding uphill trip ahead. After about 15 seconds, he closes the blowdown  (F10 again.)

Luckily, there's been no rain overnight along this part of the line, and the hogger finds that no sanding is required to avoid driver slippage.  The fireman is working very hard to keep the fire up, and accordingly the steam pressure, which he keeps just below safety valve release pressure.

The 1632 is a coal burner, which means that when heavily worked on a grade like this one, lots of cinders are coming out of the stack, as well as relatively heavy smoke caused by the intense draft that results from the heavy steam exhaust from the cylinders going up the stack.  Fortunately, the wind is blowing the trailing smoke off to one side, so the cinders and coal dust are not settling on the caboose and the passengers riding inside. 

Oil burning steam engines occasionally run on the Midland Western, and this grade is a favorite place for the fireman to sand the flues to clean the flues, the heavy exhaust causing a stiff fire draft that pulls a shovelful of sand right through the flues to scour out thick oily residue that comes out in thick greasy black smoke.  When the crew in the back sees this happening, they rush to close all the windows in the car to keep from being coated with this oily mist.  Fortunately, this is not the case today.

Finally, the engine crew can look ahead and see the water tank at the top of the grade where they will definitely need to take on water that's been largely used up steaming up the grade. The problem here is that with the tank being right at the summit, they have to stop at the tank while the train is still mostly on the grade, so, starting after taking on water will prove difficult to get the train past the summit.