(erielack) Motive Power distribution

[<RWisneski_@_njtransit.com>]

I too passed on the discussion on motive power assignment to a retired railroad friend, Dick Whitehead, who worked for (among others) the Lehigh Valley.  His reply is below.  I thought it list-worthy given both the current topic and the regional similarity; I'm guessing there are plenty of EL fans who are/were also LV fans.
 
Rich Wisneski
Denville, NJ


 

Rich:

Very interesting post.

Yes... the distribution of the road locomotives on the LVRR was similar to
the EL.

Being smaller than the EL, we did not have a Chief Train Dispatcher (CTD).
The Supervisor of Train Movement (STM), the job which I held was the closest
we had  to a Chief Train Dispatcher. We ran the whole system and called the
shots concerning the assignment of road power and the "boarding" of road
trains. Sayre, Allentown, Buffalo and Niagara Falls all had a complement of
road switchers and yard "pups" which were controlled by the respective
Trainmasters. On occassion, I would "borrow" from them in order to make up a
road consist, but by enlarge, they were left alone with "their" power.
Sometimes, I'd have to loan them a unit. Ours and theirs... It worked quite
well. There was a spirit of cooperation for the common good.

As you know, we tried to run road consists with like power (all GP-38s, or
C420s, or C628's or U23Bs.) For the most part the power on the Apollos ran
all the way from Buffalo to Oak Island and vice versa. Just about all other
road power consists ran between Sayre and the "outer limits" of the LVRR.
This way we could control the movements to and from Sayre Shop for monthly
inspections, repairs and etc. For a short period in the mid 70s we ran power
through with the N&W between Bellevue, OH and Oak Island. We had to stop
this because power was "balanced" based on HP*HR and the N&W just
overwhelmed us with their higher HP locomotives and we built up a deficit
that we just could not repay.

Also, when things ran on time, (when we weren't cleaning up a wreck
somewhere) certain power would turn for certain trains. One that I happen to
remember was that SJ-4's power would turn for AP-1 at Oak Island. Since we
had only 8 road trains that ran the whole system, our road power would lay
around more than one would like at the outer terminals like Oak Island,
Buffalo and NF. In spite of that, we were able to get 10,500 to 11,500 miles
per month out of our newer units. After Conrail took over, Joe Dryberg
(Manager of the Blue Room in Philadelphia) told me that these mileages were
pretty good and were beating the mileages that the PC was getting out of
their GP-40s which ran in dedicated Trailvan Service between Beacon Park and
Chicago. (900 miles with some 70 MPH territory). The LVRR was  about 500
miles with a maximum of 60 MPH for the Apollos (Not between Lehighton and
Coxton).

I was feeling real good about this until, later on, I read an article in
Trains Magazine that said the LVRR was getting 10,000 miles/month out of
their Wyoming Class steamers in the old days. Imagine that!.

Feel free to pass this along to anyone interested.

Dick Whitehead






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End of EL List Daily V3 #1956
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