(erielack) Re: West-end helpers?

["Joe Mayer" <jmayer_@_insight.rr.com>]

I have discussed this topic with Mike, but thought I would share with the 
rest of you.  Nothing I have ever read, nor have any conversations with men 
who worked the area around Wadsworth/Silver Creek Hill, indicated "assigned" 
pushers in that area.

I have had some discussions with Keith Robbins regarding this.  According to 
Keith, when an EB needed a push over the hill, the preferred method was to 
pull a WB into the siding at either Silver Creek or Sterling, cut their 
power, cross them over and use them to push the EB.  They could then cut 
back through the manual trailing-point crossover at Sterling to head WB to 
get back to the head end of their train.

Without a ready set of WB power, they could also double the hill.  They 
would cut the train and take the head end up and over the crest of the hill 
on the #2 track (main), run around it through the (short) EB siding, pull 
the tail end to just short of crest, run back through the EB siding to the 
head end, then shove back to reassemble the train.  Half the train is now 
over the hill, and away you go.

Keith also stated that if a train was suspected of possibly stalling on the 
hill, and a higher priority EB was behind it, they would likely hold the 
slower EB at Polk or Sterling to allow the hotter train by.  He stated that 
sometimes they would split an EB at Sterling, with the back half on the EB 
siding, and the front half crossed over to the WB siding, split in the 
middle to clear the interlocking.

As shown in the piece I wrote for The Diamond years ago, I witnessed an EB 
CR freight that stalled before even reaching Wadsworth get a push from an 
ex-EL RS3 that was switching Rittman.  I don't know that this was the 
steepest part of the hill, but the sharp S-curve by the brickyard probably 
added enough drag to bring a struggling train to its knees.

Joe Mayer
ELHS 702

> From Archives_@_Railfan.net
> Message-ID: <6A08BC9EEC764C6F8C04F6FFC6B23D6E_@_Home>
> References: <821748.74216.qm_@_web31607.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:45:09 -0500
> From: "Rich Behrendt" <rbehrendt_@_columbus.rr.com>
> Subject: Re: (erielack) Western Meeting? West end helpers?(2)
>
> Mike,
> To answer your first question is 'probably'...I talked w/Joe Schveder
> tonight, who has tentatively lined up a meeting at the Italian/American 
> club
> in Ravenna, and is finishing up final details on the meal and
> entertainment - no firm date yet, but most likley early April - we'll
> announce details once we finalize everything...
>
> To answer your second question, and speaking of what I know of parts of 
> the
> Mahoning in/around Youngstown westward to Ken, I'm not aware of any 
> pushers
> in regular service there, although someone like Steve T. might shed some
> further light on operations...
>
> Further west, I know the EL did have to push an occassional freight up 
> over
> Wadsworth hill/Silver Creek, plus there was some grades between Mansfield
> and Ashland that also resulted in need of pusher power...
>
> Rich Behrendt
> ELHS #384
> - ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mike Spinelli" <idrsspin_@_yahoo.com>
> To: "EL Mail list" <erielack_@_lists.railfan.net>
> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 1:46 PM
> Subject: (erielack) Western Meeting? West end helpers?
>
>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Hope everyone had a great holiday season.
>>
>> First question, is there going to be a Western Spring Meeting this year?
>>
>> Second, were there ever helpers on the Kent and Mahoning Divisions? I 
>> know
>> power
>> was added, or cars taken off at each end (Marion, Meadville), but where
>> there
>> ever helpers on either division? Even with those measures, heavy trains
>> crawled,
>> and sometimes stalled and doubled certain hills. It's one of those
>> questions I
>> was always afraid to ask...
>> Mike Spinelli


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