T1.jpg
(In the original document, this picture of a T1 was a hand drawn sketch. This picture is probably a good representation of the locomotive in the story and the train it was pulling.)
I reported to the crew office one day and met up with my fireman for a trip. That particular day we were running a passenger train from Crestline through Fort Wayne and on to Chicago. The incoming train was scheduled for a crew and equipment change at Crestline. We had been running diesel power for a long time and we were surprised when we were told that there were equipment issues and that we would be taking out a T1 that day.
It had been a long time since we took out a steam locomotive and we had gotten in the habit of wearing sport shirts and pants to work. Neither the fireman, who I had worked with many times, nor I had coveralls, but we did manage to find a set of goggles in the bottom of our bags.
We got a ride over to pick up the T1. She had come out of maintenance and had been in storage for a while. Most of the inspection plates were missing; it had become common practice to just leave them off - but sitting there on the ready track she still looked like she was doing 80 miles-per-hour. We climbed up in the cab and looked things over. The hostler had taken some damp waste and tried to wipe the dust off the seats but had just managed to turn it into a thin coat of mud. We did as good a clean-up as we could and got down to business.
The hostler had laid up a good thin fire; the sight glasses had water at the right levels and the tender was loaded with coal and water. Sitting there idling she held about 250 pounds of steam and it didn’t take much firing to bring her up to about 295 pounds. I didn’t want to lift the safeties because that blew water back in the cab and I didn’t want to get a soaking with nasty boiler water.
(In many of the movies showing T1’s under way; it is common to see a plume of steam just forward of the cab. The safety valves have lifted, probably at about 310 pounds. In other pictures you will see a white coating on the boiler casing around the safety valves where evaporated boiler water has left a stain. Boiler water was heavily treated to protect the waterside of boiler tubes from erosion)
We made our way through the switches and waited for the inbound train. When it showed up it was a typical passenger train for the day; a baggage car and eight or nine passenger coaches. This was a light train for a T1, especially on the straight, flat double track line into Chicago. The incoming EMD cut off from the head end and we backed down and hooked up. One of the car inspectors doing the hookup commented that he hadn’t seen a T1 in a long time.
We got clear signals and pulled out of the station. We eased past North Robinson and Bucyrus. The engine was steaming well and we had no problem with keeping the train at the track speed limits. In about a half-hour we slowed for Upper Sandusky and made our way through on the yard west-bound through track. It took me a while to get my touch back to handle the throttle, and I didn’t’ slip the front engine drivers.
(The T1 was a duplex locomotive that had issues with weight equalization between the front drive wheels, commonly called the front engine, and the rear drive wheels; the rear engine. If an engineer managed to get into a wheel slip on the front engine he had to reduce speed or even bring the train to a stop to regain traction on both engines.)
Once we got used to the heat, dirt and noise of a steam locomotive, things went routinely. We held close to 80 miles-an-hour from Upper Sandusky until we had to slow for the yard and big curve at Lima. We left Lima and headed toward Elida, about a 12 minute run as we accelerated out of the Lima yard limits.
About the time we crossed the Ottawa River outside Elida, my fireman made the comment “This may be the last time we ever do this. I wonder just what this thing will do?” I thought for a bit and replied; “Let’s find out.”
(If you look at Google maps in the satellite view, the remains of the double track bridge over the Ottawa River at Elida and the AuGlaize River at Ottawa are still visible).
I pulled back on the throttle and the T1 eased up to 90 MPH effortlessly. I let it sit there for a bit and then I eased it back a bit more. At 95 the engine didn’t seem to be working hard. The ride was getting a bit rough but not too bad. I kept opening the throttle as small Ohio towns flashed by. Delphos was almost a blur. By the time we reached Middle Point, the speedometer was well above 100. Ohio has scores of county roads and farm crossings and by then I was on the whistle almost continuously. I didn’t want to hit a truck or tractor at 100 MPH.
I was keeping a close eye on the signals to make sure that we weren’t running up on slower traffic and as went through Van Wert there was a crowd of people standing on the station waving as we went by. I didn’t realize the significance of this until later. We went past Convoy at just a little under 110 MPH and I held it steady there through Dixon and Monroe, the ride was as rough as I wanted it to get.
(The T1 was a “free steaming” locomotive. The stoker, feed water system and boiler could make all the steam the throttle called for.)
We crossed the Ohio/Indiana line and we getting close to Fort Wayne’s Baker Street Station, our only stop between Crestline and Chicago. I started easing off the throttle and about Maples, Indiana I started to apply train brakes. I got it slowed down pretty well and I was legal as I came into Adams and Piqua, the yards at the east side of Fort Wayne.
We eased through the yards and came off the main onto the siding for the Baker Street platform. As I came past the platform, I noticed a group of people standing around the T1 stop post. Normally there would be several people there who would inspect the train during the stop, but there were a lot more people here that day – and several of them were wearing suits.
I brought the train to a stop and set the brakes. One of the suits walked up to the cab steps and said; “Get down here – right now. I want to talk to you.” I climbed down and the first question from the suit was; “Just what in the **** did think you were doing? And, don’t try to deny anything because we have the block tapes that show exactly what happened.”
About then it dawned on me why people were standing on platforms waving at us. The telegraphers had sent word that a T1 was making a speed run. You can run like the wind, but you can’t outrun the telegraph and the CTC tapes.
I didn’t know just who the suit was, but he was red in the face and obviously had the authority to give me a world class chewing out. There was a crowd of other suits there to watch the show. He told me he should fire me, and if he didn’t fire me I was going to spend the rest of my life running a hump engine somewhere. And, the chewing out went on from there – in very colorful railroad terms. My fireman had moved over to the engineer’s seat box and was looking out the window – watching the chewing out.
The suit looked up at him and said; “And you were a part of this too. This is the last time you’ll ever sit on an engineer’s seat – you’re going to be running local car hauls from now on.”
By this time I figured that he was going to pull us off the run and call a local crew to take the train on into Chicago. He finally ran out of breath and told me; “Just get out of here.”
I turned around to climb back up into the cab and just as I put my foot on the first step, the suit said; “Come back here.”
I thought that he had changed his mind and this was going to be the last straw – I was fired for sure.
The suit guy lowered his voice a bit and asked; “Was it fun?”
The fireman and I got written up for the incident, but with the provision that if we didn’t get any more write-ups in a 12-month period, the reprimand would be removed from out records. It was a wrist slap.
And, it was indeed that last time I ever ran a T1. And yes, it was fun.
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