North Eastern Railroad Passenger Activity (c) 2003

 

NERP Raton #018-1b Monday 1:07 pm

 

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Work Order: NERPRAT018-1b

Time: 1:07 p.m.

Season: Spring

Weather: Clear

Difficulty:  hard (auto-fireman off), easy (auto-fireman on)

Duration: 1 hour

Train: 4-8-2 USRA Mountain, with 2-8-2 Mikado and F7s 223A,B,C,D 15xstainless steel cars

Class: 1

 

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It's Spring, 1953.  You're assigned to the NERR's Raton Pass helper service. 

 

Back your engine to the waiting Nor'Easter Limited F7s and couple to them, then wait for the conductor's signal to proceed forward over Raton Pass. 

 

You're an old hand at this, but it always helps to remind yourself and your fireman that you must maintain a minimum speed of 18-20 mph all the way up the Pass.  The F7's will be at Notch 8 most of the way and any speed slower than that for any extended amount of time may burn out their traction motors.  Downgrade, braking is the problem.  Maximum 25 MPH downgrade.

 

Mind the boiler water level.  The 3% grade up and down the pass will cause the guages to read about 50% higher and lower, respectively, than they really are.  You don't want to level out at the summit with an empty boiler.  Too much water, and you're sure to run out of steam going upgrade.

 

You'll stop and detach from the Nor'Easter about milepost 648.  Then reverse all the way back over the Pass and back to Raton.  The second section of the Nor'Easter is due into Raton at 2:33 and is going to need your help over the pass as well.

 

Speed Limits and restrictions:

 

Yards = 15 MPH

Upgrade minimum approx. 20 MPH to avoid traction motor damage

Upgrade limit = 40 MPH

Downgrade limit = 25 MPH

 

Drive Safely!

 

Add-ons Required:

 

none, only NERR and standard equipment used

 

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Gary Gardner

 

North Eastern Railroad

 

Executive Engineer #18