Passenger Locomotive Question

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Dear All,

Was there any sort of procedure that governed the running through of RF&P, L&N,PRR, and FEC E-units on the passenger trains that operated over the SCL and predecessors? Also, were ACL/SAL/SCL units able to run through onto these other lines?

TIA,

Phil ELRRco@AOL.com

-- Phillip L.. Bell (ELRRco@AOL.com), October 17, 2001

Answers

An unforeseen but occasional occurance would happen when ATS-equipped E-units, passing through the street-running portion of downtown Clearwater(Fl) would stop short of the passenger station,as the ATS detector, upon passing over the sheet-iron cover protecting the hand- thrown switch below,sensed a stop signal,therebye applying the brakes.Several minutes passed before the train could proceed.

-- Paul Coe (paul_coe@yahoo.com), July 11, 2002.

On the City of Miami- after the FEC strike, the City operated through Orlando with IC (or CofG) units; but by the time I moved to Jax in 1969, it was normal practice to cut off the IC units and run SCL power to Miami. This may have been to cut down on the need for these specially-equipped units to run any further than they had to, as well as to allow extra servicing time at the Terminal Enginehouse. All through trains changed engines at the Terminal by then- what great fun watching three or four E units go rocking throgh the double

-- Larry Brennan (lpbrennan@aol.com), October 21, 2001.

This question has been explored previously in this forum. The primary determinant of which units operated on which railroad was the availability of suitable train control and train stop apparatus on the engines. The RF&P had a cab signal based train control system. From say 1926 to the early 1950's, the RF&P had a continuous three aspect cab signal system, while after the 1950's, the RF&P had(and still has) a continuous coded 4 aspect cab signal system. Any equipment operating on the RF&P had to have cab signal apparatus compatible with its system. Pre-war, both the SAL and ACL diesels ordered in 1938-1942 were equipped with RF&P cab signal apparatus, as were FEC units 1001 and 1002. This permitted ACL and SAL and rarely FEC units to operate on the RF&P north of Richmond. SAL units stopped operating thru on the RF&P after around 1943 and eventually, the cab signal apparatus was removed from the SAL units. Thereafter, SAL units never ran north of Richmond, especially after the RF&P converted to coded cab signals. SAL did not ever have a train stop or cab signal system, other than a few experimental installations, so any unit could operate on its tracks. However, there were almost no instances of run throughs on the SAL in the 1950-1967 period. ACL had an intermittent automatic train stop system. Post war, its diesels were equipped to run on both the original RF&P three aspect cab signal system, and the ACL trainstop system. When the RF&P converted to a 4 aspect coded system, ACL units stopped running through under normal conditions. In 1964, ACL and RF&P instituted a through running agreement and a number of units from each railroad were equipped with each other's train control apparatus. Thus, the units which ran through had both ACL trainstop and RF&P cab signals. This continued through SCL days, when SCL discontinued the ACL train stop in 1970. The ex RF&P line still has a cab signal system.

The run throughs on the South Wind route were governed by an agreement between ACL and PRR whereby units from each road ran through. L&N units were used only if there was a road failure, but the normal route did not involve any trackage with train control or train stop. The City of Miami was a different case. IC had a cab signal system on its lines in Illinois. Therefore, any units running through had to have the IC system. The only through running on the IC was between IC and Central of Georgia. C of G had several units equipped with IC type train control and these units could operate through to Chicago. Since the ACL lines south of Waycross Ga did not have any form of train control or train stop, any units could operate there.

Southern and ACL(along with NYC) had the same type of train stop, so there were no restrictions in operating Southern units on ACL or vice versa. This also permitted NYC units to operate on the southern, but I am not sure if they ever did so.

-- Michael W. Savchak (Savchak@mnr.org), October 17, 2001.


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