Durango Silverton wheel slip

Durango Silverton engine 480 was pushing empty cars back into Silverton with the drivers slipping!

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Steam
• train
• railroad

[JaiahHazelnutBrown]

The town sprays a calcium deposit onto the road to keep dust down, however this also gets on the rails and makes them very slick. The consist is also bound up in the curve and being shoved uphill.

[reddog15]

Thanks for your insight into this!

[kleetus92]

One things for sure... its valve timing is dead on. The rolling resistance of the flanges pushing the dirt out of the way would be a pain.

Like Reddog15 said, steam tractive effort is a bit hard to handle. They can pull anything once it's moving, but just don't try to start out. Diesels are just the opposite, they can start a train they can't pull.

[reddog15]

kleetus,

Thanks for your insight into the slip issue!

[kirkness333]

Wouldn't the sander solve this minor problem? If they put on the sander, it wouldn't slip... or is that just used on icey tracks? The train is pretty, you can barely find these kinds.

[reddog15]

Sand may have helped a little bit but dirt was built up really close to the track which I think caused a lot of rolling resistance with the cars.

[WhyAyeMann]

AS the railroaders say,

"a steamer can pull a train it cant start, and a diesel can start a train it cat pull.

[pennyf9]

wheel slips are awesome, who agrees with me?

[dragonriversteel]

Now that's something ,hands down ,you don't see everyday.

[6V92TA]

That is simply a beautiful sight and sound.

[Randommike1000]

idk why don't they use steam trains intead of diesel trains don't take me wrong diesel trains are good too but these steam trains are better looking then what the diesel trains are. i also think they a man job because they dont have air conditioned cabs besides sticking your head out of the window

[aswmkid3]

i watch a lot of wheel slip vids but it is because of the sound,. it just sounds so cool

[rdamurphy]

@kirkness333 Sanders don't work in reverse on steam locomotives... The sand pipes are in front of the wheels.

[kirbyfan600]

they could at least sprinkle some sand on the rails

[kirbyfan600]

@Gunny761 thank you

[Gunny761]

@kirbyfan600 They don't do much if you correct them immediately, but if you just let the wheels keep spinning, it can really tear up the track and the engine itself. Sometimes it can literally destroy the driving and connecting rods, since they aren't designed to run as fast as the wheels are spinning.

[skybluedragonator]

@southparkline1 the 'k' stands for mikado (2-8-2) and the 36 represents 36,000 pounds of tractive effort. Boiler operates on 195 psi. weighs 143 tons. Locomotive # 485 fell into a turntable and eas scrapped for parts :)