OK, I'll admit it, this is here just because it's too cool not to share:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater



Having said that, could recreating something like this be used as a promotional tool on a heritage road? Some sort of strong-man team contest--or strong women?

Of course, it helps if your track is level enough and if the engine rolls easily enough!!

Roller bearings are great!!

Timken had a bunch of ladies pulling the Four Aces. The Milwaukee Road was known for shoving matches/tug of wars between the electric motors and steam locomotives. It must have been a sight to see one of the motors dragging a 2-6-6-2 and 2-8-0 away with their drivers and motion thrashing.

Something else on this.

https://penneyvanderbilt.wordpress.com/ ... s-by-hand/

Dressing a bunch of girls in "leggy" clothes like that, hauling a locomotive. Can you imagine how that would go over today?

Maybe better than you think!! After all Gal Gadot turned out great in the new interpretation of "Wonder Woman."

And who says women can't be strong? British Railways saw this years ago!!

(By the way, the message of this film, about how to lift stuff, is still important today. Our locomotive, car, and track parts haven't gotten lighter over the years!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVvQ9pIo6_I


Of course, we must pay tribute to a very interesting lady, with talent and a nice career.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Rhodes

My Army PT uniform covers less.

The real problem I have with with those pictures is no PPE.

Having said that perhaps the LRW Board of Directors could challenge the REMSA Board with a western Class I loaning the use of one their larger steam locomotives. You can guess where my money will be.

At least they have closed toe shoes.....

Sorry it's in Portuguese, but this was filmed in Utah at Heber. Not quite the same but... https://youtu.be/XDtZsb3EIFU

I'm not sure I would believe the first picture to be anything other than staged. The UP shop switcher used to give a good grunt trying to move 3985.

Watching the C&O 1309 videos, Both of the diesels seem to be unhappy trying to move the old 2-6-6-2 out of the B&O museum.

Steam engines are nothing short of bloody heavy objects.

Since there was video of the gals pulling the NYC S1, I guess it must have happened.

These days, You'd best be careful trying to pull off a stunt like that. It's most likely to land one in hot water.

It's a little different though if railroad workers are doing the pushing and pulling.

At the 19:02 mark, some of the 4449 crew are pushing a passenger car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmF-GTpTzZY

Some years ago, on a railroad long since merged, a crew tried a "dutch drop" to place a trailing car in a facing point spur without using a runaround track. The car got hung up on the switch, trapping the engine. Next thing, the crew is on the ground (4 guys then) pushing the roller bearing car themselves. They got it in there.

Phil Mulligan

I'd bet that has happened many more times than has been documented.

My very fuzzy memory is trying to tell me something about a charity event where this was tried. One of the pullers tripped and was horribly injured when wheel(s) ran over her.

Roller bearing cars are a relative cinch; there's a slight starting 'friction' due to the tribology at low temperature, but nothing a pinch bar won't overcome (after which of course the rolling gets easier...)

Roller bearing locomotives, on the other hand, probably involve some 'behind-the-scenes trickery' for reasons that become clear with a little reflection. Both the pistons and the piston valves necessarily have sprung 'fit' and won't drop away or lift from contact with the bore, and residual 'cylinder oil' lubrication likely impairs sliding when the engine is cold (or perhaps even when still 'in steam' with the fire dropped). I don't know offhand how the measured 'machine resistance' decreases as speed approximates fractional mph ... but I can't imagine it being less than a couple of horsepower-equivalent (which I think is more than a couple of girlpower applied through only two bipedal points of closed-toe contact...).

What I suspect is that the pistons and valves have been either removed or 'unkeyed' for the publicity runs, and in all probability special lubricants have been used at critical points in the running gear (perhaps to be disassembled and solvent-cleaned before the locomotive is expected to develop substantial torque via the rodwork!). One of our resident tribology nerds will know what is advisable... may, in fact, already know what's appropriate or needed for a dog-and-pony show.


(It might also have been possible that the locomotive was held with some amount of steam or introduced air pressure, and the throttle and cutoff were lightly adjusted to reduce actual resistance to just below what could be 'actually pulled' for the photographers. I'd hate to try to explain this to modern insurers, even as a concept...)

I can tell you for sure that Mark 1 Video's production of "The Schuylkill Shifter" shows that in action - Reading #2102 tried to do that with a caboose on the Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern, the caboose didn't make it, and four or five guys ended up rather easily pushing it into the siding.