Recently the California State RR Museum Library has agreed to accept Bill Withuhn's papers. These include his subject files and correspondence copies much of which details his time spent at the Smithsonian Institution as Curator of Transportation (1983-2010). The papers also include his time at the BR&W, as a junior legislative aide to NY Senator James Hastings (1973-74) and his work on the U.S. Railroads Reorganization Act legislation that allowed for the creation of Conrail, his employment with David Beers' short line empire in NY, PA and MD, his volunteer time with the PRR K4s 1361 project and as an engineer at Steamtown, his efforts with the ESC/FRA in developing the new Steam Rules, and his time spent working on the ACE 3000 project in the early 1980s. I believe there is 73 cf of material total. His widow Gail wanted Bill's papers to remain intact and not get broken up by subject which is something CSRM gladly agreed to abide by.

Hopefully these papers will not require a great deal of processing and will be open to the public in the near future.

K.R. Bell

Sounds great.
I hope someday, someone will write a definitive book on the ACE3000, while as many of the players in the story are still around to discuss the project. These papers should assist in that, should someone take that project on someday.

I do believe an individual on this forum would be able to offer a few cents on the matter.

Mr. Rowland (or anyone else who cares to answer) to what extent was Mr. Withuhn involved with the ACE-3000 project? I know he had a background in engineering, specifically industrial engineering.

There is one version of the story here: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/ti ... -of-steam/

A little pricey, but I bought my copy when it was first released. Tried to convince them to do a digital version but the author was a little eccentric about that.

Yeah, I know all about Ross's involvement and that he's here. I dearly wish he'd write a book about his experiences, as I think a lot of train fans would buy and read such a book.

Has CSRM processed the NMRA collection yet? Apparently the original builders photo of J&L: 58, as well as many other Porters, languishes in a shipping container after the NMRA decided to close their Chattanooga library and ship the collection to CSRM.

I believe that, inasmuch as there are three sides to every conflicting story, if we never get much of an expose on ACE, the reason may well be explained by reading between pages 363-403 of the aforementioned David Wardale tome.

With a warning that just about anyone in this "21st Century Steam" field by default suffers from a degree of eccentricity, Wardale's screed on the ACE exercise, particularly the 1985 winter "tests" with C&O 614, comes off to a large extent as the young tyke hollering "the Emperor has no clothes!"

It was a heck of a show if nothing else. The ultimate photo freight.

Yes, the ACE 3000 project will deserve 3 chapters in my book. I'm debating what the title should be. I like " A Steamy Life" but my darling wife thinks it's too "suggestive", so I'll have to keep thinking on that.

The month long test trips in January 1985 were extremely interesting on many levels. Their primary dual purposes were to 1. Allow the software engineers from the Foster Wheeler Corp. to experience up close and personal what steam railroading was like and the myriad challenges that the automated coal fired ( crewless) ACE 3000 locomotives would need to meet to succeed in that rough & tumble environment, and 2. To attract investment capital from the coal industry leaders to help fund the $ 40Mn cost of the first 2 prototypes.

The 24 trips between Huntington and Hinton achieved the first purpose but not the second and when the world price of oil collapsed from $32/barrel to $ 9 and diesel fuel went from $ 1.50/gal. to 35 cents my 2 railroad partners ( BN & CSX ) pulled out and the project ended.

From a steam lovers perspective it was the " real thing" as not seen since steam left in the 50's. We pulled loaded coal trains east MWF and 110 car long empties T,Thurs.,Sat. four weeks straight and never missed a day despite century breaking extreme cold temps.

We instrumented a section of track near Charleston, W. Va. in partnership with the AAR to measure the track/train dynamics of the 614 under different throttle settings and the diesels and much to the total surprise of nearly everyone the 614 was gentler on the track than the diesels. Kudos to the design engineers at Lima !!

There were a number of notables who were employed in the effort including David Wardale and Bill Withuhn ( both of whom were discharged because of failure to follow orders) but the most important of them all ( by far) was Livio Dante Porta an Argentinian who devoted his life to improving the efficiency of steam. Wonderful human being.

I hope you'll enjoy reading the book when it's done. I know you'll thoroughly enjoy the long chapter on the " negatoids" as I call them, the Monday morning quarterback know it alls who add such color to our lives.

More soon, Ross Rowland

Great news! I know the one time I ran into you at the Portland Freedom Train convention I asked if you'd ever had in mind to do a book, which I guess you didn't have plans for at the time. I'm so glad to hear this and will surely buy it the moment it leaves the printers.Wow. I'm equally surprised to hear that, as we've all heard the age-old argument that the hammer force of the rods caused damages to the rails which diesels didn't cause. Wow...

I read this and was interested, because while I remember Mr. Rowland explaining away the very factual account by Wardale in his book of the 614T tests as the ramblings of a "disgruntled ex employee," I never, ever recall that he stated that Withuhn was terminated.

Using the search feature, I went back and read every post Mr. Rowland made about the ACE 3000, and 614T tests. These go back at least ten years, if not longer. Not once, until about this time last year year did Ross mention that he had fired Withuhn from the project.

In fact, in 2017 when Bill passed, Ross wrote this:



That's a great example of a true friendship, to wait three years after his passing to tell people you fired him for not following orders. Bill can't defend himself. Hopefully some scholar or interested party can sort through the records and decide for themselves.

Ross, can't wait for you to finish and publish your hagiography. It'll be interesting reading. I really hope you stick to the facts rather than the personal attacks. Disgruntled former employees, after all, are right on occasion.

I'll also be picking up a copy of Mr. Rowland's book as soon as possible.

In the interest of reading as much as possible, did Withuhn or Porta ever publish accounts of their involvement in the ACE 3000 project?

The discussion about the hammer force in this topic reminded me of a discussion I had with Jack Forney, owner of the Forney museum here in Denver. Back in the 90's it was necessary to move the museum from one location to another. One of the locomotives that had to be moved was Big Boy,#4005. Since the track was long since gone they had to lay about a mile or so of section track to the museum.

The city said there was gas, water, and sewer lines under where the locomotive would be traveling. If anything was broken the museum would have to pay for a emergency crew to come fix it and it would cost a lot of money to pay for it. So the museum paid a company to take PSI readings under the track ties as the locomotive moved along. Mr Forney said the PSI readings were identical from the last wheel of the tender all the way to the pilot truck wheel. He also said the PSI under each tie was far less than anyone expected. Seems those rails and ties do a amazing job of weight distribution. I have been trying to get my hands on those papers for years. If they ever come out would be a great read.

Bill Withuhn was a friend as I posted. I did not discharged he nor Wardale. ACES President ( the late Bill Benson of Akron, Ohio) was also the corporations COO and he was the final authority on all staff issues.

I think it's fair to say that Bill Withuhn contributed substantially to the design phase of the ACE 3000's reciprocating, counter balanced drive gear design in collaboration with Dante Porta, Wardale and others.

I was chair of the BOD and CEO but left all personnel matters to Mr. Benson.

We were also blessed to have an elderly gentleman join the design team who was a senior member of the Lima design department and was a principle in the design of the 614 and her 4 sisters. I need to dig out my files and get his name. IIRC he contributed importantly on the subject of achieving optimum balance at design speed ( 60 mph ) so as to minimize injury to the track.

I will speak further to the reasons both men were terminated in the book.

Thanks, Ross Rowland

I knew many of the old MOW crew from our village of Lynden Jct., Ontario on CNR's Dundas and Fergus Subs. They remarked about rail stresses from steam locos when heavy trains stopped to set off cars at the mill or the junction. The east junction involved a crossover on the double track mainline. The west junction was on a sharp curve, so starting a heavy westbound train took a deft hand. It was also the west leg of a wye with a bit of a climb back to the Fergus Sub. on a sharp curve. One could see the effects of rail slip on the wye.
Mikado and Northern engines, if allowed to slip, could put a few dints in the rail heads. I think that is what these older gentlemen were talking about. I recall when CNR engine No. 6218 passed through town with a heavy excursion train westbound with railfans from Buffalo. They changed head end crew at Lynden for the passage north on the Fergus Sub. It was a rainy day and the old boys were worried about what the big Northern would do to their track. In the end, it was fine. The hogger was an old hand from Stratford who had plenty of steam miles on him! He never made a slip.