This is the day for April Fool stories, and there have been some good ones on RyPN through the years. It got me to thinking about an old story that TRAINS magazine published quite a few years ago. I don't know if it was in the days of DPM or not. Anyway, the story talked about some humonguous grades on an operation removing timber, in Michigan I think it was. The grades on this line were something like 18 percent or thereabouts! And the outfit didn't use geared engines, but an old used teakettle, maybe even a 4-4-0. According to the story as I remember it, the engine "see-sawed" its way out of the bottom of the line (in a valley or something) and went as far up the 18% grade as it could, then let the engine (and car of logs) go through the loading point at the bottom of the valley as fast as they could and as far up the 18% grade on the other side as possible, getting a little bit higher, then kept repeating it until eventually the engine and its one car made it up to the top of the grade and went to the unloading point on the rest of the line with just regular grades. The only supposed photo of the engine in action just showed a blurred image. I shook my head when I read this story, hardly believing it. NOW, I wonder if TRAINS was pulling readers legs all along and if perhaps this story didn't appear in an April issue as an early railroad April Fools joke! And I didn't even realize it then as such!

Les

As far as I know that story was legit. The incredible grades were across a valley, too big for them to be able to afford to build a bridge. The idea was that they ran down one side of the valley and used momentum to carry them back up the other side, same idea as a roller coaster going through a dip.

If it was done quickly enough, I guess the crownsheet would not be exposed long enough to cause an explosion. Maybe they dropped the fire or something, but knowing how loggers worked, they probably just went for it...

I don't recall Trains doing April Fools Jokes. Model Railroader on the other hand has a rich tradition of them. Guess it goes along with the "Model Railroading is Fun" slogan they have (had?).

A couple I recall were a "product review" of a full size boxcar, a model railroad of abandoned right of ways and a subway train layout with all the trains in PVC tubes (black, not clear, so you couldn't see anything...)

Of course each time somebody would miss the joke and write a grumpy letter.

Did this years MR do a joke? I don't recall seeing it, but maybe I haven't finished that issue yet...

June 1969 issue, article titled "World's steepest adhesion railroad?" by Clint Jones. Clint went on to fame and fortune in both the excursion and shortline business. Logging railroad named Porterfield & Ellis used a pair of 1880 vintage 4-4-0's. Steepest grade was 20%, one mile distance often traveled in 50 to 55 seconds. Drop was 200 feet. Line operated for eight years with no serious accidents. There were two "loops", the larger one had a four car capacity spur at the bottom for log loading. After switching the spur, the engineer had to "rock" his train back and forth several times to build enough momentum to get out of the dip.

Bob and Alex -

Thanks. Still find the operation rather hard to believe.

Les

Deep woods frontier: a history of logging in northern Michigan
By Theodore J. Karamanski has some details of the lorterfield & Ellis. A portion of the book, including a map, is available on Google Books

At least as recent as the late 1980s, you could walk the old grade through the forest. Some of the ties were still in place on the log loading spur at the bottom of the biggest loop, and one bent of the trestle still stood in the Ontonagon River. I have not been there since. It was also called the Pori Loop Line. The term loop refers to the vertical loops of the profile. It was radical enough to employ momentum to climb a 20% grade with rod engines, but really radical to run 60 mph with a 4-4-0 on a log train.

I have seen photos of similar "loops" on logging tramways in Victoria, Australia.

200 feet per mile is 4%. 20% would be 200 feet in 1,000 feet or 1,056 feet in a mile!
The model subway was also illustrated in the "New Yorker", by Charlie Addams.

Apparently over-condensed my description. As the article, with two photos, reported, the drop of 200 feet was into and back out of a river valley. Steepest part of the grade was 20%. A more complete description would be a vertical curve entering the valley, steep slope, vertical curve to a nominal zero percent grade at the bottom for the spur switch and the river trestle, a vertical curve up the other side of the valley, steep slope and a final vertical curve at the top of the grade leaving the valley. Total distance was one mile.

I can't be sure about this, but ages ago (I'm thinking 1970), Model Railroader did report on a purported crude live-steam N-scale model of an 0-6-0T, with its "boiler" filled by a hypodermic needle, butane flame, and scale speed of 350mph. It needed flex track with fiber ties, because plastic would melt; it needed broad curves because the loco would flip off the track otherwise; the flame would extinguish if it flipped.

It supposedly originated from Texas. "I thought everything was bigger in Texas," commented the writer (Linn Wescott?).

On the other hand:
http://ogaugetrains.co.uk/n-gauge-track ... auge-track

The concept seems to be using N scale track for narrow-gauge live-steam models in HO or O scale. They appear to be gear-worm drive with a shaft using two tiny steam piston engines.