I didn't want to hijack the 0-12-0 C thread but when reading David's mention of the Madison Hill 5.89% grade in Southern Indiana i thought i would mention there is a story in the April 2001 Trains magazine pages 58-61 on the Madison Hill grade.It also has a picture of the 2 Penn Central SD-7's #6998,#6999 with train at the bottom of the hill on page 60.

Back on Aug. 28th 2011 a friend and i were out exploring old RR's in Southern Indiana searching for the Sept. 1861 Civil War troop train wreck site near Huron,Indiana on the old Ohio & Mississippi RR grade. We also visited Big Tunnel on the same old O&M RR line wich CSX still uses. The highlight of our Indiana trip that day was seeing the old Madison & Indianapolis RR Madison Hill grade.

The track was still in place on the hill that day in 2011 ,although a bit encroached by the overhanging trees i do say it was very impressive to see! Near the bottom of the grade there was a nice sandstone arched culvert over a dry creekbed. At the very bottom of the hill there was a switch and a short run-around track and the track curved sharply to the left along the river where it then ended being removed. The track at the bottom,the rail was spread in several places being way out of gauge. The actual track and ties on the hill didn't look to awful bad. We walked up the hill/grade maybe 3/8 of a mile,the line according to the Trains magazine article was 1 3/8's mile long. Just looking down hill at the rail and myself being a engineer for NS i couldn't believe how steep the grade was and the un-easy feeling one might have going downhill with a train there!

It was deffinately worth seeing and walking part of the old grade. Does anyone know why the track still exists there or at least up
to the day i was there in Aug. 2011?

If I remember correctly the PRR also had some specially modified steam engines for use on that grade. These locos had a bit of extra plumbing that enabled the engineer to use the steam cylinders as a sort of air compressor/brake system. Disconnect the steam supply (by closing the throttle) and allow air into the cylinders (through a drifting valve ?). Then route the exhaust air (normally steam) through a restriction (orifice) and you get some extra braking effort from the cylinders and side rods "retarding" the drivers.

I think a valve between the steam exhaust passages on the cylinders and the exhaust nozzle was all that was required. And maybe another valve to allow atmospheric air into the cylinders ? Anyway, the plumbing was relatively simple and was added to a few "regular" steam locomotives assigned to that district.

Kind of a "dynamic braking" system for a steam locomotive, as they say; not much is really all that new, just invented all over again.

I think there are several ICC accident reports out there about that grade, I think they "piled em up" more than once coming down that hill.

Cheers, Kevin.

When the SD7's were in service, they came with an extremely unusual option, steam jets aimed away from the wheels along the length of the rails. I inspected one of these units in later years and can personally confirm the arrangement. There was an active slaughterhouse at the bottom of the grade. One of the byproducts was tankage, animal fats and offal shipped in open gons. Often enough that it required an innovative solution, tankage would drip through holes in the car or slop over the ends onto the rails. Steam from a conventional Diesel era steam generator in the short hood was routed to heavy wall 1/4" I.D. pipe parallel to the rail which would presumably strip the grease off the rail before the wheelsets rolled over the freshly wet rail. There were also conventional sanders directing sand to the wheel/rail interface. I presume steam power used prior to Dieselization had the same arrangement.
The unit was purchased by a group of PC employees when Conrail was formed. They were sure in their own minds that the unit was the only possible choice for a shortline operator. The line was not included in Conrail.
It turned out that the hill could be operated with an SW1, since the slaughter house had either closed or was no longer shipping tankage in open, leaky cars.
As to runaways, the operator had the misfortune to receive a transformer load on a depressed center car at the top of the hill. A local TV crew showed up to film the trip from on board the locomotive. Since I'm setting this story up, you know what happened. Insufficient braking capacity resulting in everyone jumping off the unit. No one was injured, the camera crew got some footage of the desolate train crew walking downhill in search of their train. The sharp curve at the bottom of the hill reported earlier is where everything stopped. I suspect the outside rail rolled as the load was still upright between the rails. I don't know if the locomotive derailed.
By happenstance, Michigan Northern Railway, an April Fool's Day start-up in 1976 along with Conrail, was doing the revenue accounting for the Madison Hill shortline as a contractor. Involved with MIGN, I was privy to some of the tales of Madison Hill from its operators.

For more on the line: July 1962 Trains, pp. 34-39.

One of the SD7s ended up in Glasgow, KY for a while on the Glascow Railroad.

I suppose when CSX leased out that railroad entirely, it ended it's days there? Or did it escape again?

The Glascow Railway was never owned by the L&N or CSX. They always leased or operated it for the family that owns it. I think the SD7 was part of the tourist operation they tried there in the 80s or 90s.