What type of track wear have you noticed with it Kelly?

I'd think the PRR 2-10-4s, 2-10-0s would be much harder on the PRRs track than a highly balanced NW J.

Really? That’s odd. The PRR had no trouble operating their M class 4-8-2’s, or the several 10 coupled classes they had on much of the system. I’d think the J class would be able to go about anywhere on the Pennsy’s mainline.

I imagine it could, but not at higher speeds. Just an educated guess though...

N&W 610 was found to be too wide across the cylinders for general use west of Harrisburg. Most PRR standard designs were about 10 ft across the cylinders. A J was about 11 ft, closer to the PRR's J1 2-10-4s. Problems would have occurred with high level platforms (e.g., Pittsburgh commuter area). 610 was also too high and wide to clear some station platform roofs.

Another issue:

I believe you're comparing ten-coupled locos with at least one pair of blind drivers with a 4-8-4 with no blind drivers.

.

Too bad, actually. For service in that area, the J would have excelled. The flatlands of Ohio was high speed territory and really gave the T1 an advantage. The J did pretty well--since there were a few high speed areas on the N&W on the extreme east and west ends--but not enough. It could do it, but it wasn't really designed as a full day 100mph locomotive. The T1 vs. J tests on the N&W gave the J an advantage up to about 90mph. The T1 had the advantage from that point on.

Diagrams show the PRR J1 2-10-4's were 11' 3" wide and were allowed as far East as East Altoona. I'm sure they had to use #2 and 3 tracks to clear the high level platforms at Johnstown (since removed) and that there were other restrictions. The Q2 4-4-6-4's ran West of Pittsburgh. I'm not sure if they could get even to Pitcairn. The HH1's (N&W 2-8-8-2's acquired during WWII) were 10' 10" wide.

In the 1944 test, N&W 610 was credited with 114 mph on the PRR Ft. Wayne Line. In the December, 1964 TRAINS magazine, Col. Howard G. Hill, USAR (Ret.) reported riding 611 at 100 mph at Zuni VA on October 18, 1959 on a fantrip.

High level platforms are predicated on a car 10' 0" wide at floor level. Current freight cars are too wide and require a bypass track. The gauntlet tracks at the Capital Beltway Station North of Washington were there to allow passenger trains to pull over to the platforms. The New Carrollton Station that replaced Beltway has a third track with no platform.

The Strasburg RR was built as a connection to what is now Amtrak's Harrisburg Line. It was never a PRR main line (except the runaround track at Leaman Place, which is the former PRR #1 Main Track.)

Phil Mulligan

If this is true, how then was 611 able to get through Elizabethtown? At this location the Keystone Corridor is only 2 tracks, and both platforms are high level.

How too does SEPTA solve this problem? The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad runs freight along SEPTA’s Lansdale/Doylestown line daily. This line is also 2 tracks and has high level platforms on both sides at some stations.

Edit: in fact, now that I think about it, how does Strasburg get any freight at all? The NS trains that interchange with them always approach from the west. This means that their cars are able to clear the high levels at the aforementioned station.

611 bypassed Elizabethtown via Columbia and Dillerville.



Same means 611 came in. Lancaster platforms are avoided by 1 possibly 2 bypass tracks. Tracks from Dillerville merge with Amtrak just west of Lancaster station.

Elizabethtown station is beautiful by the way, nice compliment and directly adjacent to Masonic Village.

Regards,

Randy

There is no freight business between Royalton and Lancaster via Elizabethtown and Amtrak's Harrisburg Line. All NS frieght and any N&W J's that may come along run via the NS Royalton Branch through Columbia to Lancaster where there have always been tracks bypassing the high level platforms. A Reading T-1 would have to make the same move.

The NS Royalton Branch was formerly the PRR-PC Columbia Brsnch and has been around for years as a freight bypass of Harrisburg Station. There's even a duckunder at Main Line MP95 where the Columbia/Royalton Branch seamlessly changes sides of the Main Line to expedite freight movement to the Port Road, or the Low Grade Line, or Lancaster via Columbia, and passengers to Lancaster via E'town.

Amtrak's Harrisburg Station is on a spur from the Royalton Branch at the West (PRR "HARRIS") end of the station. The spur is used by Amtrak 42-43 Pennsylvanian on its way to and from Pittsburgh via NS Rockville.

Phil Mulligan

That's what PRR loyalists want you to think.

The vintage PRR employee timetables I have tell a different story. There were a LOT of restrictions on secondary main lines; it only took one curve or bridge to restrict anything bigger than a H10 2-8-0 or a L1s 2-8-2 from a lot of lines.

Actually, NS operates two daily local freight jobs out of Lancaster west on the Amtrak line to service several feed mills, a propane distributor, a candy factory and interchange with the Landisville RR and the industrial park in Elizabethtown.

Thank you, I wasn’t familiar with that branch.

I am still confused about SEPTA though. I know I have seen standard box cars through North Wales station before. I’m pretty sure there are videos of it on YouTube. How do they clear the platforms?

.