Re: [ihc] Re: To tell the truth....

[bearbvd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Greg Hermann)]

At 10:29 PM 11/14/03, Howard R Pletcher wrote:
>I don't know if the percentage of locos with recorders is high or not,
>probably most of the new stuff has them and perhaps 50% overall. Our 1950
>vintage switchers don't even have speedos--we have to time the mileposts
>and try to hit 4:00 or 6:00 min for 15 and 10 mph.  My GPS has proven to
>be a popular accessory since I started taking it along to use as a
>speedo.
>
>But the Casey Jones stories of engineers ignoring the speed limits are
>pretty much a thing of the past on most railroads, especially the major
>ones.
>
>One popular one from Trains magazine is of a passenger train making up
>time between Lima, OH and Fort Wayne that was clocked at 120 mph during
>the last days of steam.

I once personally clocked (was in board, in a roomette) the City of San
Francisco (this was in '63 or '64), eastbound, on the UP tracks somewhere
in the vicinity of Kearney, NE, at between 27 and 28 seconds between two
mileposts. This was at about 2:00 AM--train was about 3 hours late leaving
Cheyenne, was only 1/2 hour or so late the next AM !!

Greg