Any steam locomotive afficianados herein will know what stack talk means.

Aside from a vintage Ford tractor afficinado, I am also a lifetime RR afficinado.

More importantly, I am just old enough to remember steam power on American railroads.

FWIW, the little farm upon which I grew up was less than 1/2 mile from the B & O, now CSX, route between Cincinnati and ST Louis. Much more historically important, just across the creek from my house but beyond my childhood view, until 1957, the B & O stationed a steam helper locomotive, probably a 4-8-2 Mountain type, to push the westbound freights up the 12+ mile hill out of the Ohio River Valley.

By the mid 50s, most of the westbound freights were powered by 3 or 4 diesel electric F Units. These locomotive consists had adequate power to power the trains from Cincinnati to ST Louis, excepting the long pull up out of the Ohio River Valley near my home. Without additional power, the DE traction motors would overheat causing the locomotives to shut down.

Accordingly, Westbound freights would stop about 1/2 mile West of my home to await the steam helper locomotive to connect to the caboose from behind before restarting for the long pull uphill between Aurora, IN and Milan, IN (Esoteric BB fans might recognize that Milan High School is the little school that won the 1954 unrestricted Indiana State basketball championship in 1954, later inspiring the movie Hoosiers.) The steam helper locomotive, likely a 4-8-2 Mountain type (can't remember) probably produced about 4,000 HP, about as much HP as the entire DE consist on the front end.

The old engineers herein might know that a reciprocating steam engine makes maximum torque at stall. Accordingly, starting a heavy RR consist with a reciprocating steam locomotive was an acquired art. In the case of a rear mounted steam helper locomotive, the engineer would, after exchanging whistle signals with the engineers controlling the head end locomotives, apply throttle to push slack into the consist. Because it was difficult to control wheel torque with a reciprocating steam engine, wheel slip often occured. The engineer would then pull back (reduce) the throttle, pour on the sand, and then reapply throttle after slack had been pushed into the consist. In this way, not all cars needed to be started at the same time. Usually, wheel slip could be avoided upon the second effort as the head end locomotives were now pulling the front end cars and the helper was pushing rear end cars with slack between the couplers. Of course, such operations were routinely performed upon level ground well before the hill.

Back to the video. Story is that greenies greased the rails upon the hill just outside of the tunnel, causing NKP 765 to spin out and stall on the hill. Accordingly, 765 with it's heavy passenger excursion consist needed to back up to allow crews to clean the rails.

This forced 765s crew to start their heavy consist on the hill, something that RR crews, steam or DE, avoided.

FWIW, this is probably the best steam locomotive "stack talk" video on youtube. It brings back memories of the sounds of B & O helper locomotives starting westbound DE powered freight trains not far from my wide open bedroom window in the summers of 55-56.

What wonderful memories!

• NKP 765

Again, we find a common interest. We love trains. My grandfather Rushford worked every railroad from New York to Montana, eventually becoming a roadmaster for the Oregon Short Line. My dad worked on a track crew, under a fake name to avoid nepotism claims. My stepdad worked on the huge cab forwards that were used to get over the Sierras without suffocating the crew. His job was to keep the water level up to avoid overheating the boiler. My brother-in-law is a member of the California State Rail Museum Foundation. Despite its problems, California has a rich railroad history. The Railroad Museum in Sacramento is one of the best in the country. The displays include a huge 4-8-8-2 cab-forward locomotive. Rail Town in Jamestown (up in the Sierra Foothills) is part of the Railroad Museum with several running steam locomotives, including a shay and Sierra Number 3, a 4-6-0 "ten-wheeler" known as "The Movie Star Locomotive" that has appeared in films for years, including Back to the Future. When the Challenger came to Sacramento, my son and I were there. When Big Boy came to Kansas my son and his family were there. Ely Nevada has a cool rail museum as well.

You might like this site.

Just about everything you might want to know about steam locomotives (and some early DE units).

• Steam Locomotives

Here's another wonderful stack talk video.

The Norfolk & Western Class J 4-8-4 locomotives were produced as late as 1952 and represented the absolute zenith of steam locomotive design. Cast steel frames, roller bearings throughout, high pressure boilers, and somewhere around 5,000 HP at 100 MPH, steam locomotives were never any better. This locomotive could pull consists similar to the one in the video at 100 MPH on the straight and level "racetrack" in Northern Indiana.

In the 90s, I took my Mother on an excursion from Union Central Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio to Danville, KY and back powered by 611. The experience remains one of my most precious memories.

Here, at Christianburg Hill, 611 pulls her consist up the hill on wet rails unassisted. The engineer set the cutoff just before the limit of adhesion and let her do her work. Though she had much more power, applying much more would have caused her to spin out on the wet rails.

Enjoy.

• N & W 611 at Christianburg Hill

Fascinating.

I'm sure that we could talk about common interests for hours.