N&W diesel locos with lines under the cab number

[NW Modeling List]

My apologies, I reread this after I sent it and realized it was misleading.

The white or yellow stripe was added about 1980, but the rules for non-aligning draft gear were in the timetable from the first of the new timetables in 1967. Just no mention of the stripe.

I also suspect the buffering with the coupler jackknifing, was from the mixing of the higher horsepower units in more mountainous territory, but once again, please someone with actual experience, chime in!

Ken Miller

> On Aug 17, 2020, at 4:57 PM, NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Bill
> 
> I cannot speak from personal experience, I was not out there. The stripe and rule, to the best I can find came about around April of 1980, as it was not in the timetables prior to Timetable 1 issued March 1, 1981, and dates of revisions to drawings
> 
> From the timetable, General Rule 10
> 
> Locomotive units moving dead-in-tow, when not handled as trail units in the locomotive consist, must be placed and handled within the head ten cars of the train, unless specific instructions are received from the Motive Power Department to handle on the rear
> 
> In addition, a locomotive unit not equipped with alignment control draft gear when moving dead-in-tow in the locomotive consist or train, must not be coupled to another unit which does not have alignment control draft gear
> 
> N&W diesel units in the following series do not have alignment control draft gear:
> 10-49, 250-258, 2011-2572, 2800-2863, 3120-3495
> 
> These units can be identified by a yellow or white stripe painted beneath the unit number on the outside of the cab Road units also have a similar stripe painted across the short hood door inside the cab
> 
> 11 When a locomotive consist includes more than one unit that does not have alignment control draft gear (see previous rule for unit numbers), extreme caution must be exercised when applying locomotive or dynamic brake of handling the throttle in back-up of shoving movements to prevent units from jack-knifing.
> 
> I am assuming that the units not equipped with alignment control draft gear could easily be shoved to one side, leading to breakage of the knuckle or coupler shank from the buffering forces and the alignment control on the other unit trying to keep them aligned created issues. Since the NKP and Wabash units were filtering east more in the latter years, it became more of a visible problem.
> 
> Perhaps someone with operating experience at that time can expand on that.
> 
> Ken Miller