February 18, 2015
Gerald - Thanks! Since the pile driver itself weighed in the range of
90 net tons, your observation about minimizing the weight on trestles being
constructed or repaired makes perfect sense. Back in the early 1970s when I
moved south to the Alabama Gulf Coast, the L&N was still 100 per cent
"steam" with their pile drivers assigned to protect the many trestles and
bridges on the Mobile & New Orleans Division. The pile drivers all had
been equipped with L&N passenger steam locomotive whistles, so when they
self-propelled themselves to a job site and blew for the crossings it sounded
just like a steam train was coming. They all had a very rapid exhaust, similar
to that of a Shay, when moving. Finally, after the L&N became part
of the SCL, the Mobile & New Orleans Division pile drivers were all
retired and scrapped with the whistles being given to long term
employees. The IC down here also kept a steam pile driver whose boiler had
been condemned. A large industrial diesel air compressor had been mounted
on a flat car coupled to it to replace the steam with compressed
air. Best Regards - Louis
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 2/17/2015 3:44:10 P.M. Central Standard Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
I asked the same question of a Q/BN B&B Foreman @ Galesburg years
ago & later had it confirmed by a Pile Driver crew in SoDak on the
C&NW when I was a C&NW Safety Mgr.
There were times, given the weight of a full tender (water/coal) that
they would venture out on to a recently repaired trestle (or one needing just
a bit of 'driving') sans tender so as to minimize the gross
weight. The pile drivers could carry enough fuel/water to maintain
operation for a short period of time w/o the tender. Ones I was most
familiar with were all Alcos. There whistles, whether a Q, C&NW or
IC pile driver (the 3 RR's whose piledrivers I got up close with & spoke
with crews) had the same steam whistles as normal Alco locos and thus looked
& sounded alike. The IC crew told me whenever they had to leave
their pile driver unattended, they would detach the whistle and lock in side
the tool/crew boxcar to keep railfans from stealing as these were undoubtedly
the last steam loco whistles still in use by Class I RR's well after steam had
been ret'd (except of course piledrivers and some cranes)
Gerald
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Posted by: LZadnichek@aol.com
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