Last time I related one story concerning the big hill, at the North end of my Woodland Park Seattle run (Elephant Barn Hill). Coming up to the top and starting back towards the station, was a pretty straight and level run, one of the few level stretches on the Woodland Park track. (Woodland Park is situated on the common topology for the Seattle area, namely hills. There was more track on a grade of some sort or another then anything close to flat. Likely the reason why the A-B G-16 MTC two engine configuration was chosen, and darn well needed). The track, now Southbound, went past the then Feline (Lions, Tigers etc.) house of the park.
This section of track was interesting for me in that it had a series of tall bushes/trees, with hiding spaces for kids in between. Another alert area for kids who thought I was running a 'toy train' so it certainly couldn't hurt me right?
After the bushes was a busy crossing for people walking up from Lower Woodland. Actually this path was the continuation of the path we went over using the bridge earlier in the description of the run. The crossing had one of the MTC electric crossing signals, but that signal was never working during my tenure. I did experiment in the station office by turning on the circuit breaker for this (and other props on the line), but alas, the signals still didn't operate and when I returned to the office, the breaker was always tripped. No doubt a short somewhere in the underground wiring or in the signals themselves.
Past the crossing, the run led down past the static display of the Old Great Northern 1246. This impressive 4-8-0 steam locomotive was always of great interest to me. It had a description panel that explained that the loco was sitting on Main Line weighted rail, and ballasted track, as well as some description of where the engine was used. It was protected by a short wire fence.
When the Zoo board began an extensive renovation of the park, the Great Northern history represented by the engine, was not deemed to fit to be a part of that plan. The locomotive (Great Northern 1246) was sold to a collector with the understanding that he was going to restore it and use it as a tourist attraction, running back and forth on some length of track near the Grand Canyon. Instead, it was cannibalized for parts and sits rusting in a field in southern Oregon. Sad Story.
Passing the display, I was slowing down for reentry to the station. Nearing the end of my run, I needed to cross a very wide, at grade, entrance to the amusement park. Liberal application of my horn was required. Even with the horn, kids, and what I had to think of as responsible adults, when away from the park, would hurry, and dart in front of my engine so to avoid the whole 10-20 seconds that I may have been in their way as I crossed the open space to get stopped in my station platform area.
I faced a real challenge here. If I crept down to too slow a speed, it was chronic for passengers on the train to feel it was time to hop out and get in line for the Ferris Wheel or some other attraction. If I went too fast, I was in danger of running over the people I mentioned earlier that again, perceived me as running a Lionel model train or something else where good common sense could be disregarded.
The vacuum powered braking system of the MTC G-16's and others in that family was a good system, but suffered from having a delay between any cab application of brakes and the time that was required to evacuate the entire length of the train brake line before the pistons that tightened up the brake shoes really took hold and created braking effect.
So, back to my entrance crossing challenge. Too fast, and I ran the risk of bowling down the customers, too slow and I had my passengers bailing out of a moving train. And then there was that multiple second delay with my brakes. I consulted my father, a professional truck driver, and he suggested the tactic that I came to use on congested days.
I would apply a low to medium brake application, say around 5-10 inches of vacumn 'pressure' and then use a bit more throttle than would otherwise be required to pull against the partially applied brakes. The brake drag would help me stop if some brain surgeon stumbled as he raced in front of me, and the added engine noise also tended to discourage the folks who tended to jump off.
I slid into the station area and always tried to keep speed up and come to as brisk a stop as I could, again to keep folks in their seats until I was actually where I wanted to stop. The folks would pile off, there was always a competition to get into the next runs seats in front, right behind me, or way in back, and off the cycle would go once again.
More Later
Dad
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