Thanks Tim and Ed. Ed, when you say that some engineers go directly from forward to reverse during switching, do you mean they go into reverse just before the locomotive stops moving forward? Would they then open the throttle in reverse when still moving forward? If so, I assume they do that just to save time. I am familiar with how the reverser operates on earlier engines, but I have never known what would happen if you went from forward to reverse under significant power.
It is very interesting that manuals used to advise that an engineer could stop by reversing the direction of movement as long as they limited the power. That would almost be like a pro-active dynamic brake, so to speak. So if I understand it, you could slide the wheels by reversing with power, and if there is enough power, it will damage the traction motors. Would it be possible to actually turn the traction motors and wheels in reverse while moving forward?
This is the reason I am asking about this: A long time ago, a tower operator that I knew told me that an engineer approaching a crossing with the Milwaukee Road somehow got a red signal dropped in his face. The engineer dumped the air, but there was no way to get stopped short of the crossing. But this was an interlocking, so there was no way that the operator could have taken the signal away from this engineer and given it to a conflicting Milwaukee train.
But the Milwaukee was obscured in a cut through a hill as it approached the crossing, and this engineer thought he saw illumination on the cut sides coming from a Milwaukee train. Apparently, it was light coming from the outdoor light on the tower. But a Milwaukee passenger train was due about that time, and this engineer thought he was about to run into it on the crossing. He already had the brakes in emergency, but when he thought he saw an approaching passenger train, he panicked and reversed the locomotive. From what I understand, he was moving over 50 mph with a big train, and six or seven units. Reversing did not get him stopped short of the crossing, but it did flatten all the wheels on all those engines.
So I was wondering if there would ever be some rational justification for reversing under power in order to decrease stopping distance in a dire emergency, or if this engineer just did something stupid. I wonder if he intended to actually counter-rotate the wheels, or if he simply intended to lock them, thinking he would stop faster with the wheels sliding rather than just braking hard. I would assume that a sliding wheel would have less stopping adhesion than a wheel that was just subjected to maximum brake shoe force short of locking the wheels.
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