Train no. CC-1

NG503064

Train no. CC-1

Steam Freight Train

As she pulls up on the fill at Meridian Street and Bluff Road on the Belt, the 2803 erupts with a most photogenic plume of exhaust, as if to notify the world at large that she is in charge of a sizeable cut of revenue freight. At the same time, she is undoubtedly notifying the professionals of some undesired elements of her combustion, so let it be said for their gratification that her stack I cleared shortly after this picture was made (a timing for which the photographer was very thankful). The train, Indiana Division CC-1 bound for Kankakee, was composed of 67 cars, the greater proportion of them loaded and all providing respectable tonnage for an engine built to handle manifest trains over water-level grades. In these days of diesels, the fact that the NYC's L-class power was designed for fast freight service, and not for effectiveness on heavy drags or pickup runs (to which they have been largely relegated) has been ignored or forgotten by many operating people. The result has been the abuse of the engines, both verbally (through scornful but irrelevant comparisons of the merits of Ls and diesels as tonnage movers) and physically (through overloading, ironically enough - as if to negate the verbal shafts of the aforementioned comparisons). Who has held onto his hat during an L-2 performance on a 70-car NY-8? Demanded: quick acceleration and sustained speed. Received: same.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Apr-56

To buy a copy of this photograph; click here NG503064

399

L-2c

#2803

Alco-Schen

Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN

See NG503064a