Feb 24, 2024
Pulling the Grade by Greg Brown Via Flickr: With help from a Burlington Northern pool unit, a Southern Pacific manifest departs Kegg, California in March 1988. The grade here is just under one percent. There are about 14 miles of continuous climb from this location to the summit near Grass Lake, varying between 0.2 and 1.0 percent.
Back in the 80s, SP typically assigned lumber drags like this one 2.0 horsepower per ton on the Black Butte Sub. I would guesstimate that there's probably about 8,500-9,000 tons on the drawbar of those five SDs.
Lots of noise, not a lot of speed.
