East Broad Top 16 FIGHTS up the hill at Colgate Grove

In the past year or so I have fallen head first into studying the East Broad Top Railroad. 50 years of tourist operations over the same 5 miles have lead to a thought that these little mikados had soft exhausts and relatively quiet. I had been skeptical of this claim, nobody had heard them run up to Robertsdale with empties or fight loads over McMullins or Jordan Summit. On the Dynamo Productions photo charter, I had a rare glimpse at 16 slipping and barking on the south leg of the Colgate Grove wye after we got off the train. No doubt frost was the culprit, but this a show that I had never seen documented. Sit back and enjoy the show!
©ToledoRails2023

[@TrainWizardProductions]

The Hill.

[@TheLongIslandRailfan]

The Hill.

[@michaelhostetter5856]

The Hill.

[@PennsyPro]

one of the unique things that we have discovered as we take the 765 around to various railroads is that the modern-day railroader doesn't really have an understanding of the power of a steam locomotive and couple that with the fact that every division we've ever gone to everywhere has the hill every division has a hill somewhere that's called the ruling grade it's the steepest hill on that piece of the railroad and it's a daily operating obstacle for the railroad running heavy freight trains we ran trips out of Buffalo years ago going east on the old Erie and before the trips ran the road foreman who was going to be riding with us came up to me and said how does this thing do on Hills I said well what do you mean he said well we got a hill out there just out of attica New York Attica Hill and well we're just concerned said well how fast will we be going into the bottom of the hill when he said 30 ok how steep is the hill just over 1% okay how long is the hill four miles okay I told him we'll go over the top of the hill at 30 he didn't want to believe that so there in no way well we came in to Attica we had to slow down to 30 for a speed restriction going through town so 30 mile an hour was indeed the speed we got into the bottom of the hill just as we nosed into the bottom of the hill I pulled out the throttle a little bit more and I could see the hill ahead of us but it didn't look all tha formative walk the road Foreman came over to me and said we're just getting into the hill now you better go after it he said okay all right they'll maybe he knows something I don't know I've never been on this railroad before so I pulled the throttle a little bit more and noticed that the speedometer is now showing 31 and he hadn't noticed that we'd picked up speed but I really wasn't working the engine all that hard yet another 30 seconds or so went by and he came over he was almost angry when he said I told you this is a tough hill and now you better go after it all right okay I pulled the throttle out even a little bit more and he went over and sat down behind John Schneider who was firing that day well the speedometer now said 32 and we were accelerating suddenly he realized that and the road foreman came over looked at the speedometer which is now showing 34 on a 30 mile an hour hill and he said wow this thing's pretty strong I said I was trying to tell you that back in Buffalo well we better get back to 30 so I backed the throttle down a little bit we settled back to 30 he went back to sit behind John again lit up a cigar and didn't really care too much about the hill anymore

[@BlakesTrainsandMore4014]

Looks like it was a tough hill to get started on, wonder what the grade is

[@EBTM1]

A bit over 1% at the start of the video, goes to 4% right past the tail switch. ToledoRails has it right about the rails being frosted over. That and the sanders plugged up between town and the grove.

[@BlakesTrainsandMore4014]

@@EBTM1 Ok, thanks for the info!