# Double head question



## daschnoz (Dec 12, 2016)

During the overlap years when roads ran both steam and diesel locomotives, did roads ever double head with some combination of both steam and diesel on the same train?


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## 1905dave (Sep 18, 2016)

The would add helpers and mix steam and diesel. Generally running a train with a mix of steam and diesel over the entire run of the train was not common (I won't say it was never done, but it was unlikely). If you add more diesels, you don't add more engineers, for every steam engine you add, you add an engineer and fireman, so its a lot more expensive.


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## Lehigh74 (Sep 25, 2015)

I’m sure it was not unusual to see steam and diesel together during the transition period. 

This isn’t really what you asked, but today, I think most roads run diesel along with steam engines. Sometimes for insurance, sometimes to help pull the load and sometimes to provide electricity to the consist. RBMN for example uses a diesel to provide electricity. NKP 765 was an exception in 2015. It was allowed to travel without diesel escort over NS and RBMN.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

It happened. They couldn't "directly" operate together and control each other (but neither could two double-headed steam engines anyways) and the steam and diesel engines needed separate crews. So, in the same way that two steam engines could double head with two crews, a diesel could provide the double head assist. I've seen at least a couple photos published in books of this happening in the 1950s with a diesel providing the assist to the regularly scheduled steam loco.


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

daschnoz said:


> During the overlap years when roads ran both steam and diesel locomotives, did roads ever double head with some combination of both steam and diesel on the same train?


I have seen photos from the transition era with both steam as the main power and diesels as the helper, and diesel as the main power and steam as the helper. Just remember Railroads rarely put helpers on the back of a passenger train to avoid the jerking when the slack runs out, freight doesn't complain about being jerked about.


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