Steam queen
For a few years in the late 1930s, the steam queens of New Haven’s Shore Line were 10 class I-5 4-6-4s. The handsome Hudsons’ wheel-balance woes prompted NH to begin acquiring a fleet of 60 DL109 diesels in 1941. Here, an I-5 roars west with the Merchants Limited at Sharon, Mass. Wayne Brumbaugh photo
The I-5’s counterbalancing problem was first noticed in 1939. Above 81mph or on wet rail, they kinked rail. The NH ran tests, Baldwin (standard steel) engineers worked on the problem. When solved, the I-5’s were fine. The DL109’s were not delivered until December,1941, so the counterbalancing was not the reason for the DL109. Even after the arrival of the DL109’s, an I-5 pulled the Merchants Ltd. as it could maintain the schedule with the many speed restrictions. The DL109’s could not match the performance of the I-5. Information from Arthur Bixby, Assistant Mechanical Engineer-Steam. 9/81 Trains mag.