In 1947, during test runs, the 500 had many service failures. The C&O also found out the tropical fish in the aquarium died due to the train's vibrations. Yet the main problem was the 500. There were many bugs in this long and complicated machine. It was 106 feet long and weighed 856,000 pounds. It had five trucks in a 2-C1-2-C1-B arrangement. Only the first three axles on the eight wheel trucks were powered. The trailing truck was powered, but the leading truck and the one in between the big powered trucks were not powered. That four wheel truck supported the firebox. Coal was carried in a hopper at the nose of the locomotive, a streamlined cowl makes this look like a boiler from ground level, but the fire box was behind the cab and the boiler streched back towards the tender.
Coal dust fouled the foward traction motors and water dripping from the boiler often short circited the traction motors on the other two powered trucks. The C&O was never able to get the 500 or her two sisters to go all the way from Washington to Cinncinatti in a single day, they always broke down. By June of 1948, the gig was up and the nation's leading hauler of bitimous coal began to rapidly dieselize.
Info here: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/turbine/#co
[This message has been edited by Oat (edited 11-10-2002).]
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