actually gentlemen, you have both helped me. My sincere thanks to you both...
Posted by irishchieftain (Member # 1473) on :
Hunting first surfaced on steam locomotives that had driving wheels in the lead. The nose of the engine swayed from side-to-side, in a motion vaguely reminiscent of how a hound following a scent moves its head from side to side to triangulate the source of the scent (hence "hunting"). This phenomenon was fixed, in general, by adding the lead truck, especially a four-wheel lead truck on passenger locomotives that could guide the locomotive's drivers around the curve while resisting the tendency of the drivers to climb the rails while going through a curve (hunting led to many derailments).
Even on heavy electric locomotives, leading trucks were used to resist hunting--witness the articulated wheel arrangements of such electrics as the New Haven RR's EP-4 and the PRR's GG-1.
Perhaps you are thinking of the E60 when it comes to this phenomenon? It was never cured on that engine, which was supposed to have been the homegrown 125-mph locomotive for the NEC originally and ended up being restricted to 80 mph at first, then 90 mph. Mind you, the X996 engine from SNCF, which is also of C-C wheel arrangement, travels at 137 mph on home rails, but the E60 is a far heavier engine than that one. I saw an E60 in the throes of hunting while waiting for a train at Rahway, NJ, and it looked quite scary--the train was going no faster than 60 mph.
[This message has been edited by irishchieftain (edited 08-03-2003).]