special built sd7's conrail

[Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR]

I have been fascinated since moving to southern Indiana, with the CMPA railroad.  Its an old pennsy line which conrail inherited some of.  They had two special built sd7's for the grade in madison, the steepest in the US.  I have done some research and found that at least one of the two still exists.  They were prr 8588-8589 then conrail 6998-6999 and as far as I know the only two conrail ever had.  They had very stringent rules for the grade, like no more than 15 cars, 350 tons max, locomotive was inspected before each trip down the grade, locomotives were traded out every two weeks for further inspection, and 8mph max.  These two were special built with rail washers and heaters to maximize traction, and low geared at 65:12.  I know other roads have their own grades but how common was this on other lines?  I dont remember reading anything of that nature before, I know they had very strict operating rules for the grades just as this one, but the locomotive being equipped with specialties is my question.

[lwjabo]

The old Seluda Grade near Ashville NC was and is the steapest grade on what was the old Southern. They ran loaded Coal trains down it. Set so many retainers and the track did have runaways tracks also. I've never worked it so I'm talking at least second hand as I knew men who did work there. Since the Ashville area freights seems to peak and bottom out so much there are guys from Ashville working every where. I'm sure they hated leaving the mountains but with a family you have to make a steady income. Was a time long ago when men only worked the rails for 6 months or so then layed off the rest of the year. The pay at the railroads has not kept up with some places so if layed off for long they don't come back. I was lucky. In my 34 years I was only layed off once and that was to force me to and outlying job. The day they did that to me they put on another 10 new trainmen.