Several  years  ago  in an  attempt  produce a fuel efficient and powerful locomotive, based on   steam  technology,  in accordance with the "Boynton Directive", the Great Northern Railway embarked on a bold new scheme to replace its aging fleet of electric locomotives used on the Cascade Division in northern Washington State. At first the "up and coming" new Diesel–electric locomotives appeared to be just the ticket.  However  these locomotives were still lacking the high horsepower that is so common today.  The electrified section of  the railroad then ran from Skykomish, WA, up the hill and through the Cascade Tunnel and on down the east slope of the Cascades intoWenatchee, WA, on the banks  of  the Columbia River.  This operation involved changing power at either Wenatchee westbound, or  Skykomish eastbound.  Since management wanted to eliminate the crew change point at Skykomish,  this left an operational nightmare in getting crews to make it from Seattle all the way through to Wenatchee without going "dead" on the hours of service law.  The crew district from Seattle to Skykomish is a short, essentially water level grade which was less than one hundred miles in length.  The electrified district could be lengthened west into Seattle which, of course, would be extremely expensive, especially considering the fact that the yard at Seattle would have to have overhead wire strung over  the  entire yard  including the locomotive servicing facility.  This would add up to several additional miles of  catenary that would see very limited service.  The cost of the wooden poles alone would have exceeded the  entire national debt of Canada!   Also the fact that wood rots very well on the west side of the  Cascade Mountains would have created a maintenance nightmare.  It was, and still is,  very difficult to keep ties under the tracks, let alone thousands of specialized wooden poles. Obviously an  alternative had to be found.
    At the time (mid-1950’s) the United States was courting a new and essentially "free" (our tax dollars at work!) form of power.  This was of course the Atom!  Having seen what a GOOD job our  friendly little Atom did on the yellow godless heathens across the Pacific Ocean, (Thanks to Col. Tibbets and the crew of the Enola Gay, the crew of Bock's Car, as well as the folks at Boeing in Seattle, not to mention those who spent some time in New Mexico working on something called the "Manhattan Project") they knew that  this  would be the new  “E” ticket!!   At  this time there were a great number of steam locomotives being "put out  to pasture" by all of the railroads in the nation.  These could be picked up for a song!!   Now,. enter the AC12 class of  the Southern Pacific Railroad.  These locomotives had more than proved themselves as some of  the  best  designed  locomotives of modern times.  However, Southern Pacific was retiring them because of the need to maintain the water supply needed to quench the thirst of these fire breathing monsters. By eliminating the Water Service Department, the SP was able to buy the Diesel fuel out of the savings from elimimating Water Service alone!
       Now, as you know, there is no shortage of water in western Washington. With an ample supply of  water, all there was needed  was to come up with a compact heat source.  By  placing a comparatively small  nuclear reactor in the existing firebox area of the locomotive, one had the perfect solution to the problem of providing enough heat to boil the water.
    Since these locomotives  had  the  controls   in  front, their  operation  was  not  that  much  different  from  the  electric  locomotives.  The view was great  of  the  track  ahead.  Also, if  there  was  a  slight  leak  from  the  reactor, the  forward  motion  of  the locomotive  would  carry  the  radioactivity  back  over  the train  away  from  the  head  end  crew   to  be  dispersed  harmlessly in  the  food, beer, livestock and  other products  being  carried  in  the trailing  cars.  Also  since oil  was  no  longer  needed  for  the fire,  the  existing  tender  could  be  made  to  carry  water all the way through.  Since  the  speed  could  be  increased  significantly  with  so  much  new  power,  NYC (New York Central) style  track  pans  could  be placed between  the  rails.  Also  large  funnel  like  devices , that  could  be  lowered  at  points of  limited overhead clearance,   would  be  placed on the modified  tenders  to  catch  the  ample  rainfall  that is so  prevalent in the entire Pacific Northwest.  Naturally  there were  the  standard  teething problems  that happen  with  any  cutting  edge  technology.   The first problem  that  popped  up  was  the  fireman/nukeman  had  trouble  distinguishing  the  (raise the flanger boards) from  the (lower the collection funnel boards).  This resulted  in  much  right-of-way  wayside  damage.  The  new  folding  funnels  on  the  tenders  did  not  fare  much  better!!!
    The second  problem  with the  funnels  was  that  the  clearance  tolerance  between the tops  of  the funnels  and  the  overhead  wire  was  so  close  that  if  there  was  rough track, a nearly empty  tender  would  get  to  bouncing  and  thusly  short the catenary to  ground.  This  resulted   in  a  spectacular light show!!!  This  problem was  solved  by  cutting  out  a  small  crescent  shaped  groove   in  the  top  of  the funnel.  Also  a  forty  MPH   restriction  was  placed  on  a  tender  that  was  less than a third full.  They also  placed  a  restriction on  tenders  that  were two thirds empty.   This  was  done  as  a  FAIL-SAFE measure from  the Department  of  Redundancy Department.*
 (* A special  note  about this department  was that  it  was  completely  dropped by  the Great Northern  Railway for good reason.  It  later  reared  its  ugly head at the so-called  "modern" Union Pacific Railroad.}
    Surprisingly  the  actual  Babcock &  Wilcox  reactors  functioned  flawlessly .  Just as their other  products  do.  Some  examples  are the Three Mile  Island  and  Rancho Seco power plants.  Of course, all  of  the  incidents   that  occurred were the result of  so-called "HUMAN  FAILURE"!
    There  were some problems, though. Of course, the  inherent problem of the drivers pounding the rail at speed common to all steam engines surfaced.  The pounding of  the rails by  the drivers of the NAC-12's was no exception and was never overcome completely, in spite of a lot of time spent by shop forces adjusting the counterweights.  Of course this was nothing new.  Also, in  the three years of testing these mighty beasts, the train crews started to notice new and altered life  forms along the right-of-way.  These varied from very large mushrooms to multi-headed mammals, such as skunks and raccoons, as well as fish in adjacent rivers with five eyes, three tails and swimming upside down.
    Strangly enough, the two headed skunks proved to also be equipped with a vastly improved "defensive system", which indirectly caused at least one major derailment.  One evening, an eastbound train was proceeding downgrade just east of the tunnel when the Engineer spotted one of  the mutated skunks on the track.  Having had a close encounter with one of these critters in the past and having suffered the social ostracism and lack of a meaningful love life for several weeks as a result of that incident, he plugged the train and ended up putting it in the ditch.  In the ensuing investigation, he was exonerated, as it was felt by all involved that any man in his right mind would NOT want to repeat that experience ever again!
    The  engine crews also noticed that  they only  had  to  shave  once or twice a  year.  As you know,  back then  they  didn't exactly give away those GILLETE brand safety razors.  These thrifty  illegitimate individuals loved  this  feature!  Another feature  that the crews enoyed  was that  it  never seemed as cold on Stevens Pass during the few years that these engines ran.  Some ski resorts in the area had serious financial failures at this time, for reasons that were never determined.
    One  very  innovative   feature  that  was  added to  these  brutes  in  later  years were pantograph equipped ex Western Pacific 65000 series box cars behind the tenders that contained a steam driven alternator to help boost  the  line  voltage  for  the  electric  helpers. This was possible because the steam producing capacity of the NAC-12's reactor far exceeded that necessary for traction most of the time.  The boxcar mounted alternators  produced  so  much  power that the Great Northern Railway made a tidy profit selling power back to Seattle Power and Light Company.  There is no doubt that some of  these electrons have helped  to  power MILW (Milwaukee Road) Box Cabs over Snoqualamie Pass. Since GNRY  used ac-dc motor- generator locomotives, adding  more  power to the line was easily accomplished.
    Unfortunately, all  good  things  must  come  to  an  end.  It  seemed that one night an over  zealous power coordinator over-loaded  one  of  the  trains  that  had  an NAC-12m  class  on  the  point.  In addition, the newly acquired set of ALCO PA-PB-PA "slack" helpers that were shoving on the caboose had serious engine failures on two units at once, reducing the available power on the train to less than that required to continue.  The  train  stalled  in  the  middle  of  the Cascade Tunnel.  It  seems  that the  excessive heat developed by the suddenly "unloaded" reactor  warped the dampening rod control  linkage.  This was hooked  up to the former firing valve.  You guessed it!!   A melt-down  was  in  progress!  Fortunately  the  head  end  crew  was  able  to  escape  into  the  pioneer  tunnel, saving their lives and those of their future children.  Just  before they   left  the  main  tunnel,  the  head  brakeman  was  able  to  turn  both  angle  cocks  and pull  the  pin.  The  train   rolled   backwards  out  of  the  tunnel  and  stopped   about  a half  mile  west  of    the  west  portal   when  the  brake  pipe finally leaked off enough to set the brakes.
    This  when  the  real  work  began.   The old  road  to  the Mill Creek shaft was quickly reopened.   Thousands of cubic yards of  concrete with a  high lead content was pumped into  the  bore.  After  successfully sealing the ill-fated locomotive in  the center of  Mt. Index,  a permanent  shoo-fly was bored around the affected area. This  is  why  you  cannot "see the  light" at  the  end  of  the  Cascade  Tunnel.
    Very soon after this unfortunate experience ,  the  Great Northern Railway dropped  the NAC-12m class of locomotives from their roster.  Most were scrapped at the Bremerton Navy Yard.  Some of  the reactors wound up in use in other  power producing  facilities  in  northwestern  California, such as the well known PG&E nuclear plant just south of Eureka, CA.
    Unfortunately  none  of  these  mighty  behemoths  were  ever  photographed.  It  seemed  that  everybody  that  tried seems to have purchased  previously  exposed  film.
     The railroad unions have also expressed concern about long term health risks, in light of rumors about the long-term health risks of radiation that have been circulating recently.  The railroad has replied "Since your health insurance is paid up, what the hell are you worried about?"  Negotiations are still underway after many years in an attempt to resolve the concerns expressed by the craft unions.
    We wish  to thank  Mr. Eldon Williams  for  helping  with  the  many  technical  facets of this  article.  Mr. Williams spent many hours “On the Hill” dialing these locomotives “in“ so to speak.   After completing  this  project, Mr.Williams finished his career with the Western Pacific Railroad Co., conducting Civil Engineering projects in the Feather River Canyon.
    This is not the end of the story, however.  Later on, a regional California railroad began development of the "Next Generation" of Nuclear Powered Locomotives.

                                                                                               P.J. “PAP’  Schmierer
                                                                                            J.R. "Easy" Ley