 As
railroads became a more popular means of
travel and transport, railroad companies had
to develop a steam locomotive with greater
power than the 'Pacific' to handle the heavy
passenger trains in mountainous terrain. An
example of this need was on the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad. As the number of cars increased
on its passenger trains, it became necessary
to double-head the currently-used "Pacifics"
to get the longer trains over the Allegheny
Mountains.
In 1910, the
C&O asked the American Locomotive Company
(Alco) to build them a more powerful
locomotive. The engineers at Alco studied the
railroad's route conditions and their other
requirements. They recommended a locomotive
with eight drivers, like the 'Mikado', for
traction, to which they added a four-wheel
lead truck, like the 'Pacific', for speed and
riding stability. The result was a new wheel
arrangement, the 4-8-2.
The first
4-8-2 in North America was built at Alco’s
Richmond plant and delivered to the C&O in
1911. The 4-8-2 did the job for the company
successfully, and the locomotive type acquired
the name 'Mountain' from its main purpose.
Other
railroads ordered 4-8-2s, and the design
evolved quickly. The 62-inch diameter drivers
used on the early examples were increased to
69 inches (on C&O's second order), and up to
73 inches. Boiler size and power were also
increased substantially. By the early 1920s, a
new 4-8-2 did not resemble the original C&O
locomotives in many ways at all.
The ways in
which they were used also changed. These
large, powerful locomotives were ideal for
fast freight service, so the 'Mountain' became
a dual purpose locomotive, handling both heavy
passenger trains and fast freight consists
equally well.
|
Used courtesy of
www.frisco1522.org
- this example was built in 1926 by the
Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia
for service on the St. Louis - San
Francisco Railway. |
The 4-8-2
found a home in both the mountains of the west
and the flat territory of the mid-west and
south-east. They were successful in both types
of landscape because they had good speed as
well as great power. Many of the western
railroads owned large fleets of 4-8-2s:
Southern Pacific owned 83, Union Pacific had
60, Santa Fe acquired 51, and Great Northern
owned 43.
The Canadian
National acquired its first 'Mountain' in
1923. Its last batch, 20 semi-streamlined
4-8-2s delivered by the Montreal Locomotive
Works in 1944 (nicknamed Bullet Nosed
Betties), were the final steam locomotives
purchased by the railroad.
The Rock
Island and Missouri Pacific were two
mid-western railroads with large fleets of
'Mountains'. In the south-east, the Seaboard
and Florida East Coast placed their 4-8-2s at
the head of long consists of heavyweight
Pullmans headed for Florida.
The
'Mountain' distinguished itself as a fast
freight engine, particularly in the east.
There were many users, but three railroads had
especially noteworthy fleets. New York Central
received its first 4-8-2s in 1916 (and
relabeled them 'Mohawks'). By the time its
last was built in 1944, it had purchased 600
of them. The Central used them mainly in fast
freight service, but the last 50, built by
Lima during World War II, were also used in
heavy passenger service. Central’s rival, the
Pennsylvania Railroad, ordered 301 engines of
its Class M-1 design between 1923 and 1930.
They were used primarily as main-line fast
freight locomotives. Together, the two eastern
railroads owned almost half the 4-8-2s built
for U.S. railroads.
The Illinois
Central took a different route. After
initially acquiring 60 locomotives from
commercial builders between 1923 and 1926, the
railroad decided to build its own 4-8-2s. 56
were constructed at its Paducah, Ky., shops
from 1937 to 1942, using the boilers from
surplus 2-10-2s. Paducah built an additional
20 engines between 1942 and 1943 with all new
parts. IC’s early 4-8-2s were dual service
locomotives, but the Mountains built at
Paducah were exclusively for freight.
As train
lengths increased and schedules were tightened
in the late 1920s, railroads began looking for
a more powerful locomotive, which led to the
introduction of the 4-8-4. However, rather
than replace the 4-8-2, the 4-8-4 complemented
it. 'Mountains' continued to be built and used
for assignments not requiring the power of a
4-8-4.
The last
steam locomotives acquired by the Baltimore &
Ohio — and also the last 4-8-2s built — were
assembled at the railroad’s shops in Baltimore
in 1948.
By that
time, 41 railroads bought or built over 2,200
'Mountain' locomotives.
The 4-8-2
was the locomotive that demonstrated the value
of combining eight coupled drivers with the
speed potential of the leading four wheel
truck. Had the engineers, in 1911, recognized
the serious limitation of the two trailing
wheels and had allowed more weight by adding a
trailing four wheel truck then the ultimate
dual-purpose locomotive would have been
developed 16 years earlier than the 1927
introduction of the "Northern".
The table
below lists the railroads that used the
'Mountain' locomotives, the numbers that were
in their fleets, and the companies that built
them.
|
Railroad Line |
Quantity, Builder |
|
Alaska Railroad |
2 Baldwin |
|
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe |
51 Baldwin |
|
Baltimore & Ohio |
2 Baldwin, 42 B&O |
|
Bangor & Aroostook |
10 ALCO |
|
Boston & Maine |
18 Baldwin |
|
Canadian National Railway |
42 CLC, 32 MLW |
|
Canadian Pacific Railway |
2 CPR |
|
Central Vermont |
4 ALCO |
|
Central of Georgia |
27 ALCO, 5 Baldwin |
|
Chesapeake & Ohio |
8 ALCO, 2 Baldwin |
|
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy |
13 BLW, 8 Lima |
|
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific |
62 ALCO |
|
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western |
45 ALCO |
|
Denver & Rio Grande Western |
30 ALCO, 10 Baldwin |
|
Florida East Coast |
90 ALCO |
|
Grand Trunk Western |
5 Baldwin |
|
Great Northern |
28 Baldwin, 15 LIMA |
|
Illinois Central |
35 ALCO, 25 LIMA, 76 IC |
|
Lehigh & Hudson River |
3 Baldwin |
|
Lehigh Valley |
6 ALCO |
|
Louisville & Nashville |
22 Baldwin |
|
Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Sainte
Marie |
18 ALCO, 3 Soo |
|
Missouri Pacific |
33 ALCO |
|
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis |
5 ALCO, 8 Baldwin |
|
New Orleans Great Northern |
3 ALCO |
|
New York Central |
435 ALCO, 165 Lima |
|
New York, New Haven & Hartford |
70 ALCO |
|
New York, Ontario & Western |
20 ALCO |
|
Norfolk & Western |
10 ALCO, 12 Baldwin, 26 N&W |
|
Pennsylvania |
225 Baldwin, 50 LIMA, 26 PRR |
|
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac |
4 ALCO |
|
Rutland |
4 ALCO |
|
St. Louis - San Francisco |
30 Baldwin, 34 SLSF |
|
Seaboard Air Line |
25 ALCO, 36 Baldwin |
|
Southern Pacific |
34 ALCO, 49 SP |
|
Southern |
58 Baldwin |
|
Tennessee Central |
4 ALCO |
|
Texas & Pacific |
5 ALCO, 5 Baldwin |
|
Union Pacific |
60 ALCO |
|
Wabash |
25 Baldwin |
|
Western Railway of Alabama |
2 ALCO |
|
