“Faded Albumen” Version, Ten-Wheeler: Chicago Burlington & Quincy 4–6–0 locomotive no. 710, displayed in Lincoln’s Historic Haymarket district beside Lincoln Station. A native of Nebraska, 710 was built in the Havelock Shops in 1901 for the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad (B&MR), a predecessor of the CB&Q (which, in turn, is a predecessor of today’s BNSF rail line). The small locomotive, one of 24 sisters in the K-4 class, was later renumbered CB&Q no. 710, the name it wears today. — All photos herein are © Charles G. Haacker, author.

Locomotives, Part Two: the Steamers!

I love ‘em! Any kind. All kinds. Loco for Locomotives. Woohoo.

Arguably, steam engines and locomotives built the United States as we know it.

We are a vast country. Getting from one coast to the other before the railroad existed needed most of a year and was fraught with all manner of dangers. The earliest steam-powered railway in the U.S. was the already-extant Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) in 1829 with Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb. By the early 1860s, construction began on the first transcontinental railroad, delayed by the Civil War but triumphantly completed in 1869. The country was connected by rail from Atlantic to Pacific; a passenger could get from New York to San Franciso in only six days. For First Nations people, it was a catastrophe, but it was otherwise miraculous and inconceivable without steam engines and locomotives. Before them, railroads were short-haul and horse-drawn.

Central Pacific № 1 Gov. Stanford (1862)— Cosmetically restored 4–4–0 “American”-pattern built by Norris Locomotive Works in 1862. Involved in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad (1869).

I bet nearly everyone loves steam engines. They are wet, hot, noisy, and incredibly complex— they even breathe like dragons; they seem alive. The engine in the header, Old Seven-Ten, remained in service for more than 50 years. It had been built for the then high-speed passenger service with 72-inch driving wheels. In later years when heavier steel passenger cars replaced wooden ones, all K-4 class engines such as no. 710 were replaced by larger steam locomotives, sending the now outdated machines into local and branch line service. They were fitted with smaller drivers (64-inch) for slower speeds and handling heavier cars.

The 710 is called a “Ten-Wheeler” in the Whyte notation, a classification system for steam locomotives based on the total number of wheels — bogeys plus drivers. Types of diesel are usually classified by the number of axles rather than wheels. In the Whyte method, she is described as a 4–6–0: four wheels on the pilot (leading) truck, six drivers, and no trailing truck; ten wheels total. She is a coal burner. Her tender can carry 9 tons of coal and 5,000 gallons of water. After larger locomotives began handling steel passenger cars, it was assigned to the CB&Q’s Wymore Division in Nebraska in June 1935, continuing into the 1950s. It often hauled mixed freight between Wymore and Concordia, Kansas.

Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range “Yellowstone” 2–8–8–4 Mallet #229 (1943). Located in Two Harbors, Minnesota. Today it is surrounded by a high security fence, no thanks to vandals.

“Mallet”-type locomotive #229, also known as a Yellowstone, was one of the largest locomotives made. Built in 1943, it went directly to helping transport materials during the war. When peace came, the big Mallet (pronounced in the French manner, mal-AY) was diverted to cross-country ore hauling between the Iron Range, Two Harbors and Duluth/Proctor. The Mallet is considered an example of a slow-drag freight articulated locomotive because, although slow, the Mallet was powerful and able to haul mile-long trains of iron ore. The Mallet located in Two Harbors is one of only three Yellowstones to be preserved. — lake county historical society.

Tiny 1831 0–4–0 DeWitt Clinton, and gigantic 1941 2–6–6–6 H-8 Allegheny

Chesapeake & Ohio H-8 “Allegheny” Steam Locomotive no. 1601, 2–6–6–6 Mallet-type. Lima Locomotive Works, 1941, retired in 1952. One of only two left in the world, both “cold,” on permanent static display. This one is in The Henry Ford [Museum]. The six-wheel trailing truck is needed to support the massive firebox (left). The Henry Ford humorously displayed the monster alongside the minuscule 1831 DeWitt Clinton drawing a consist of wooden carriages. The Allegheny is as long as the entire train behind the little DeWitt Clinton. Some difference in 110 years.

If enormous Mallet-type articulated engines aren’t your thing, here are some smaller early Nineteenth-century locomotives. Some of these were still in use into the 20th-century.

The huge “cowcatchers” on these engines were literally to shunt aside livestock on the tracks. An engine at speed without one likely would derail.

1. “American”-type 4–4–0 Rogers “President” (1858). Its last run was to transport the presidential party of Herbert Hoover to the opening of the Henry Ford Museum in 1929, where the engine now resides.
2. Duluth & Iron Range “3 Spot” 2–6–0 Baldwin “Mogul” (1883).
   “The 3 Spot, a 2–6–0 “Mogul” type was built in 1883 by Philadelphia-based Baldwin Locomotive Works. The 3 Spot was originally built for the Tehuantepec Interoceanic Railway in Mexico. The Tehuantepec Interoceanic never took delivery, leaving the locomotive available to the D&IR, which was in need of motive power at the time.” — lakecountyhistoricalsociety.org
3. St. Paul & Pacific 4–4–0 American William Crooks (1861). This American-pattern locomotive was the first engine to run in Minnesota for its first railroad, the St. Paul and Pacific. The 51-tons-with-tender locomotive was constructed in Paterson, NJ, by the New Jersey Locomotive and Machine Company. She arrived in St. Paul by steamboat and hauled her first trainload of passengers 10 miles between what is now the Twin Cities in 1862. Crooks is one of the last surviving Civil War-era American-pattern engines.

Union Pacific Challenger no, 3977, direct antecedent to the “Big Boy,” a giant 4–6–6–4 Mallet, built in 1943 by American Locomotive.

U.P Challenger no. 3977, 4–6–6–4 Mallet (1943). These immense engines were so long that they could not handle the existing curves if they were built rigidly, so the boiler was only fixed to the rear set of drivers. The pilot and front drivers could pivot independently. They were ‘articulated.’ The boiler would appear to swing side-to-side around curves, as shown in the center picture. This was true of all U.S. Mallet-types. 3077 is one of only two survivors of one hundred and five 3900-class engines.

On the right is my then-two-year-old granddaughter Andromeda Gail at the Challenger throttle.

Finally, a most unusual steam engine — Fireless! Pennsylvania Power and Light 4094-D Steam Locomotive 0–8–0 “Fireless” was built in 1939 by Heisler. The 0–8–0 pattern was sometimes called “8-Coupled.”

These remarkable engines were often described as “giant thermos bottles.” They were used in industrial plants with steam-generating equipment. They were clean and quiet. They received and stored superheated water in an insulated pressure vessel (“boiler”), which generated the steam. As the steam was drawn off and the pressure dropped, the superheated water would boil and generate more steam. They were thus able to run for several hours at a constant pressure before needing a recharge. They were exceptionally valuable in explosive atmospheres, such as in underground mining, because they gave off no sparks.

Thank you for reading! I have some more “unusuals” coming up. 😉