2-10-4

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a locomotive has two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a Bissel truck, ten coupled driving wheels on five axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles, usually in a bogie. These were referred to as the Texas type in most of the United States, the Colorado type on the Burlington Route, and the Selkirk type in Canada.

Overview

The Texas wheel arrangement originated and was principally used in the United States. The evolution of this locomotive type began as a Santa Fe type with a larger four-wheeled trailing truck that would allow an enlarged firebox. A subsequent development was as an elongated Berkshire type that required extra driving wheels to remain within axle load limits. Examples of both of these evolutionary progressions can be found.

Some tank locomotives also existed in eastern Europe. One extraordinary experimental tender locomotive, built in the Soviet Union, had an opposed-piston drive system.Russian Reforms
(Accessed on 3 October 2016)

Usage

Belgian Congo

The Texas type was rare in Africa. One locomotive, numbered 801, was built for the CF du Bas-Congo au Katanga by Société Anonyme John Cockerill in 1939. It had cylinders and diameter driving wheels, with a working order mass of , a grate area of , and a tractive effort at 65% boiler pressure of . The locomotive is believed to have been built for the line between Bukama and Kamina and accumulated during its service lifetime. Even with its large size, it was hand-fired and had two firebox doors, with two firemen being carried.

Brazil

Outside North America, the was rare. In South America, the Central Railway of Brazil ordered 17 locomotives, 10 from Baldwin, which were delivered in 1940, and another seven from the American Locomotive Company, which were delivered in 1947.

Canada

The Canadian Pacific (CP) Selkirk locomotives were all built by Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). The first 20 of these large engines were built in 1929, designated T1a class and allocated numbers 5900 to 5919. Their Canadian type name was after the Selkirk Mountains across which they were placed in service, the railway summit of which was located just inside the western portal of the Connaught Tunnel beneath Rogers Pass.

MLW built another 10 of these successful locomotives for CP during November and December 1938, designated T1b class and numbered from 5920 to 5929. Modifications to the original design led to the T1b being 10 tonnes lighter while its operating steam pressure was increased from .

A further six Selkirks, classed T1c and numbered from 5930 to 5935, were delivered by MLW in 1949. They were the last standard gauge steam locomotives to be built in Canada for a Canadian railway. These were very similar to the T1b class, apart from a few refinements, which included two cross-compound air compressors to speed up recharging of the air brake system, while some small streamlining touches were not retained, such as the streamlined casing around the smokebox stack and the teardrop shape of the classification lights. In addition, the insides of the cabs were no longer insulated in the same manner as the previous versions, which had provided better cold-weather cab insulation and were better liked by crews. The last Selkirks were taken out of service in 1959. These were the most powerful steam locomotives in the British Empire.

Japan

In 1948, the JGR built five Class E10 tank locomotives for the purpose of supplementing the aging Class 4110 (0-10-0) in Itaya Pass on the Ou Main Line for a short time until electrification. E10 2 is statically stored.

South Africa

In 1937, the South African Railways (SAR) placed one 2-10-4 Class 21 steam locomotive in service, designed for mixed traffic and suitable for light rail. It was designed by A.G. Watson, chief mechanical engineer of the SAR from 1929 to 1936, and built by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow. It was the only example built, and represented the maximum power obtainable on Cape gauge from a non-articulated locomotive limited to a axle load and rail. In order to negotiate tight curves, the third and fourth sets of coupled wheels were flangeless.North British Locomotive Company works list, compiled by Austrian locomotive historian Bernhard SchmeiserSouth African Railways and Harbours Locomotive Diagram Book, 2'0" & 3'6" Gauge Steam Locomotives, 15 August 1941, as amended

The locomotive's Type FT tender was an experimental type using six pairs of wheels in a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement, with the leading and trailing wheels as bissel-type pony trucks and the remainder mounted on a rigid wheelbase. A similar Type JV tender had been built in the Salt River shops in Cape Town in 1936 as a prototype to the Type FT. The wheel arrangement was not very successful however, and not used again.

Soviet Union

Two Texas-type locomotives were built in the USSR. One, the class OR23, built in 1949 by the locomotive works in Ulan Ude, had cylinders that were placed above the center driving axle. Unlike nearly all steam locomotives, the pistons had rods on both ends, which transferred power to the wheels. The idea was to balance the driving forces on the wheels, allowing the counterweights on the wheels to be smaller and reducing hammer blow on the track. Test runs showed, however, that the OR23 design was unsuitable as a practical locomotive. The locomotive was never used for more than testing and was returned to its builder and scrapped.

United States

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) took delivery of locomotive No. 3829 from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1919. It was used by ATSF as an experimental locomotive and was rostered as a member of ATSF's 3800 class of 2-10-2s that was fitted with a four-wheel trailing truck. Nearly 100 more 3800 class locomotives were delivered after No. 3829, but all with the 2-10-2 wheel arrangement. Photographs exist that show No. 3829 fitted with at least two different designs of four-wheel trailing truck through the years. No other members of the 3800 class have been documented with four-wheel trailing trucks. No. 3829 was scrapped in 1955, still equipped with a four-wheel trailing truck.

Santa Fe, which had originated the type, adopted it again in 1930 with No. 5000, named ''Madame Queen''. This locomotive was similar to the C&O T-1, with the same drivers, but with boiler pressure and 60% limited cutoff. It proved the viability of the type on the ATSF, but the Great Depression shelved plans to acquire more.

In 1938, with the railroad's fortunes improving, ATSF acquired 10 more locomotives. These came with diameter drivers and boiler pressure, making these ATSF s the fastest and most modern of all.

Of the original order of ten, five were oil-burning and five coal-burning, but when Santa Fe ordered 25 more for delivery in 1944, all were delivered equipped to burn oil. The first of the 1944 batch produced on road test, the highest figure known for a two-cylinder steam locomotive.

Texas and Pacific

The type was revived in 1925 by the Lima Locomotive Works. This time, it was an expansion of the Berkshire type that Lima had pioneered. A version of the Berkshire with 10 driving wheels instead of eight was an obvious development and the first to be delivered were to the Texas and Pacific Railway, after which the type was subsequently named. The four-wheel trailing truck allowed a much larger firebox, thus a greater ability to generate heat, and thus steam. The ''Superpower'' design, as Lima's marketing department called it, resulted in a locomotive that could develop great power at speed while not running out of steam-generating ability.

Bessemer and Lake Erie

Baldwin built a fleet of 47 H-1 class 2-10-4s for the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, an iron ore–hauling railroad, between 1929 and 1944, in eight subclasses numbered 601–647. Calculated tractive force was , average weight was over , and boiler pressure was . Eighteen were sold in 1951 to the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway, another ore-hauling railroad, that renumbered them 700–717. By the beginning of the 1960s, all but one were sold for scrap. The exception was No. 643, which almost operated in excursion service in the late 1990s, but for its large size. It is now owned by the Age of Steam Roundhouse.

Chesapeake and Ohio

The early Lima-built Texas types were low-drivered, in diameter, which did not leave enough space to fully counterweight the extremely heavy and sturdy side rods and main rods required for such a powerful locomotive's piston thrusts. That changed in 1930 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), which stretched the design of an Erie Railroad high-drivered Berkshire type locomotive to produce 40 of the , a Texas type with diameter drivers that was both powerful and fast enough for the new higher-speed freight services that the railroads were introducing. All subsequent Texas types were of this higher-drivered sort.

Chicago Great Western Railway

The Chicago Great Western Railway was an unusual customer for 2-10-4s as it was a 'granger' railroad, operating in the predominantly flat Midwestern United States. Traffic was overwhelmingly agricultural in nature, with few fast freights or express passenger services. By the end of the 1920s the CGW had few especially large locomotives on its roster, having quickly given up a brief experiment with Mallet types. The largest types in traffic were USRA Light Mikados and most trains were handled by 2-8-0 locomotives - with multiple engines per train on the CGW's isolated steep valley grades.

With the arrival of the Great Depression and its locomotive fleet ageing, the CGW chose a major upgrade with 2-10-4 locomotives, ordering 36 shared between Lima and Baldwin. They arrived into service during 1930 in three batches, which differed in detail but were to the same fundamental design. All had 63" diameter drivers, 29" x 32" cylinders and a 255 psi boiler pressure - the same basic specification as the successful Texas & Pacific fleet of 2-10-4s.

The 2-10-4s allowed the CGW to dramatically improve its operational efficiency - trains could be heavier yet faster and double heading and banking was eliminated in many locations. Fewer trains hauling more tonnage allowed the railroad to cut many jobs, so the new big locomotives were not well-received by employees. Being much heavier than previous CGW locomotives the 2-10-4s were barred from certain parts of the CGW system with lightly-laid track (they could not cross the bridge over the Missouri at Leavenworth, Kansas, for instance, and so could not work trains through to the CGW yard at Kansas City). Freight trains hauled by the 2-10-4s had to be given priority over passenger trains at certain points because sidings were too lightly-laid to handle the heavy locomotives. The CGW carried out a programme of relaying key sections of track with heavier rail in the mid-1930s to properly handle the 2-10-4s and in doing so became the first American railroad to install continuous welded rail. The 2-10-4s promoted a new way of working on the CGW, which adopted a principle of fewer but much longer and heavier trains - a practice usually seen on transcontinental railroads in the West rather than granger routes in the prairies. The CGW continued this principle after dieselization in the late 1940s, which saw all the 2-10-4s withdrawn between 1948 and 1950.

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) ordered few new locomotives after 1930, since electrification both consumed the railroad's resources and resulted in a supply of excess steam locomotives that eliminated any requirement for new power. Until the Second World War had begun, the PRR's locomotive fleet had not begun to appear inadequate. Although the PRR urgently needed new and modern freight power, the War Production Board prohibited working on a new design, and not enough time remained to trial a prototype in any event, the PRR cast around for other railroads' designs that it might modify for PRR use.

It settled on the . Some modifications were made to the design for these PRR "War Babies". These included PRR drop-couplers, sheet-steel pilots, PRR-style cabs, large PRR tenders, Keystone-shaped number plates up front, and other modifications. It still betrayed its foreign heritage by lacking the PRR trademark Belpaire firebox and by having a booster engine on the trailing truck. Altogether, 125 locomotives were built between 1942 and 1944 and became the largest fleet of Texas-type locomotives in existence. All were eventually sold as scrap when the Pennsylvania Railroad converted to diesel.

North American owners of Texas types

Preserved Texas types in North America

References

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