Southern Pacific 2-10-2s from Baldwin
It will be of surpassing interest to the public generally and to
railroad men particularly to observe that the greatest train of
locomotives that the world has ever seen is now being moved across the
continent. Fifty locomotives of the 2-10-2 type are completed at the
Eddystone plant of the Baldwin Locomotive
Works for the Southern
Pacific Lines,
and twenty of the number are already more than half way on their
journey in one train and the others will follow in rapid succession.
This train is nearly half a mile in length without the pushing and
pulling locomotives. The movement of the train has been arranged by the
Pennsylvania
Railroad, and each locomotive is manned by an experienced engineer
of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. Our frontispiece illustration shows a
view of the entire fifty locomotives and while there were during the
war period many remarkable groups of locomotives to be seen at
Baldwin's and elsewhere this amazing group a
single section of which is the most valuable ever moved in the country
as a single unit, and is the most memorable group of its kind in the
history of the Baldwin Works.
Dozens of 2-10-2 locomotives at
Eddystone prior to delivery to the Southern Pacific. From a 1922
magazine, in the public domain
It is also interesting to recall that the first Baldwin
locomotives of the 2-10-2 type built for the Southern Pacific were
constructed in 1917 and were designated as Class Fl These locomotives
weigh 348,000 pounds and develop a tractive force of 65,300 pounds and
have been successfully used not only in heavy freight service but also
in passenger service on grades exceeding 2 per cent. They were followed
in 1921 by a group of larger locomotives known as Class F3, having a
total weight of 385,900 pounds and developing a tractive force of
75,150 pounds. The new locomotives Class F4 are generally similar to
Class F 3 the most important changes being the addition of a feed water
heater and booster. All the locomotives referred to above burn oil for
fuel and are equipped with superheaters. The boiler used on Class F 4
is of the straight top type with a slope on the bottom of the middle
ring in order to provide a sufficiently deep water space under the
combustion chamber. This increases the shell diameter from 90 inches at
the first ring to 100 inches at the throat.