Steam Locomotive Wheel Configurations

The two Swiss built locos for the Great Western Railway by Brown Boveri and Vulcan Foundry's English Electric powered GT3 for British Railways were actually quite successful.

What were the horsepower ratings? They look smaller and lighter than the American projects, which would have helped with all the problems.
 
The 18000, 2,500hp, 31,500lbf tractive effort on an all up weigh of 115tons, maximum service speed 90mph. She made 95.4mph on test and could maintain 90mph on the level with 500tons on the drawbar

The GT3, 2,750hp, 38,000lbf tractive effort on an all up weight of 124tons, maximum service speed 90mph, exceeded in test (103mph) and in traffic timed by stopwatch and milepost at 105mph with 540 tons on the drawbar.
 
0-6-0: Common yard switcher, later in the steam era.

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https://media.istockphoto.com/illus...ge-steam-engine-1827-illustration-id611299406

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https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8003/7496244144_5137b617fc_b.jpg

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upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/USRA_0-6-0.jpg
1926

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Before we completely move on from the 0-4-0, I want to show you the Best Friend of Charleston, one of the South's most important locomotives:

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It pulled the first train on the first scheduled daily rail operation in the South, over just a few miles of track that ran inland (north) from the port of Charleston. The original was destroyed in a boiler explosion, so Southern Railway had this exact replica built. They hauled it all over the system on a flatcar for years, before it ended up in the SC state museum in Columbia.

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All the cars it pulled were of the two axle variety, as was being done in Europe at the time. Notice that the first car, with extra wood fuel, had room left over for some cotton bales. Bench seats in the coaches faced the sides.

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Ah. A Terrier. (Technically an A1 - or as later rebuilt an A1X) EDIT - no idea why this hasn't worked. I am of course referring to the second locomotive in the post three above this.

Grrrr!

I have a soft spot for Terrier's and especially for 662 or Martello as she was originally named. Here she is seen in the second livery (color scheme) of the at least four she carried through her long nigh on 90 year mainline career.

[Of course she never carried the weirdest livery a Terrier ever carried. That would be that of the Great Western!]
 
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0-8-0: Rare, super heavy duty yard switcher.

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. Locomotives of this type are also referred to as eight coupled.

Examples of the 0-8-0 wheel arrangement were constructed both as tender and tank locomotives. The earliest locomotives were built for mainline haulage, particularly for freight, but the configuration was later also often used for large switcher (shunter) types.

The wheel arrangement provided a powerful layout with all engine weight as adhesive weight, which maximised the tractive effort and factor of adhesion. The layout was generally too large for smaller and lighter railways, where the more popular 0-6-0 wheel arrangement would often be found performing similar duties.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0-8-0

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http://tassignon.be/trains/Vapeur Belge/images/029.jpg

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https://i.pinimg.com/originals/01/00/60/010060c9c3fa26cafcd6f42904214fa3.jpg

@AndyHall 's thread on 'Camels'... https://civilwartalk.com/threads/id-walk-a-mile-for-camel.139250/

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http://www.railalbum.co.uk/steam-lo...080/lms16-lms9339-tebay-et-gm0013-probg2a.jpg

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https://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/images/nyc7718_rcl.jpg
2017

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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2-4-2: Early experiments with guide wheels, in order to achieve higher safe speeds. Sets of four front guide wheels were attached via swivel mount, while single pairs were semi-rigid. Powered axles were always rigidly attached to the frame, while trailing guide wheels were mounted on a trailing arm style pivoting triangular frame, with a slide plate under the cab. Once these suspension standards were established, they lasted throughout the steam era.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-4-2#/media/File:WheelArrangement_2-4-2.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-4-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The type is sometimes named Columbia after a Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held at Chicago, Illinois.

The wheel arrangement was widely used on passenger tank locomotives during the last three decades of the nineteenth and the first decade of the twentieth centuries. The vast majority of 2-4-2 locomotives were tank engines, designated 2-4-2T. The symmetrical wheel arrangement was well suited for a tank locomotive that is used to work in either direction.

When the leading and trailing wheels are in swivelling trucks, the equivalent UIC classification is 1'B1'.

While a number of 2-4-2 tender locomotives were built, larger tender locomotive types soon became dominant.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-4-2

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upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/LNWR_engine_2-4-2T_4_foot_6.jpg/1200px-LNWR_engine_2-4-2T_4_foot_6.jpg

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upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Baldwin_2-4-2_ACL.jpg/600px-Baldwin_2-4-2_ACL.jpg
2054

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
4-2-0: Early experiments with guide wheels, in order to achieve higher safe speeds. Sets of four front guide wheels were attached via swivel mount, while single pairs were semi-rigid. Powered axles were always rigidly attached to the frame, while trailing guide wheels were mounted on a trailing arm style pivoting triangular frame, with a slide plate under the cab. Once these suspension standards were established, they lasted throughout the steam era.

1554918739826.png

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-0#/media/File:WheelArrangement_4-2-0.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle and no trailing wheels. This type of locomotive is often called a Jervis type, the name of the original designer.

The 4-2-0 wheel arrangement type was common on United States railroads from the 1830s through the 1850s. The first 4-2-0 to be built was the Experiment, later named Brother Jonathan, for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1832. It was built by the West Point Foundry based on a design by John B. Jervis. Having little else to reference, the manufacturers patterned the boiler and valve gear after locomotives built by Robert Stephenson of England. A few examples of Stephenson locomotives were already in operation in America, so engineers did not have to travel too far to get their initial ideas.

In England, the 4-2-0 was developed around 1840 from the 2-2-2 design of Stephenson's first Long Boiler locomotive, which he had altered to place two pairs of wheels at the front to improve stability, with the outside cylinders between them.

In the United States, the design was a modification of the 0-4-0 design, then in common use. The 0-4-0 proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the day, often derailing on the tight curves and rapid elevation changes of early American railroads. For the 4-2-0, Jervis introduced a four-wheel leading truck under the locomotive's smokebox. It swiveled independently from the main frame of the locomotive, in contrast to the English 4-2-0 engines which had rigid frames. The pistons powered a single driving axle at the rear of the locomotive, just behind the firebox. This design resulted in a much more stable locomotive which was able to guide itself into curves more easily than the 0-4-0.

This design proved so effective on American railroads that many of the early 0-4-0s were rebuilt as 4-2-0s. The 4-2-0 excelled in its ability to stay on the track, especially those with the single driving axles behind the firebox, whose main virtue was stability. However, with only one driving axle behind the firebox, the locomotive's weight was spread over a small proportion of powered wheels, which substantially reduced its adhesive weight. On 4-2-0 locomotives which had the driving axle in front of the firebox, adhesive weight was increased. While this plan placed more of the locomotive's weight on the driving axle, it reduced the weight on the leading truck which made it more prone to derailments.

One possible solution was patented in 1834 by E.L. Miller and used extensively by Matthias W. Baldwin. It worked by raising a pair of levers to attach the tender frame to an extension of the engine frame, which transferred some weight from the tender to the locomotive frame and increased the adhesive weight. An automatic version was patented in 1835 by George E. Sellers and was used extensively by locomotive builder William Norris after he obtained rights to it. This system used a beam whose fulcrum was the driving axle. On flat and level surfaces, the beam would be slightly raised, but upon starting or on grades, the resistance made the beam assume a horizontal position which caused the locomotive to tip upward.

A more practical solution, first put into production by Norris, relocated the driving axle to a location on the frame in front of the locomotive's firebox. This was done because Baldwin refused to grant rights to Norris to use his patented "half-crank" arrangement. Cantilevering the weight of the firebox and the locomotive crew behind the driving axle placed more weight on the driving axle without substantially reducing the weight on the leading truck. However, Norris's design led to a shorter wheelbase, which tended to offset any gains in tractive force on the driving axle by reducing the locomotive's overall stability. A number of Norris locomotives were imported into England for use on the Birmingham and Bristol Railway since, because of the challenges presented by the Lickey Incline, British manufacturers declined to supply.

Once steel became available, greater rotational speeds became possible with multiple smaller coupled wheels. Five years after new locomotive construction had begun at the West Point Foundry in the United States with the 0-4-0 Best Friend of Charleston in 1831, the first 4-4-0 locomotive was designed by Henry R. Campbell, at the time the chief engineer for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway. Campbell received a patent for the design in February 1836 and soon set to work building the first 4-4-0. For the time, Campbell's 4-4-0 was a giant among locomotives. Its cylinders had a 14 inches (356 millimetres) bore with a 16 inches (406 millimetres) piston stroke, it boasted 54 inches (1,372 millimetres) diameter driving wheels, could maintain 90 pounds per square inch (620 kilopascals) of steam pressure and weighed 12 short tons (10.9 tonnes). Campbell's locomotive was estimated to be able to pull a train of 450 short tons (410 tonnes) at 15 miles per hour (24 kilometres per hour) on level track, outperforming the strongest of Baldwin's 4-2-0s in tractive effort by about 63%. However, the frame and driving gear of his locomotive proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the time, which caused Campbell's prototype to be derailment-prone.

As the 1840s approached and more American railroads began to experiment with the new 4-4-0 locomotive type, the 4-2-0 fell out of favor since it was not as able as the 4-4-0 to pull a paying load. 4-2-0s continued to be built into the 1850s, but their use was restricted to light-duty trains since, by this time, most railroads had found them unsuitable for regular work.

In England, for freight work, four-coupled and six-coupled engines were performing well. However, for passenger work the aim was greater speed. Because of the fragility of cast-iron connecting rods, "singles" continued to be used, with the largest driving wheels possible.

For some reason, British manufacturers did not take up the idea of mounting the forward wheels on a bogie for some years. There were possibly fears about their stability and with a long rigid frame, greater speed was achieved, albeit at the cost of a very rough ride and damage to the track. The culmination of this approach was seen in the Crampton locomotive where, to make the driving wheels as large as possible, they were mounted behind the firebox.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-0

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https://i.pinimg.com/736x/02/35/6e/02356e3362bd4c81e5b6f2b75a685a07--george-washington-columbia.jpg

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https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/184/183461/auto/Pioneer_CNW_4-2-0.jpg

The above photo is 'Pioneer', the first railroad locomotive to operate in Chicago. Built in 1837 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad then used by the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, (the oldest predecessor of Chicago and North Western Railway). She arrived in Chicago by ship on October 10, 1848, and pulled the first train westbound out of the city on October 25, 1848. The first locomotive of the proposed northern route of the TRR. (Just kidding James Lutzweiler :wink:)

1554921457126.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/England_loco_Birmingham_&_Glos'ter_Railway.jpg

For our members across the water - the above is a Norris 4-2-0 exported to England for use on the Lickey Incline

The Civil War connection - @DaveBrt 's web site https://www.csa-railroads.com/ has 9 hits to 4-2-0s as used by Confederate Railroads.
2104

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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2-2-2: Early experiments with guide wheels, in order to achieve higher safe speeds. Sets of four front guide wheels were attached via swivel mount, while single pairs were semi-rigid. Powered axles were always rigidly attached to the frame, while trailing guide wheels were mounted on a trailing arm style pivoting triangular frame, with a slide plate under the cab. Once these suspension standards were established, they lasted throughout the steam era.

1555327691262.png

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyte_notation#/media/File:WheelArrangement_2-2-2.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both provided more stability and enabled a larger firebox than the earlier 0-2-2 and 2-2-0 types. This configuration was introduced in 1834 on Robert Stephenson's 'Patentee locomotive' but it was later popularly named Jenny Lind, after the Jenny Lind locomotive which in turn was named after the popular singer. They were also sometimes described as Singles, although this name could be used to describe any kind of locomotive with a single pair of driving wheels.

The 2-2-2 configuration appears to have been developed by Robert Stephenson and Company in 1834, as an enlargement of their 2-2-0 Planet configuration, offering more stability and a larger firebox. The new type became known as Stephenson's Patentee locomotive. Adler, the first successful locomotive to operate in Germany, was a Patentee supplied by Robert Stephenson and company in component form in December, 1835 was one of the earliest examples. Other examples were exported to the Netherlands, Russia and Italy. By 1838 the 2-2-2 had become the standard passenger design by Robert Stephenson and Company.

Eighteen of the first nineteen locomotives ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the opening of the Great Western Railway in 1837/8 were of the 2-2-2 type. These included six 2-2-2 locomotives built by Charles Tayleur at his Vulcan Foundry. Also in 1837 the successful North Star broad gauge locomotive was delivered to the Great Western Railway by Stephenson, becoming the first of a class of twelve locomotives by 1841.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-2-2
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2157

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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View attachment 301912
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-0#/media/File:WheelArrangement_4-2-0.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle and no trailing wheels. This type of locomotive is often called a Jervis type, the name of the original designer.

The 4-2-0 wheel arrangement type was common on United States railroads from the 1830s through the 1850s. The first 4-2-0 to be built was the Experiment, later named Brother Jonathan, for the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1832. It was built by the West Point Foundry based on a design by John B. Jervis. Having little else to reference, the manufacturers patterned the boiler and valve gear after locomotives built by Robert Stephenson of England. A few examples of Stephenson locomotives were already in operation in America, so engineers did not have to travel too far to get their initial ideas.

In England, the 4-2-0 was developed around 1840 from the 2-2-2 design of Stephenson's first Long Boiler locomotive, which he had altered to place two pairs of wheels at the front to improve stability, with the outside cylinders between them.

In the United States, the design was a modification of the 0-4-0 design, then in common use. The 0-4-0 proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the day, often derailing on the tight curves and rapid elevation changes of early American railroads. For the 4-2-0, Jervis introduced a four-wheel leading truck under the locomotive's smokebox. It swiveled independently from the main frame of the locomotive, in contrast to the English 4-2-0 engines which had rigid frames. The pistons powered a single driving axle at the rear of the locomotive, just behind the firebox. This design resulted in a much more stable locomotive which was able to guide itself into curves more easily than the 0-4-0.

This design proved so effective on American railroads that many of the early 0-4-0s were rebuilt as 4-2-0s. The 4-2-0 excelled in its ability to stay on the track, especially those with the single driving axles behind the firebox, whose main virtue was stability. However, with only one driving axle behind the firebox, the locomotive's weight was spread over a small proportion of powered wheels, which substantially reduced its adhesive weight. On 4-2-0 locomotives which had the driving axle in front of the firebox, adhesive weight was increased. While this plan placed more of the locomotive's weight on the driving axle, it reduced the weight on the leading truck which made it more prone to derailments.

One possible solution was patented in 1834 by E.L. Miller and used extensively by Matthias W. Baldwin. It worked by raising a pair of levers to attach the tender frame to an extension of the engine frame, which transferred some weight from the tender to the locomotive frame and increased the adhesive weight. An automatic version was patented in 1835 by George E. Sellers and was used extensively by locomotive builder William Norris after he obtained rights to it. This system used a beam whose fulcrum was the driving axle. On flat and level surfaces, the beam would be slightly raised, but upon starting or on grades, the resistance made the beam assume a horizontal position which caused the locomotive to tip upward.

A more practical solution, first put into production by Norris, relocated the driving axle to a location on the frame in front of the locomotive's firebox. This was done because Baldwin refused to grant rights to Norris to use his patented "half-crank" arrangement. Cantilevering the weight of the firebox and the locomotive crew behind the driving axle placed more weight on the driving axle without substantially reducing the weight on the leading truck. However, Norris's design led to a shorter wheelbase, which tended to offset any gains in tractive force on the driving axle by reducing the locomotive's overall stability. A number of Norris locomotives were imported into England for use on the Birmingham and Bristol Railway since, because of the challenges presented by the Lickey Incline, British manufacturers declined to supply.

Once steel became available, greater rotational speeds became possible with multiple smaller coupled wheels. Five years after new locomotive construction had begun at the West Point Foundry in the United States with the 0-4-0 Best Friend of Charleston in 1831, the first 4-4-0 locomotive was designed by Henry R. Campbell, at the time the chief engineer for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway. Campbell received a patent for the design in February 1836 and soon set to work building the first 4-4-0. For the time, Campbell's 4-4-0 was a giant among locomotives. Its cylinders had a 14 inches (356 millimetres) bore with a 16 inches (406 millimetres) piston stroke, it boasted 54 inches (1,372 millimetres) diameter driving wheels, could maintain 90 pounds per square inch (620 kilopascals) of steam pressure and weighed 12 short tons (10.9 tonnes). Campbell's locomotive was estimated to be able to pull a train of 450 short tons (410 tonnes) at 15 miles per hour (24 kilometres per hour) on level track, outperforming the strongest of Baldwin's 4-2-0s in tractive effort by about 63%. However, the frame and driving gear of his locomotive proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the time, which caused Campbell's prototype to be derailment-prone.

As the 1840s approached and more American railroads began to experiment with the new 4-4-0 locomotive type, the 4-2-0 fell out of favor since it was not as able as the 4-4-0 to pull a paying load. 4-2-0s continued to be built into the 1850s, but their use was restricted to light-duty trains since, by this time, most railroads had found them unsuitable for regular work.

In England, for freight work, four-coupled and six-coupled engines were performing well. However, for passenger work the aim was greater speed. Because of the fragility of cast-iron connecting rods, "singles" continued to be used, with the largest driving wheels possible.

For some reason, British manufacturers did not take up the idea of mounting the forward wheels on a bogie for some years. There were possibly fears about their stability and with a long rigid frame, greater speed was achieved, albeit at the cost of a very rough ride and damage to the track. The culmination of this approach was seen in the Crampton locomotive where, to make the driving wheels as large as possible, they were mounted behind the firebox.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-0

View attachment 301923
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/02/35/6e/02356e3362bd4c81e5b6f2b75a685a07--george-washington-columbia.jpg

View attachment 301919
https://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/184/183461/auto/Pioneer_CNW_4-2-0.jpg

The above photo is 'Pioneer', the first railroad locomotive to operate in Chicago. Built in 1837 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad then used by the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, (the oldest predecessor of Chicago and North Western Railway). She arrived in Chicago by ship on October 10, 1848, and pulled the first train westbound out of the city on October 25, 1848. The first locomotive of the proposed northern route of the TRR. (Just kidding James Lutzweiler :wink:)

View attachment 301926
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/England_loco_Birmingham_&_Glos'ter_Railway.jpg

For our members across the water - the above is a Norris 4-2-0 exported to England for use on the Lickey Incline

The Civil War connection - @DaveBrt 's web site https://www.csa-railroads.com/ has 9 hits to 4-2-0s as used by Confederate Railroads.
2104

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Incidentally, although this engine is engraved on the tombstones of Driver William Scaife and Fireman Rutherford in Bromsgrove Churchyard at the bottom of the Lickey Incline, it wasn't the engine whose boiler exploded and killed them. That was an experimental engine called Eclipse. We don't know if they had tampered with the safety valve, but the fact that the bang occurred in Bromsgrove Station at the foot of the bank is highly suggestive. This was before John Ramsbottom delivered us from evil by inventing the modern tamper proof safety valve.
 
2-4-0: Early experiments with guide wheels, in order to achieve higher safe speeds. Sets of four front guide wheels were attached via swivel mount, while single pairs were semi-rigid. Powered axles were always rigidly attached to the frame, while trailing guide wheels were mounted on a trailing arm style pivoting triangular frame, with a slide plate under the cab. Once these suspension standards were established, they lasted throughout the steam era.

1555586434636.png

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-4-0#/media/File:WheelArrangement_2-4-0.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-4-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels.

The notation 2-4-0T indicates a tank locomotive of this wheel arrangement on which its water and fuel is carried on board the engine itself, rather than in an attached tender.

The 2-4-0 configuration was developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1830s or early 1840s as an enlargement of the 2-2-0 and 2-2-2 types, with the additional pair of coupled wheels giving better adhesion. The type was initially designed for freight haulage. One of the earliest examples was the broad-gauge GWR Leo Class, designed by Daniel Gooch and built during 1841 and 1842 by R and W Hawthorn and Company, Fenton, Murray and Jackson, and Rothwell and Company. Because of its popularity for a period with English railways, noted railway author C. Hamilton Ellis considered the 2-4-0 designation to have the nickname (under the Whyte notation) of Old English.

During 1846-47, Alexander Allan of the newly established London and North Western Railway (LNWR) created the Crewe type of locomotive, with a 2-2-2 wheel arrangement for passenger classes and 2-4-0 for freight. During the 1850s and 1860s these designs were widely copied by other railways, both in the United Kingdom and overseas.

During the mid-1840s, Sir John Hawkshaw developed a new style of 2-4-0 passenger locomotive with outside cylinders in front of the leading wheels and the rear driving axle behind the firebox. This layout provided steady running at high speeds, despite a long overhang at the front.

Joseph Beattie of the London and South Western Railway was one of the first British locomotive engineers to use this type on express locomotives. From 1858, he began experimenting with 2-4-0 designs for passenger work, culminating in his Seven-Foot 2-4-0 express passenger locomotives, built between 1859 and 1868. Beattie was also responsible for the long-lived 0298 Class of 2-4-0 well tanks, designed for suburban passenger work in 1874, some examples of which were still working in 1961. A locomotive of this type hauled the first Orient Express from Paris to Munich, a notable achievement for such a small engine.

After 1854, the Hawkshaw type of 2-4-0 was adopted by Beyer, Peacock and Company, who built many examples of the type for export, including to the Swedish State Railways (Statens Järnvägar) in 1856 and the Zealand Railway in Denmark in 1870.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-4-0

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2211

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
4-4-0: The closest thing America ever had to a standard locomotive. Before, during, and after the Civil War, it was the locomotive of choice for nearly every assignment. The configuration looked good on paper, and it proved itself in the real world, handling sharp curves, curve transitions, and poor track conditions quite well. Railroads were so happy with them that alternatives to the design were not seriously considered for decades. The only obvious weakness was a speed restriction on backing up.

The design is somewhat of an optical illusion. It looks nearly balanced, but most of the heavy stuff including the firebox and most of the boiler is over the drive wheels. The smokebox up front (under the stack) is hollow space. The guide wheels only needed enough weight on them to properly steer the frame and take most of the stress off the drive wheel flanges. Not only did the locomotive perform better than the older designs, but rail wear was significantly reduced.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-4-0#/media/File:WheelArrangement_4-4-0.svg

4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and a lack of trailing wheels. Due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States, the 4-4-0 is most commonly known as the American type, but the type subsequently also became popular in the United Kingdom, where large numbers were produced.

Almost every major railroad that operated in North America in the first half of the 19th century owned and operated locomotives of this type.

The first use of the name American to describe locomotives of this wheel arrangement was made by Railroad Gazette in April 1872. Prior to that, this wheel arrangement was known as a standard or eight-wheeler.

This locomotive type was so successful on railroads in the United States of America that many earlier 4-2-0 and 2-4-0 locomotives were rebuilt as 4-4-0s by the middle of the 19th century.

Several 4-4-0 tank locomotives were built, but the vast majority of locomotives of this wheel arrangement were tender engines.

American development
Five years after new locomotive construction had begun at the West Point Foundry in the United States with the 0-4-0 Best Friend of Charleston in 1831, the first 4-4-0 locomotive was designed by Henry R. Campbell, at the time the chief engineer for the Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Railway. Campbell received a patent for the design in February 1836 and soon set to work building the first 4-4-0.


At the time, Campbell's 4-4-0 was a giant among locomotives. Its cylinders had a 14 inches (356 millimetres) bore with a 16 inches (406 millimetres) piston stroke, it boasted 54 inches (1,372 millimetres) diameter driving wheels, could maintain 90 pounds per square inch (620 kilopascals) of steam pressure and weighed 12 short tons (11 tonnes). Campbell's locomotive was estimated to be able to pull a train of 450 short tons (410 tonnes) at 15 miles per hour (24 kilometres per hour) on level track, outperforming the strongest of Baldwin's 4-2-0s in tractive effort by about 63%. However, the frame and driving gear of his locomotive proved to be too rigid for the railroads of the time, which caused Campbell's prototype to be derailment-prone. The most obvious cause was the lack of a weight equalizing system for the drivers.

At about the same time as Campbell was building his 4-4-0, the company of Eastwick and Harrison was building its own version of the 4-4-0. This locomotive, named Hercules, was completed in 1837 for the Beaver Meadow Railroad. It was built with a leading bogie that was separate from the locomotive frame, making it much more suitable for the tight curves and quick grade changes of early railroads. The Hercules initially suffered from poor tracking, which was corrected by giving it an effective springing system when returned to its builder for remodeling.

Even though the Hercules and its successors from Eastwick and Harrison proved the viability of the new wheel arrangement, the company remained the sole builders of this type of locomotive for another two years. Norris Locomotive Works built that company's first 4-4-0 in 1839, followed by Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works, the Locks and Canals Machine Shop and the Newcastle Manufacturing Company in 1840. After Henry Campbell sued other manufacturers and railroads for infringing on his patent, Baldwin settled with him in 1845 by purchasing a license to build 4-4-0s.

As the 1840s progressed, the design of the 4-4-0 changed little, but the dimensions of a typical example of this type increased. The boiler was lengthened, drivers grew in diameter and the firegrate was increased in area. Early 4-4-0s were short enough that it was most practical to connect the pistons to the rear drivers, but as the boiler was lengthened, the connecting rods were more frequently connected to the front drivers.

In the 1850s, locomotive manufacturers began extending the wheelbase of the leading bogie and the drivers as well as the tender bogies. By placing the axles farther apart, manufacturers were able to mount a wider boiler completely above the wheels that extended beyond the sides of the wheels. This gave newer locomotives increased heating and steaming capacity, which translated to higher tractive effort. It was in this decade that 4-4-0 locomotives had assumed the appearance for which they would be most recognized by railways and people around the world.

The design and subsequent improvements of the 4-4-0 configuration proved so successful that, by 1872, 60% of Baldwin's locomotive construction was of this type and it is estimated that 85% of all locomotives in operation in the United States were 4-4-0s. However, the 4-4-0 was soon supplanted by bigger designs, like the 2-6-0 and 2-8-0, even though the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was still favored for express services. The widespread adoption of the 4-6-0 and larger locomotives eventually helped seal its fate as a product of the past.

British development
The first British locomotives to use this wheel arrangement were the 7 ft 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) broad gauge 4-4-0 tank engine designs which appeared from 1849. The first British tender locomotive class, although of limited success, was the broad gauge Waverley class of the Great Western Railway, designed by Daniel Gooch and built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1855.


The first American-style British 4-4-0 tender locomotive on 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge, designed by William Bouch for the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1860, followed American practice with two outside cylinders.

Britain's major contribution to the development of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was the inside cylinder version, which resulted in a steadier locomotive, less prone to oscillation at speed. This type was introduced in Scotland in 1871 by Thomas Wheatley of the North British Railway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-4-0

Famous 4-4-0s...

The General
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http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net...omotive.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120729142942

The Texas
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http://trn.trains.com/~/media/images/news-wire/2017/04-april/texas.jpg

The Jupiter of Golden Spike fame
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http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/photographs700/jupiter.jpg

For the ACW tie-in of this style of locomotive, @DaveBrt's website https://www.csa-railroads.com/ returns 4 pages of hits for 4-4-0s
2240

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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2-6-0: The first significant step away from standardization, after the war. In hilly terrain, longer freight trains had lower speeds. Two guide wheels up front seemed to be enough in that situation, and six drive wheels provided better traction. Passenger trains stuck with the 4-4-0 design, in most situations.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-6-0#/media/File:WheelArrangement_2-6-0.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called a Mogul.

In the United States of America (USA) and Europe, the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement was principally used on tender locomotives. This type of locomotive was widely built in the United States from the early 1860s to the 1920s.

Although examples were built as early as 1852–53 by two Philadelphia manufacturers, Baldwin Locomotive Works and Norris Locomotive Works, these first examples had their leading axles mounted directly and rigidly on the frame of the locomotive rather than on a separate truck or bogie. On these early 2-6-0 locomotives, the leading axle was merely used to distribute the weight of the locomotive over a larger number of wheels. It was therefore essentially an 0-8-0 with an unpowered leading axle and the leading wheels did not serve the same purpose as, for example, the leading trucks of the 4-4-0 American or 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler types which, at the time, had been in use for at least a decade.

The first American 2-6-0 with a rigidly mounted leading axle was the Pawnee, built for heavy freight service on the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road. In total, about thirty locomotives of this type were built for various American railroads. While they were generally successful in slow, heavy freight service, the railroads that used these first 2-6-0 locomotives didn't see any great advantages in them over the 0-6-0 or 0-8-0 designs of the time. The railroads noted their increased pulling power, but also found that their rather rigid suspension made them more prone to derailments than the 4-4-0 locomotives of the day. Many railroad mechanics attributed these derailments to having too little weight on the leading truck.

The first true 2-6-0s were built in the early 1860s, the first few being built in 1860 for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The new design required the utilisation of a single-axle swivelling truck. Such a truck was first patented in the United Kingdom by Levi Bissell in May 1857.

In 1864, William S. Hudson, then the superintendent of Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works, patented an equalized leading truck that was able to move independently of the driving axles. This equalized suspension worked much better over the uneven tracks of the day. The first locomotive built with such a leading truck was likely completed in 1865 for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company as their number 39.

It is likely that the locomotive class name derives from a locomotive named Mogul, built by Taunton Locomotive Manufacturing Company in 1866 for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. However, it has also been suggested that, in England, it derived from the engine of that name built by Neilson and Company for the Great Eastern Railway in 1879

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-6-0

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https://www.american-rails.com/images/StrasburgMuseum_MT_VT2-6-0.jpg

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http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwr/nuneaton/station/lnwrns1653.jpg

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http://hawkinsrails.net/preservation/borm/s_bo600c.jpg

For the ACW tie-in, @DaveBrt 's website https://www.csa-railroads.com/ lists 2-6-0s with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad - http://www.csa-railroads.com/Louisville_and_Nashville_Locomotives.htm
2264

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
2-8-0: The logical next step beyond the 2-6-0. It quickly became America’s standard low speed branch line freight engine, a niche that it filled until the diesel era. Thousands were built. They also pulled mixed freight and passenger trains on low speed branch lines. Maxing out at around 2000 HP, it was a perfect match for the assignment, in every way, including economics. Today, it is the most common surviving steam engine configuration.

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Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. In the United States and elsewhere, this wheel arrangement is commonly known as a Consolidation, after the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad’s Consolidation, the name of the first 2-8-0.

Of all the locomotive types that were created and experimented with in the 19th century, the 2-8-0 was a relative latecomer.

The first locomotive of this wheel arrangement was possibly built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). Like the first 2-6-0s, this first 2-8-0 had a leading axle that was rigidly attached to the locomotive's frame, rather than on a separate truck or bogie. To create this 2-8-0, PRR master mechanic John P. Laird modified an existing 0-8-0, the Bedford, between 1864 and 1865.

The 2-6-0 Mogul type, first created in the early 1860s, is often considered as the logical forerunner to the 2-8-0. However, a claim is made that the first true 2-8-0 engine evolved from the 0-8-0 and was ordered by the United States' Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, which named all its engines. The name given to the new locomotive was Consolidation, the name that was later almost globally adopted for the type. According to this viewpoint, the first 2-8-0 order by Lehigh dates to 1866 and antedates the adoption of the type by other railways and coal and mountain freight haulers.

From its introduction in 1866 and well into the early 20th century, the 2-8-0 design was considered to be the ultimate heavy-freight locomotive. The 2-8-0's forte was starting and moving "impressive loads at unimpressive speeds" and its versatility gave the type its longevity. The practical limit of the design was reached in 1915, when it was realised that no further development was possible with a locomotive of this wheel arrangement.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-8-0

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https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pSjh2haBWdU/maxresdefault.jpg

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https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/689/22128016304_05226f53d6_b.jpg

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https://www.railarchive.net/randomsteam/images/cs634.jpg
2314

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Ah, the ultimate branchline engine.

Before we get any deeper into the reconstruction / postwar era, I should point out that all the steam engines in this series were intended for mainline operations with grades of less than 5%, but that was nowhere close to being all the relevant action on rails. Not only were steam logging operations in the mountains very common and important to the US economy in that era, but also there were a number of mountains and foothills communities served by rail lines that exceeded 5% maximum grade, and therefore couldn't be served by conventional rail technology. Therefore, tens of thousands of miles of steeper tracks existed, and thousands of geared locomotives were built and sold. The old thread about this subject is still around:

https://www.civilwartalk.com/threads/steam-logging-operations.141339/
 
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2-2-0

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyte_notation#/media/File:WheelArrangement_2-2-0.svg

Under Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and no trailing wheels. This configuration, which became very popular during the 1830s, was commonly called the Planet type after the first locomotive, Robert Stephenson's Planet of 1830.

Great Britain
After early experience with the 0-2-2 configuration on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Robert Stephenson decided to build a locomotive with cylinders inside the frames, for which a 2-2-0 was preferable. The first such locomotive was Planet, built in 1830 and the company went on to build a further eighteen examples for the railway. In 1835 five examples were supplied to the London and Greenwich Railway. After 1836 Edward Bury built sixty-nine bar frame 2-2-0 locomotives for the London and Birmingham Railway. The steam roller and traction engine company Aveling and Porter built a number of 2-2-0 locomotives, some of which were convertible traction engines.


North America
Tom Thumb, the first American-built steam locomotive used on a common-carrier railroad, built by Peter Cooper in 1830 was a belt-driven 2-2-0, but the type was not perpetuated.


Decline of the 2-2-0
By 1840 the 2-2-0 tender type had largely been superseded by the 2-2-2 configuration. However, there are a few examples of later tank engines, thus William Bridges Adams of the Fairfield Locomotive Works in Bow supplied a 2-2-0 well tank to the Roman Railway in 1850. Also Dugald Drummond of the London and South Western Railway introduced his C14 class 2-2-0T in 1906, for Auto trains, but this design was not successful and several of the locomotives were rebuilt to 0-4-0.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-2-0

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https://www.american-rails.com/images/ManchesterRP.jpg

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https://www.american-rails.com/images/TomThumbRep.jpg

One 2-2-0, 1847 Baldwin is noted on @DaveBrt 's web site https://www.csa-railroads.com/
2359

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
6-2-0

1557237557014.png

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyte_notation#/media/File:WheelArrangement_6-2-0.svg

In the Whyte notation, a 6-2-0 is a railroad steam locomotive that has an unpowered three-axle leading truck followed by a single powered driving axle. This wheel arrangement is associated with the Crampton locomotive type, and in the USA the single class were sometimes referred to as Cramptons.

History
The 6-2-0 was a most unusual wheel arrangement, where the bulk of the locomotive's weight was on the unpowered leading wheels rather than the powered driving wheels, therefore giving poor adhesion. The type was only practicable on the Crampton locomotive with a low boiler and large driving wheels placed behind the firebox.


United Kingdom
The only British 6-2-0 was the locomotive Liverpool built in 1848 by Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy for the London and North Western Railway. It was exhibited at The Great Exhibition in 1851 but was only moderately successful and no more were built.


USA
On a trip to England, Robert L. Stevens, president of the Camden and Amboy (C&A) railroad, saw demonstrations of 6-2-0s on the railways there. When he returned in 1848, Stevens asked his master mechanic Isaac Dripps to build him a 6-2-0 for use on the C&A. The specifications for the first 6-2-0 included a 38" diameter boiler that would burn anthracite coal and 96" diameter driving wheels.


Designing the locomotive type to burn coal, which was still fairly expensive and difficult to come by, was unusual for the time. The great majority of locomotives of the 1830s and 1840s were built to burn wood, which was very plentiful, cheap and exceptionally easy to obtain along the railroad rights of way. Besides being more expensive, coal required a larger firebox in which to burn. Dripps rose to the challenge and created an operable design.

The first of three locomotives based on these specifications, named John Stevens, was completed in 1849. Dripps wasn't too sure that the locomotive would prove effective on American railroads, and his reservations turned out to be correct. The locomotive's tractive effort was not sufficient for long term or heavy work. With only one driving axle and three unpowered leading axles, too much of the locomotive's weight was distributed over the unpowered lead three axles. Almost a century passed before a six-wheel leading truck was used again, on the PRR S1 and S2.

The C&A's management, on the other hand, thought it performed admirably enough to order two more of them and place them in passenger service. It was claimed that they could reach 60 m.p.h. at a time when fast trains reached only 40 m.p.h. The 6-2-0s were later rebuilt to 4-4-0s and were in use as late as 1865.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6-2-0

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http://i.imgur.com/TB6WZ4G.jpg
2403

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
4-2-2

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whyte_notation#/media/File:WheelArrangement_4-2-2.svg

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle.

Like other steam locomotive types with single pairs of driving wheels, they were also known as singles.

The 4-2-2 configuration offered designers eight wheels to spread the weight of a larger locomotive, but prior to the introduction of bogies, created a long rigid wheelbase with limited adhesion. As a result, the type was relatively rare until the 1870s. The first steam locomotive made by Borsig of Berlin in 1841, the Borsig No 1, was a 4-2-2, but the company quickly reverted to the more common 2-2-2 configuration.

UK developments
The London and North Western Railway No. 3020 Cornwall was built as 4-2-2 at Crewe in 1847, but was extensively rebuilt, and converted to a 2-2-2 in 1858.


The one area where the type proved to be useful was on broad gauge locomotives, where sharp bends were less of an issue. Daniel Gooch built 29 examples of his Iron Duke express locomotive class for the Great Western Railway between 1847 and 1855. They had an 8 ft diameter driving wheel size. Twenty examples of a similar design were built for the Bristol and Exeter Railway after 1849, by Stothert and Slaughter in Bristol. Because both sets of leading wheels are mounted independently in the frames in these classes, they are sometimes described as (2-2)-2-2 rather than 4-2-2.

The first 4-2-2 to have a bogie was built by Archibald Sturrock of the Great Northern Railway (GNR) in 1853. This had 7 ft 0 in (2.134 m) flangeless driving wheels, and was only moderately successful, having a tendency to derail. By the 1870s, improved design of bogies giving more flexibility enabled designers to create fast standard gauge express passenger locomotives of this type. On the GNR, Patrick Stirling built 53 examples with outside cylinders at Doncaster railway works between 1870 and 1895, for use on the main line between London and York. They ran at an average speed of more than 60 mph during the race to the north, and were called eight-footers because of the driving wheel, that was more than 8 ft. in diameter. Stirling's successor Henry Ivatt built a further twelve singles between 1898-1901 before moving on to larger 4-4-2 designs.

The attraction of the 'single' (4-2-2 or otherwise) was that, thanks to the 'gearing' effect of the large single driving wheels, a locomotive could obtain high speeds while the operating speed of the engine's pistons and valve gear remained relatively low. This important because of the relatively unsophisticated lubrication systems available at the time, with many of the parts of the engine's motion requiring to be 'oiled round' with the locomotive stationary before and after a run, or on longer trips by one of the crew taking to the running board to oil the required parts while on the move. Low piston speed also meant that the steam demand on the boiler would be relatively low, allowing a smaller, lighter boiler. Before the development of the 'large boiler' designs in the 1890s many boilers could not sustain the steam supply required of a small-wheeled locomotive operating at speed, thus requiring the large driving wheels of a single. At 70 mph an 'eight-footer' single's driving wheels would be revolving at 245 revolutions per minute, opposed to the 327 revolutions of the driving wheels of a 'six-footer'. Each driving axle of a locomotive also had to be supported on large plain bearings, with required further lubrication, introduced a potential point of mechanical failure through overheating and a considerable source of friction. With only one driving axle, a 'single' had much less rolling resistance than a four-coupled engine, requiring less steam to achieve a given speed and also being more free-running when coasting downhill.

The Stirling 'eight-footers' were very successful but were best suited to the predominantly straight and flat GNR main line in Cambridgeshire and the Vale of York. Other railways slowly replaced their original 'singles' with 4-4-0 locomotives that offered better traction at the cost of ultimate speed. However, in 1886 Francis Holt, manager at the Derby Works of the Midland Railway invented a practical form of steam sanding gear which allowed locomotive crews to quickly and effectively stop wheelspin. This led to the Midland reviving the 'single' in the form of the distinctive inside cylinder "Spinners"; eighty-five were built to five designs by Samuel W. Johnson between 1887 and 1900. One 115 class, No. 673, survives at the National Railway Museum, York. Other railways adopted the steam-powered sander, leading to a resurgence of interest in the 'single' for fast express passenger work in the 1880s and 1890s. William Dean of the Great Western built fifty examples of the standard gauge GWR 3031 Class Achilles class from 1893-1899. No 3065 Duke of Connaught contributed to the record-breaking run of the Ocean Mail express train from Plymouth to Paddington in 227 minutes on 9 May 1904, when it took over the train at Bristol from No 3440 City of Truro and completed the journey to Paddington in 99 minutes 46 seconds. By 1900 average train loads had grown beyond the capability of even a sander-fitted 'single' and development stopped. On the GNR Stirling's famous 'eight-footers' required Double heading with 4-4-0s before they were replaced by the 'Klondyke' 4-4-2 engines designed by Henry Ivatt, while on the Midland Samuel Johnson developed a powerful compound 4-4-0 to replace his 'Spinners'.

Other notable UK examples are the unique Caledonian Railway single No.123, which has been preserved, and the GER Class P43, which was an early oil-burning engine, developed by the pioneer of oil-boilers, James Holden. The last British 'single' to be designed was the Class 13 of the Great Central Railway, designed by Harry Pollitt in 1900 for work on the company's new main line to London. Ivatt Class A5 singles of the GNR, designed before the Great Central engines, continued to enter service during 1901, being the last of their type to take to the rails in Britain.

US developments
The T.D. Judah locomotive was built as a 4-2-4 by the Cooke Locomotive Works in 1863. It was purchased for use on the Central Pacific Railroad and in 1872 was rebuilt as a 4-2-2.


By 1900 typical loads on express trains had grown beyond the capabilities of 4-2-2 locomotives and the configuration was superseded by the 4-4-2.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-2

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-2-2#/media/File:Borsig.jpg

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https://londonparticulars.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/gnr_stirling_1_single.jpg

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https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4c/4c/96/4c4c96f10a56a72bd80bbb74be9fcde3.jpg
2578

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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