Classic Trains – September 2019

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IN 1943 THE HEAVIEST, NEWESTengines on the

Lehigh & Hudson River, a 97-mile coal hauler and

bridge line between Maybrook, N.Y., and Easton, Pa.,

(with rights on Jersey Central to Allentown) were six big

Wootten-fireboxed 2-8-0s built in 1925 and ’27. In a

move illustrative of the WPB’s influence, when the road

needed more power it ordered three copies of Boston &

Maine’s R-1d 4-8-2 of 1941. The Baldwin-built war ba-

bies were a quantum leap for the L&HR, with cast beds,

modern appliances, even smoke deflectors. Their total

engine weight of 415,200 pounds (second among 4-8-2s

only to Illinois Central’s 2600s) eclipsed the 2-8-0s by

Built from B&M blueprints

Lehigh & Hudson River 4-8-2

105,500 pounds, and their 63-inch drivers were a full

foot taller. Although the 45-mph L&HR was not able

to fully exploit the 4-8-2s’ speed potential, the en-

gines brought a tightening of freight schedules be-

cause their 21-ton, 23,000-gallon centipede tenders

enabled them to run from Maybrook to Allentown

without stopping for water. L&HR Nos. 10–12 were

perhaps the largest engines with the lowest road

numbers, and they also had some of the shortest lives

of the Class of ’44, being sold for scrap in April 1951.