Classic Trains – September 2019

ClassicTrainsMag.com 37

AS WAR ERUPTED, Northern Pacific wanted to buy

EMD FT diesels. The railroad had been highly impressed

by the new units during their 1939–40 tour, and eventu-

ally it ordered 22 FTs delivered in 1944. But it needed

more power than that, so under WPB direction it bought

eight class Z-8 4-6-6-4s from Alco, the last new steam

power on the NP. The heaviest of all Challenger types,

with an engine weight of 644,000 pounds, the Z’s most

distinctive feature might have been its expansive 153.2-

square-foot firebox, designed to burn on-line lignite coal.

NP ordered two additional, virtually identical Z-8s for its

SP&S subsidiary in October 1944; the only significant

difference was that they burned oil. NP especially liked

the free-steaming Z’s ability to sustain 60 mph with hot-

shot freights and troop trains on an undulating profile.

Northern Pacific and Spokane, Portland &

Seattle Z-8 4-6-6-4

Power for the Pacific Northwest

Northern Pacific 5149 eases backward at Livingston, Mont., on September
13, 1954. NP acquired 43 Challengers between 1937 and ’44; subsidiary
Spokane, Portland & Seattle had 8. Warren R. McGee