issued a great wake-up call to the railroad
industry. Because of the power and speed
potential of the new locomotive, the rail-
roads suddenly envisioned hauling heavier
loads in bigger cars that needed better cou-
pling arrangements and better means of
controlling speed.
The 2-8-0s started coming from several
locomotive builders, and their specifica-
tions were pretty well set. They weighed
about 45-65 tons, and the drivers were usu-
ally of 50-inch diameter, the cylinders used
a 20-inch bore and a 24-inch stroke, the
firebox had a grate area of around 30
square feet, and the boilers operated at
pressures of 130-150 pounds. The starting
drawbar pull of these engines was usually
between 20,000 pounds and 25,000
pounds, which was about all that could be
handled with the rolling stock of the day.
With the 24-inch piston stroke and the 50-
inch driving wheels, they could run faster
than one might have expected. The com-
paratively light main and side rods neces-
sary to transmit its power didn’t present
counterbalancing problems (early Norfolk
& Western class G locomotives were said to
achieve 50 mph without problems). The
Consolidation locomotive was a success in
advance of Eli Janney devising a knuckle-
type coupler much stronger than the link-
and-pin, and prior to George Westing-
house persuading the railroads that trains
could be stopped using air, not an easy sell
to practical-minded, skeptical railroaders.
The 20-inch-by-24-inch 2-8-0 with its 50-
inch drivers and its ample grate area nour-
ishing a well-designed boiler was perhaps
one of those happy combinations of specifi-
cations that, while not extreme in any area,
were so well balanced that they soon earned
the reputation of excellent performers.
There were thousands of the 20-by-24-
inch Consolidations built, and nearly every
railroad had them. Some builders applied
fancy steam and sand dome covers, and oil
headlights varied in configuration, Wooden
cabs sometimes were fitted with clerestory
arrangements like the passenger coaches of
the day, and tenders varied. The engines had
universal digestion. Some were wood burn-
ers with huge diamond smokestacks, some
were anthracite burners with the wide
Wooten fireboxes and center-cabs (so-called
“Camelbacks”), some used bituminous coal,
and some burned oil — but beneath all
these variants beat the heart of the 20-inch-
by-24-inch Consolidation. Slide valves driv-
en by Stephenson valve gear were standard.
In the 1890s, railroading started to grow
up, and the Consolidation locomotive grew
Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630, a 1904 Alco
product, moves a Norfolk Southern excursion
train down the loops near Old Fort, N.C., April
20, 2013. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn