Trains – September 2019

that weighed 303,700 pounds and developed
71,500 pounds of tractive effort with their
61-inch drivers. They had a grate area of 100
square feet, the same as the Super Power
locomotives being developed at that time.

• The Lake Superior & Ishpeming, an
  iron-ore hauling railroad in Michigan’s Up-
  per Peninsula, had husky Consolidations.
  One of these, No. 29, was obtained by Ari-
  zona’s Grand Canyon Railway. It was built
  in May 1906 and weighs in at 185 tons. It
  develops about 2,000 hp — about the same
  as a GP38 — and about 48,000 pounds of
  tractive effort.

ALL ABOUT THE RIDE
The Reading Co. rostered 480 2-8-0
locomotives. Among these were several
classes of Camelback engines with the wide
anthracite-burning Wooten fireboxes. But

the brawniest Reading 2-8-0s were 50

2000-series engines obtained from Baldwin

from 1923 to 1925. These I-10sa engines

weighed 322,960 pounds, had 27-inch-by-

32-inch cylinders, and rode on 61-inch

driving wheels. Their weight put them in a

class with the USRA heavy 2-8-2, and their

tractive effort was 71,000 pounds. The boil-

ers of the last 30 I-10sa engines were used

in the construction of Reading’s T-1 4-8-4s,

which were numbered 2100-2129. Several

of the 4-8-4s saw excursion service for

years after Reading dieselized. The I-10sa

Consolidation boilers soldiered on.

Here’s a little sidelight on riding quali-

ties. Crews ferrying modern 0-8-0 switch-

ers to their assignments around the systems

were limited to about 25 mph, not because

the machinery couldn’t handle it but

because the engines nosed back and forth

uncomfortably. Anyone who rode South-

ern Railway excursion engines Nos. 630

and 722 as they ran up to 40 mph can testi-

fy to the value of that radial leading truck.

The engines rode surprisingly well.

It’s probably noticeable that most of the

coverage of Consolidations has been of loco-

motives east of the Mississippi River. It isn’t

that there weren’t Consolidations west of

there, but most of the historically significant

ones were located in the East. Today, Con-

solidations are a staple on tourist railroads

across the continent. You can find pre-1900

models, turn of the century ones, and even

World War II veterans from coast to coast,

still pulling their share of the load. 2

TrainsMag.com 27

In a scene that would make a fine Christmas

card, Grand Canyon 2-8-0 No. 29 pulls

Harriman coaches through a wooded north-

ern Arizona landscape. Ron Burkhard