Reading 2-8-8-2
Clide Birkner
To compete for lucrative seashore traffic, the Pennsy designed 3 Camelback Atlantics with European 3-axle tenders for service between Philly and Atlantic City. Designated class E-1, they culminated in the E-6 Atlantics. "The Lindbergh Engine," No. 460, rests in The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg.
Believe it or not, the K-1's were not designed for coal trains. They were intended for merchandise trains between Hagerstown and Bethlehem - Reading's version of fast freights or "time freights." They ran on the "Dutch Line," jointed owned by the Reading and the Western Maryland, between Hagerstown and Lurgan. The Philadelphia, Harrisburg & Pittsburgh Branch connected Lurgan and Harrisburg (The concrete arch bridge across the Susquehanna River stands north of I-83. Norfolk Southern uses it.). At Harrisburg, the Lebanon Valley Branch provided access to Rutherford Yard west of Hershey and extended to Reading, where it met the East Penn Branch to Allentown and Bethlehem.
K-1's were rebuilt from N-1 2-8-8-2's to obtain faster heavy freight locomotives. They hauled just about anything. With their long, elegant 19,000-gal. and 26-ton tenders, they would be impressive sights on "O" gauge layouts.
The first 2-8-8-2 was built in 1909 by Baldwin, who sold two to the Southern Pacific Railroad (classified MC-1), and then three each to the Union Pacific Railroad and UP-owned Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. Baldwin conceived the type as an expansion of the 2-6-6-2 permitting a greater tractive effort.
The next order for the type was from the Southern Pacific; these differed in being cab forward locomotives, so that the crew could have better visibility and breathing in the SP's long tunnels and snow sheds. They were very successful, and SP continued to order cab-forward locomotives, building an eventual fleet of 256 of numerous classes; later cab-forwards were 4-6-6-2s (originally 2-6-6-2s) and 4-8-8-2s.
The 2-8-8-2 proved itself to be a capable hauler on mountain grades, enabling the replacement of several smaller locomotives and hauling longer trains than before. Most of them were not fast; they hauled at drag freight speeds, up to 25 mph (40 km/h). However, the Norfolk & Western Y6 class were designed to run up to 55 mph (89 km/h). The locomotives were adopted by a broad spectrum of mountain railroads, including the Norfolk & Western, Southern, Virginian, Great Northern, Clinchfield, Denver & Rio Grande Western, Reading, Western Maryland, Missouri Pacific, Frisco, and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway. On many railroads, the locomotives of the type were the most powerful on the roster. When built, the 2-8-8-2s of the Western Pacific Railroad were among the most powerful steam locomotives in the world and formed the basis for the later 2-8-8-4 "Yellowstone" type engines used by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range.
The last compound Mallet locomotives to operate on major railroads in the United States were the 2-8-8-2 Y6b class of the Norfolk and Western Railway. After their final modifications in the 1950s, they were said to be capable of 170,000 lbs tractive effort in simple-expansion mode, although some have questioned this claim (the original design tractive effort was 152,206 lbs SIMPLE and 126,838 lbs COMPOUND). The last were retired in May 1960.
As of 2008, there are two surviving 2-8-8-2 locomotives, both former Norfolk & Western. N&W 2050 is from the railroad's Y3a class; Alco's Richmond works built it in 1923 and it is displayed at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois. N&W 2156, the strongest pulling extant steam locomotive in the world, is from the railroad's Y6a class; N&W's own Roanoke Shops built it in 1942 and it is owned by the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. The 2156 was displayed at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia from 2015 to 2020, after which it returned to the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.
Baldwin sent fifteen more 2-8-8-2s to the SP in 1909. These engines were oil burners with a cab-forward configuration that placed the locomotive cab in front of the boiler, improving visibility and breathing conditions for engine crews when operating in tunnels and snowsheds. SP received 32 more cab-forward 2-8-8-2s between 1911 and 1913. They found a ready home pulling trains across Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
These big engines began to fill an important role on railroads that were running heavy trains over mountain grades. One large Mallet could replace two or even three smaller single expansion engines, and gave the railroads a big boost in productivity. Furthermore, the locomotives increased line capacity since fewer, albeit bigger, trains could be run.
After 1910, Mallets were equipped with superheaters, which added substantially to the power of the engine. Over the decade, many new railroads acquired Mallets, while those that already used them ordered more. Norfolk & Western, Southern, Virginian, Clinchfield, Rio Grande, Reading, Western Maryland, Missouri Pacific, Frisco, and Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range all bought 2-8-8-2s.
Variations on the wheel arrangement were also developed. Great Northern received thirty-five 2-6-8-0s from Baldwin in 1910. Baltimore & Ohio, Kansas City Southern, Union Pacific, and Great Northern operated fleets of 2-8-8-0s. The Virginian even owned 2-10-10-2s. Eventually, just about every railroad that handled heavy trains over mountain ranges owned eight-coupled Mallets.
Railroads in the 1920s needed a locomotive that combined the lugging ability of the Mallet with the speed of a 2-8-2. They began to look at simple articulated designs as the solution. Unlike Mallets, simple articulated locomotives had high-pressure cylinders in both the front and rear engines, which allowed the locomotive to reach higher speeds and operate more efficiently.
Great Northern took one of its compound 2-8-8-0s and converted it to a simple engine with excellent results in 1924. Also in 1924, the Chesapeake & Ohio, which had been unable to use big Mallets because of tunnel restrictions on its main line over the Alleghenies, ordered 25 simple 2-8-8-2s from Alco.
Engine weight rose from 531,000 to 612,000 lbs. Boiler pressure went from 240 psi. to 300 psi. Tractive effort increased from 101,000 lbs. to 127,000 lbs. Grate area increased by 10 square feet. Roller bearings were added to all axles. The locomotives received feedwater heaters, big tenders, and other new appliances. Roanoke continued to build modern Mallets into the 1950s. The last, No. 2200, was outshopped in 1952.
Before World War II came to a close, the Reading was looking for even heavier and more powerful locomotives than their M class 2-8-2 "mikados" or their K class 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" types for the ever so heavier trains, as well as replacing their N class 2-8-8-2 Mallets. However, just as the case with other railroads, the Wartime Production Board denied the company from building a new locomotive design, but allowed them to rebuild or modify their existing locomotives. Thus, between 1945 and 1947, just as the war was over, the Reading brought twenty of their mallets Nos 1811-1830 and thirty of their consolidations Nos 2020-2049 into their locomotive shops in Reading. There, the mallets were converted into simple expansion locomotives, with some turning into 2-8-8-0s, and the 2-8-0s were heavily rebuilt into 4-8-4 "Northerns", and they were reclassified as T-1s and renumbered to 2100-2129. Their four-axle tenders were replaced with larger six-axle tenders, their driving wheel diameter was increased, they received two extra pilot wheels, and they received four trailing wheels to support their enlarged fireboxes.
The T-1 class entered service between 1945 and 1947 and were used primarily in fast freight service. Their operating territory encompassed most of the Reading system and they were frequently used in pool service with the Western Maryland Railway and became the basis for that road's "Potomac" class of 4-8-4s.
Beginning in 1959, the Reading Company began operating a series of excursions throughout its system using two of the T-1s. The first Ramble, pulled by T-1 2124, ran between Wayne Junction in Philadelphia to Shamokin. Four T-1s were held by the Reading for the Iron Horse Rambles: 2100 and 2124 would be used to pull the excursions, 2101 would be kept as a backup, and 2123 was used as a source of parts and eventually scrapped in 1966. The 2102, which had recently been loaned to Carpenter Steel Corp., joined the Rambles in 1962 to replace the 2124, which had developed a list of needed repairs, and it had been the first locomotive of the Rambles to be retired, and it was sold of to F. Nelson Blount for his Steamtown U.S.A. collection in Bellows Falls, Vermont. The Iron Horse Rambles lasted until 1964, and the three remaining T-1s were sold off by January 31, 1965.
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