Class C (Locobase 7359)

Data from AB&SOU 6 -1919 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Locobase hasn't been able to establish the original owner of this Eight-wheeler. The MoPac roster published on http://www.trainweb.org/screamingeagle/roster_ab&so.html, last accessed on 24 July 2006, shows that this locomotive was retired in 1919. But a Texas & Pacific diagram book shows instead that this locomotive was converted to a 2-6-0 by Baldwin in 1926; see 8500.

The Abilene & Southern Railway Company was a 96-mile short line that connected Ballinger, Texas to Hamlin farther north. Laid between 1909 and 1911, the railway first ran south from Abilene to Ballinger, then north to Hamlin.

According to Bob Johnson of the "Frontier Trails" website http://www.frontiertrails.com/oldwest/Abilene.htm (accessed 1 Jan 2006), "...The concept of the line was to connect small west central Texas fertile agriculture towns to the main line between Fort Worth and Denver at Abilene." The site lists as the principal stops (with mileposts):

* Mile Post 0.0 Ballinger

* Mile Post 16 Winters

* Mile Post 27 Bradshaw

* Mile Post 34 Ovalo

* Mile Post 37 Tuscola

* Mile Post 55 Abilene

* Mile Post 79 Anson

* Mile Post 87 Radium

* Mile Post 96 Hamlin

The T & P took over the road in 1926. The line to Hamlin was abandoned in 1937 and the Winters-Ballinger section closed in 1972. The Missouri Pacific took over the rest in 1978. (See also the Handbook of Texas site at http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/AA/eqa2.html (also accessed on 1 Jan 2006) and the Abilene Reporter News article from 26 Jan 2006, preserved online at http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_lc_inside_abilene/article/0,1874,ABIL_7956_4420984,00.html and accessed 24 July 2006.

Class C (Locobase 7360)

Data from AB&SOU 6 -1919 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

The A & S Eight-wheeler was "used", but its provenance is unknown to Locobase. A comparison with a very similar engine from another builder in the same year -- the Union Pacific's 780 class of 10 locomotives delivered by Brooks -- shows an identically sized boiler and the same cylinder volume, but the Brooks engine had slightly larger grate, 1" taller drivers, and a pressure set at 150 psi. The A & S engine put 5 1/2 more tons on the drivers.