Maine Central / Mexican Central 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Type Locomotives

Class G-15 (Locobase 9495)

Data from NdeM 1946 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Fifteen Consolidations of the usual sort, although the cylinder stroke is shorter than most others of the time. Of these, four would be retired before 1930 but other would carry on for decades. The last of the G-15s in NdeM service was withdrawn in 1960.

Class G-22 (Locobase 9493)

Data from NdeM 1946 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Drury (1993) credits this engine to Baldwin, but Locobase cannot confirm.

Class G-26/G-27/G-28 (Locobase 9491)

Data from NdeM 1946 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

This was a huge class of Consolidations supplied by the Paterson builder over a 4-year period. G-26 came to represent the 65 that arrived in 1903-1904, G-26 the 30 that came in 1906, and G-27 the last 30 that finished off the order in 1907. Some of the G-26s were superheated (see Locobase 9492) and boilers from the two retired G-28s were superheated and mated to new frames as GR-32s.

Other than six engines that went out service before 1930, most of the rest didn't retire until the mid-1950s and the last operated until 1963.

Class GR-26 (Locobase 9492)

Data from NdeM 1946 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Alco's Cooke works in Paterson, New Jersey produced 125 Consolidations for the Mexican Central in the first decade of the 20th Century. Quite serviceable in their own right (see Locobase 9491), many of the engines retained their saturated-steam boilers up until retirement.

Many of the G-26s, however, were made over with superheaters, larger cylinders, piston valves actuated by Walschaert gear. Locobase's superheater area is an estimate based on several locomotive classes with similar superheater layouts - the range of area runs almost 100 sq ft, so the figure is approximate.

Class W (Locobase 7053)

Data from MEC 2 -1923 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Four arch tubes contributed 23.8 sq ft to the firebox heating surface. Alco delivered this class as saturated-steam engines. Builder's numbers were 47732-47736 and 49207-49210.

Most of the class was retired in October 1946.

510-519 were delivered with 23" diameter cylinders and their boilers were pressed to 185 psi; see Locobase 7054.

Class W-1 (Locobase 7054)

Data from MEC 2 -1923 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Arch tubes contributed 23.8 sq ft to the firebox heating surface. This class differed from the earlier W (Locobase 7053) in having slightly larger cylinders pressed to a slightly less intense degree. Tractive effort remained about the same.

The 1912 batch bore builders' numbers 50933-50939 (road 510-516). 1913 saw 52989-52996 (8 engines with road numbers 517-524, 54564-54567 (road 525-528) came in 1914. Many of these engines survived until the 1950s.

Specifications
Class	G-15	G-22	G-26/G-27/G-28	GR-26	W	W-1
Locobase ID	9495	9493	9491	9492	7053	7054
Railroad	Mexican Central	Mexican Central	Mexican Central	Mexican Central	Maine Central	Maine Central
Whyte	2-8-0	2-8-0	2-8-0	2-8-0	2-8-0	2-8-0
Road Numbers	252-266 / 1111-1118	1230	800-924 / 1244-1367		501-509	510-528
Gauge	Std	Std	Std	Std	Std	Std
Builder	Alco-Brooks	Burnham, Williams & Co	Alco-Cooke	NdeM	Alco-Schenectady	Alco-Schenectady
Year	1902	1907	1903	1903	1910	1912
Valve Gear	Stephenson	Stephenson	Stephenson	Walschaert	Walschaert	Walschaert
	Locomotive Length and Weight
Driver Wheelbase	15'	14.67'	15.50'	15.50'	17'	17'
Engine Wheelbase	23.75'	23.73'	24'	24.52'	25.50'	25.50'
Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheebase	0.63	0.62	0.65	0.63	0.67	0.67
Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender)	55'	55.35'	57.90'	59.21'	61.58'	57.50'
Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle)
Weight on Drivers	166000 lbs	164700 lbs	171600 lbs	182983 lbs	213500 lbs	172500 lbs
Engine Weight	188000 lbs	183800 lbs	193500 lbs	211863 lbs	275000 lbs	198000 lbs
Tender Light Weight	127000 lbs	86680 lbs	138000 lbs	155646 lbs	156000 lbs	136100 lbs
Total Engine and Tender Weight	315000 lbs	270480 lbs	331500 lbs	367509 lbs	431000 lbs	334100 lbs
Tender Water Capacity	6000 gals	6500 gals	6000 gals	7000 gals	7000 gals	6500 gals
Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal)	3103 gals	3438 gals	3103 gals	3058 gals	12 tons	11 tons
Minimum weight per yard of rail on which locomotive could run	69.17 lb rail	68.62 lb rail	71.50 lb rail	76.24 lb rail	88.96 lb rail	71.88 lb rail
	Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort
Driver Diameter	55"	58"	55"	55"	63"	63"
Boiler Pressure	180 psi	185 psi	200 psi	200 psi	200 psi	185 psi
Cylinders (dia x stroke)	21" x 26"	22.5" x 28"	21" x 26"	22" x 26"	22" x 28"	23" x 28"
Tractive Effort	31896 lbs	38431 lbs	35440 lbs	38896 lbs	36569 lbs	36971 lbs
Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort)	5.20	4.29	4.84	4.70	5.84	4.67
	Heating Ability
Firebox Area	224 sq. ft	255 sq. ft	159 sq. ft	216 sq. ft	186 sq. ft	186.80 sq. ft
Grate Area	31.40 sq. ft	34.80 sq. ft	45 sq. ft	44 sq. ft	50.20 sq. ft	56.50 sq. ft
Evaporative Heating Surface	2407	2555	3086	2348	2292	2292
Superheating Surface				450	443	443
Combined Heating Surface	2407	2555	3086	2798	2735	2735
Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume	230.93	198.29	296.08	205.26	186.05	170.23
	Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information)
Robert LeMassena's Power Computation	5652	6438	9000	8800	10040	10452.50
Same as above plus superheater percentage	5652	6438	9000	10215.30	11666.22	12145.54
Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area	40320	47175	31800	50147.82	43225.45	40155.51
Power L1	5583.43	5315.55	6826.48	11984.83	12288.95	10406.08
Power MT	296.61	284.61	350.81	577.58	507.59	531.98