Class 801 / 2565 (Locobase 466)

Data for this version taken from Santa Fe drawings. (aka Kansas City, Mexico, & Orient 801-805) preserved at http://www.railroadingonline.net/railroads/atsf/drawings/index.shtml, last accessed 13 January 2010. Works numbers were 58571-58575 in July 1925.

5 engines of Baldwin's standard catalog light 2-10-0 developed in the 1920s to put engines with this tractive effort on relatively light rails. Firebox heating surface included 59 sq ft of syphons (2). The KCM & O was absorbed by the Santa Fe in 1929.

Retired in 1953-55.

Class 987 (Locobase 5364)

Data from table in June 1906 AERJ. At the time of its introduction, this four-cylinder tandem compound was the largest locomotive in the world. (The distinction lasted for probably a week ...) 987 saw service for less than a decade as a compound; she was simpled in 1911.

The design was then superheated; see Locobase 8259 for the final result.

Class 987 - superheated (Locobase 8259)

Data from AT&SF 9 -1920 locomotive diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Information about how many, when, and by whom this class was supplied from http://atsf.railfan.net/atsfstea.html (accessed 6 Feb 2006), the Santa Fe All-Time Steam Roster maintained by Evan Werkema.

Locobase 5364 shows this decapod as originally delivered in a Vauclain tandem-compound arrangement. By 1911, the railroad had deleted the HP cylinders and bushed the LP cylinders to created a 2-cylinder, simple-expansion layout. A few years later they added a superheater and shortened tubes and flues by several inches.

Class 988 (Locobase 465)

Four-cylinder tandem compounds. These two were built by Alco-Schenectady after a single example from Baldwin was delivered. Simpled in 1911, retired in 1938.

http://atsf.railfan.net/snippets/locomotives.html (visited 23 July 2004), collection of newspaper clippings gathered by Ellington -- author of Steam Locomotives of the Santa Fe, A Former Shopman's Scrapbook -- contains the following:

"TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL 2/24/1902:

New decapod work. One of the Santa Fe's new decapod engines, which are the heaviest engines in the world, made a record haul yesterday, says a Chicago paper. The engine pulled 703 tons up a grade 6 1/2 miles long, 158' to the mile. The track upon which the performance was made is known as the Cajon Pass, just west of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The load is the largest ever hauled by an engine up a 3% grade, but Vice President Kendrick expects to break this record. The management of the company is so pleased with the work of the decapod, that orders have been given for 75 of them at a cost of over $1,500,000 to be delivered by the latter part of August. Report of a test being made with the engines show that the wear upon the track is not so great as it is by many other, lighter engines. This is accounted for by the fact that the decapods have a rigid wheelbase of 20' and five sets of drivers, but while there are 232,000 lbs on the drivers, total, there are only 46,000 lbs. upon each set. This is less than that resting on the drivers of many passenger engines.

Ellington note: Only three of these decapods were ultimately acquired, derailing difficulties when backing, (among other operating problems), signalled the cancellation of the order for 75 additional copies, and served to introduce the following 2-10-2 type wheel arrangement; addition of a final pair of 'trailing' wheels largely solved the backing difficulties."

Class 988 - superheated (Locobase 8264)

Data from AT&SF 9 -1920 locomotive diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Information about how many, when, and by whom this class was supplied from http://atsf.railfan.net/atsfstea.html (accessed 6 Feb 2006), the Santa Fe All-Time Steam Roster maintained by Evan Werkema.

Locobase 465 describes the delivery of these four-cylinder tandem compounds and notes that procurement of the remainder of a large order was cut off because these decapods derailed easily when backing up.

Even though they were now orphans together with 987 (Locobase 463), the Santa Fe went ahead with simpling and superheating. 989 was simpled in 1911, 988 in 1915. Note that although the railroad dropped the 988-class's boiler pressure considerably when they superheated the boiler (a frequent tradeoff for such conversions), they managed to retain almost all of the combined heating surface area.

In their altered states, this pair carried on until 1938 -- probably going forward most of the time.