USRA Mikados

USRA Specifications
	2-8-2A (Light)	2-8-2B (Heavy)
Length of Locomotive	48 ft - 7 in.	48 ft. - 7 in.
Wheel Base of Locomotive	36 ft. - 1 in.	36 ft. - 1 in.
Wheel Base of Locomotive and Tender	71 ft. - 4-1/2 in.	71 ft. - 9-1/2 in.
Wheel Base of Drivers	16 ft. - 9 in.	16 ft. - 9 in.
Driver diameter	63 in.	63 in.
Leading Truck Wheels	33 in. dia.	33 in. dia.
Trailing Truck Wheels	43 in dia.	43 in. dia.
Locomotive Weight	290,800 lbs.	325,000 lbs.
Weight on Leading Truck	20,200 lbs.	28,000 lbs.
Weight on Trailing Truck	49,100 lbs.	57,000 lbs.
Weight on drivers	221,500 lbs.	240,000 lbs.
Weight of engine	290,800 lbs.	325,000 lbs.
Factor of adhesion	4.06	4.00
Cylinders	26 x 30 in.	27 x 32 in.
Boiler pressure	200 psi	190 psi
Tubes and Flues (length)	19 ft.	19 ft.
Heating Surface, Tubes and Flues	3,497 sq. ft.	3,978 sq. ft.
Heating Surface, Firebox w/ Arch Tubes	286 sq. ft.	319 sq. ft.
Superheater, Heating Surface	882 sq. ft.	993 sq. ft.
Firebox (length x width)	114-1/8" x 84-1/4"	120-1/8" x 84-1/4"
Grate Area	66.7 sq. ft.	70.8 sq. ft.
Starting tractive effort	54,600 lbs.	60,000 lbs.

The following list is of all Mikados of USRA design built from 1918 through October, 1944, when Akron, Canton & Youngstown 406, a "light" 2-8-2, was built by Lima, coincidentally the last Mikado built for domestic service in the United States. Please note that the USRA orders were placed at a time when certain large railroads, the Southern and New York Central being two examples, ordered locomotives for subsidiaries. This list takes the liberty of lumping them together. Also, these are the eventual final owners of USRA locomotives. Asterisk indicates non-USRA order.

Railroad	Light	Heavy
Akron, Canton & Youngstown	7*
Atlanta & West Point	3*	1*
Baltimore &b Ohio	100
Central New Jersey		10 plus 75*
Chesapeake & Ohio (Pere Marquette)	30 plus 10*
Chicago & Alton	10 plus 5*
Chicago & Eastern Illinois	15
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy		20
Chicago Great Western	15
Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville	5	16*
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific		100
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific	20
Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha		4 plus 14*
Detroit & Toledo Shore Line	9*
Erie		15
Florida East Coast	15*
Georgia	7*
Grand Trunk	15
Grand Trunk Western	25 plus 18*
Great Northern		9
Gulf, Mobile & Ohio	37*
Lehigh & Hudson River	4
Louisville & Nashville	18 plus 75*	20 plus 170*
Maine Central	6
Midland Valley	7*
Missouri Pacific	25	180*
Mononghahela	10 plus 6*
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis	10 plus 12*
New York Central	143	30
New York, Chicago & St. Louis	25 plus 61*
Pennsylvania	5
Pittsburgh & West Virginia	3
Rutland	6
St. Louis-San Francisco	33	85
Seaboard Air Line	10 plus 117*
Southern	25 plus 45*	166
Texas & Pacific	11
Union Pacific	40
Wabash	20
Western of Alabama	4*	1*
Western Pacific	5
Wheeling & Lake Erie		20

This list is based on one which appeared in "Railroad History", number 93, back in October, 1955. Mr. William Edson, who is one of the true experts on locomotive history, prepared it. This list has been amended to a certain extent. For example, Mr. Edson listed 200 light 2-8-2s for the Milwaukee Road as being USRA, which they were not, and also included 41 Erie post 1920 2-8-2s as being of USRA design, which was incorrect. Perhaps foolishly, the Erie went back to the 1912/13 N1 class mentioned in the text for a modified design, class N3, and these were the 41 locomotives listed. It also has to be remembered that this list, was done by Mr. Edson on the basis of eventual ownership. There were many shifts, both prior and after manufacture. For example, the 4 2-8-2s delivered to L&HR started out as an order for 0-8-0s for the LIRR, switched to 2-8-2s when the LIRR ordered some 0-8-0s of its own design and then transferred to the L&HR. Another example is the Pennsylvania, which actually had received over 30 light 2-8-2s, which wound up on the MP and the Frisco. The five which stayed on the PRR roster had been delivered to, and were assigned to a PRR subsidiary, the Grand Rapids and Indiana. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas was allowed to receive 25 2-8-2s from Alco in November, 1918, which were additions to an existing design slightly smaller than the USRA heavy. For another example, the second CNJ order for 2-8-2s, eleven locomotives, was ordered as a modified design with the anthracite burning firebox mentioned above while the USRA was still in control.

Setting this aside, note the geographical distribution. Leaving the three "Pocahantas" roads (C&O, N&W and VGN, all of which received other USRA designs) out, since these were not typical of other lines south of the Mason- Dixon Line, note the concentration of USRA Mikados in the South. (Indeed, if one were to include other wheel arrangements, it would be almost impossible to find a railroad in the region, which did not utilize USRA designs.) In fact, if one accepts the conventional wisdom that the Ps4 Pacifics were 73 inch versions of the USRA "heavy" Pacific, as a few do, the Southern, excepting some 2-8-8-2s and a class of large 2-8-0s, never installed a steam locomotive of non-USRA design from 1918 to the end of steam. (To break away from listings of numbers and specifications, this might be a place to discuss the way things worked; the most important line of the Southern was the one from Alexandria VA to Atlanta. The Southern had acquired a fleet of 57 inch driver 2-10-2s, on which the USRA "light" 2-10-2 was based, and, indeed, 50 out of the total of 98 2-10-2A locomotives built during and post- USRA times were assigned to the Southern for use on the Alexandria-Atlanta line. In 1923, the Southern received the first of its Ms4 class, basically USRA "heavy" 2-8-2s, which replaced the slower 2-10-2s on the route mentioned, as they subsequently did on other routes where speed was more important. This left the Southern with a huge surplus of 2-10-2s. To remedy this, they began a building program to convert these locomotives to 2-8-2s, with some success, except that the Depression ended this endeavor.)

Photos

• SLSF 4009 (4009, shown at Springfield, MO in 1946, is a 282A "light", built by Lima in 1919, Photo courtesy Edward Weinstein)
• SLSF 4100 (4100, shown at Springfield, MO in 1946, is the first of 865 282B "heavys", built by Lima in 1923, Photo courtesy Edward Weinstein)
• Erie 3062 (Erie 3062 is a Brooks product of 1912. Originally, it had 28 x 32 cylinders, 63 inch drivers, 170 psi boiler, starting tractive effort 57,740 lbs. After 1927, 3062 received a stoker and an Elesco feedwater heater, had its cylinders lined down to 27 inches and developed 62,950 lbs tractive effort plus 10,000 booster. (Croxton yard, Secaucus NJ, 1948). Photo courtesy Edward Weinstein)
• Reading 1765 (This is an example of the "Anthracite Road" Mikado. Reading 1755 was photographed in 1951 at the CNJ Bethlehem Engine House, on the CNJ between Bethlehem and Allentown PA. As a class M1sb, it was built with 55.5 inch drivers. later with 61.5 inch to conform to the earlier Mi1sa. Notice the giant Wooten firebox. The Reading built Pacifics, 2-8-0s and huge 2-10-2s with Wootten fireboxes through the 1920s. In the Locomotive Cyclopedia, these were listed as burning "Anthracite and Bituminous mixed". Photo courtesy Edward Weinstein)
• Central of New Jersey 926 (This is an example of the "Anthracite Road" Mikado. CNJ 926 at Elizabethport, NJ is a USRA 2-8-2 with 200 psi with a giant Wooten firebox. The Jersey Central built Mikados and Pacifics with Wootten fireboxes through the 1920s. In the Locomotive Cyclopedia, these were listed as burning "Anthracite and Bituminous mixed". Be that as it may, a CNJ document from 1940 giving instructions as to what mix of anthracite and bituminous should be loaded in locomotive tenders, gave specific instructions that the two daily Scranton - Jersey City fast freights were to be fueled entirely with bituminous when leaving Scranton, even though that coal was an import to the heart of the anthracite country. Photo courtesy Edward Weinstein)

Reference

• USRA Locomotives
• Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, George Drury, Kalmbach, 1993
• TRAINS Magazine, Kalmbach, March 1991, Volume 51 Number 5 pp 30