Shown at the 1893 Chicago Exposition, this locomotive had the Plant System on its tender and 100 on its cab. The American Engineer and Railroad Journal for December 1893 illustrated the engine. This locomotive is typical of the large Tenwheelers favored by the Southern railroads that made up the Plant System, which was taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line in 1902.

Class K (Locobase 3927)

When the Savannah, Florida, & Western Railroad built some high-speed passenger ten-wheelers (K-9 class), they also bought some slightly larger freight engines. Like the K-9s, these locomotives were taken into the Atlantic Coast Line in 1902.

Data from Railroad Gazette (2 November 1900), which describes the builder as the "International Power Company". The Rhode Island Works were shortly to be taken into the Alco combine.

Class K (Locobase 5311)

This Savannah, Florida, & Western Railroad engine was the first Vauclain 4-cylinder balanced compounds. Like the K-9, these locomotives were taken into the Atlantic Coast Line in 1902.

Data from American Engineer & Railroad Journal (May 1903). On the unusual Vanderbilt boiler, see Railroad Gazette of 10 May 1901 and several entries in Locobase. One obvious limitation is the relatively small amount of firebox heating surface a circular cross-section made available.

Class K series (Locobase 2122)

Data from the ACL 1913 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

These were the "Copper Head" classes of ACL Ten-Wheelers, so called because of a copper flange that circled the top of the stack. They had a trim, functional look.

They had essentially four basic sets of specifications:

19" x 26" cylinders 64" drivers 23,061 lb TE

19" x 26" cylinders 69" drivers 21,390 lb TE

20" x 26" cylinders 69" drivers 23,701 lb TE

and the set listed in this entry. Weights ranged from 140,000 lb to 160,000 lb over the long life of this class. The last groups had Walschaerts valve gear and piston valves; others were modified with a bolt-on piston valve adapter to the slide valve chest called a "Modern" valve. Many were later superheated.

The class grew as follows:

K Richmond 6 1900 322-327

K 24 1901-1903 328-351

K-4 11 1903 212-222

K-5 12 1907 233-244

K-5 96 1906-1907 910-1005

K-6 10 1905 223-232

K-6 49 1904-1906 351-399

K-6 10 1906 901-909

K-14 10 1910 245-254

K-14 6 1910 1006-1011

K-15 34 1912-1913 1012-1044

These engines served throughout the rest of the steam era, the earlier classes being retired in the 1930s while some of the later engines carried on into the 1950s.

Class K series - superheated (Locobase 7356)

Data from the ACL 1942 and 1950 Locomotive Diagram books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

This entry relates to K-5, K-6, and K-14 locomotives that were upgraded with superheaters. When the ACL superheated K-series locomotives, some changes were common to all of the upgraded engines, others varied from locomotive to locomotive. All grates retained the 25.52 sq ft of firebrick tubes that contributed to firebox heating surface and all of the boilers lost 11" of tube length.

Given that truncation, it's even more unusual for the ACL to have gained back nearly all of the heating surface in the 27 large-diameter flues carrying superheater elements. As did many railroads, the ACL considered the added heating area supplied by superheaters to be more than equivalent to a similar amount of saturated area. So they calculated "equivalent heating surface" by multiplying the superheater area by 1 1/2. Thus the K upgrades contained 2,544 sq ft of equivalent heating surface. The superheated engines also gained "modern" steam chests, in which a piston valve was mounted in the slide valve's casing.

Most rebuilds retained the Stephenson link motion; a few mounted Baker radial valve gear and others operated Walschaert valve gear.

Class K-15-S (Locobase 7677)

Data from the ACL-3 1946 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works numbers were 38197-38204 in August 1912; 39819-39823, 39859-39860, 39880-39887, 39899 in May 1913; 39939-39947 in June.

Almost the very last of the K series, these engines had the same power dimensions (except for a 15-psi increase in boiler pressure) and grate area as earlier locomotives, although the firebox heating surface increased, in part because of a small change in firebrick tube area (to 29 sq ft).

But the design was updated as well. They were delivered with piston valves and Walschaert valve gear. The other difference between this class and the superheated Ks of earlier years was the full-length boiler tubes common to the saturated variant, a few more small tubes and 3 fewer flues.

The ACL apparently wrung every mile out of its Ten-wheelers as the first of these (1022) was scrapped in November 1947 and the last two (1021, 1031) in November 1955.

Class K-16-S (Locobase 7678)

Data from the ACL-3 1946 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works number was 55247.

An odd singleton. Delivered several years after the last of the K-15-S, this was an enlarged Ten-wheeler. Its cylinder volume had grown and the boiler, grate, and firebox all grew with it (although firebox heating surface still only included 25 sq ft of firebrick tubes).

Soldiering on for several more decades, the 1045 was scrapped in June 1952.

Class K-4 (Locobase 7357)

Data from the ACL-4 1942 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Adiscussion of the entire K series resides on Locobase 2122. The number of subclasses is bewildering. The present entry focuses on this small group that were never superheated.

Class K-5 (Locobase 7676)

Data from the ACL-3 1946 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works numbers were:

1906

November 29621-29622

December 29639-29641, 29684-29686, 29700-29705, 29741-29746, 29775-29778, 29832, 29852-29853

1907

February 30042-30045, 30083-30084, 30102-30104, 30130-30133, 30182-30186, 30240, 30309

March 30373

April 30648-30651, 30707-30709, 30720, 30742, 30748-30750

May 30788-30789, 30797-30799, 30844, 30854-30855

June 30984-30987, 31083

July 31286, 31316, 31340, 31353-31354, 31364, 31387, 31405-31407, 31442

August 31452, 31467-31470, 31485-31489, 31527-31534, 31564-31566, 31591, 31609

September 31646

Adiscussion of the entire K series resides on Locobase 2122. This entry focuses on one of the larger and most numerous single sub-classes. It was a true mixed-traffic locomotive, big enough to pull freight trains while able to work the branch line passenger service that didn't require high speeds. Many of the Copper Heads (the nickname for the whole K series because of the decorative brass ring around the top of the stack) were superheated; see Locobase 7677.

Class K-9 (Locobase 2807)

Before the Savannah, Florida, & Western Railroad was taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line, it had achieved separate fame as the operator of some very fast locomotives. Although the claimed 120-mph top speed of this relatively low-drivered Ten-wheeler is highly unlikely, an overall trip speed (115.9 miles in 90 minutes) of 77.3 mph is possible. See RG 22 March 1901 for an account of a 120-mph run.

The class came over to the ACL in 1902; they were retired between 1934 and 1942.

Data from Railroad Gazette (2 November 1900), which describes the builder as the "International Power Company" and notes that 6 more were delivered as freight engines, which see ...

Balanced Vauclain compounds fitted with the relatively rare Vanderbilt boiler, which featured a cylindrical firebox. The compounding system had the two HP cylinders lying between the frames in line with the two outside, LP cylinders, all driving the lead axle. Crank positioning attempted to minimize hammerblow in two ways:

The same-size cylinders were set 90 deg from each other, and each LP cylinder crank was 180 deg off from its LP partner. One slide valve served both cylinders as it did in all Vauclain compounds.

Westing's reproduction of Paul Warner's history of Baldwin (1925; printed in Westing, 1966) notes that production of this, the 20,000th Baldwin locomotive was celebrated by a big dinner at the Union League. On the web, http://www.railroadextra.com/busa01.html (visited 4 Jan 2003) reproduces a Scientific American article from 1902, which shows the locomotive as Plant System 119. But the Baldwin history photo shows a different tender with a-difficult-to-decipher railroad name. It seems almost certain that one of the K-9s was Baldwin's 20,000th locomotive.