Class T-1 (Locobase 95)

These engines, says Drury (1993), "proved the validity of Lima's SuperPower concept: [they] could pull the same train as a 2-8-8-2 -- and do it faster." Data from C & O Locomotive Diagram book from 1946 (supplied by Allen Stanley in May 2005).

Eugene L. Huddleston, writing in the March 2003 Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, approvingly quotes S. Kip Farrington about the T-1: "This was truly one of the greatest locomotives ever built."

Certainly, Huddleston notes, it was one of the biggest. A 9-foot diameter boiler was packed with the most heating surface (evaporative and superheat) of any 2-cylinder locomotive ever. Behind the big barrel lay an equally enormous grate. All of the heat engine rode on a built-up frame in which turned 5 axles of 69" drivers.

More than 185 tons burdened those axles while the whole engine came in at better than 280 tons! Weight savings were taken anywhere they could be found. When the weight of the alligator-design crosshead originally planned rose to 11,384 lb for both sides (crosshead and guides), the team adopted a multi-bearing unit that shaved 4,477 lb off the total.

They ran from Russell, Kentucky up through Ohio to Toledo for most of their career, a few ending up in eastern Virginia. Meat and potatoes for this mighty class were 160 loaded cars of coal comprising a trailing load of 13,500 tons. Tractive effort rose to 93,345 lb when working boiler pressure was raised to 265 psi. This was made possible when an enlarged stack design made it possible to increase the limited cutoff of 60% at starting to a "full"-stroke of 85%. (Such concatenations demonstrate the complexity and interconnected nature of a design that puts a large steam generator on wheels and rolls it on 4' 8 1/2" gauge.)

A weak point common to long-wheelbase freights was the difficulty in maintaining a proper counterbalancing scheme as the drivers wore unevenly in service. In the latter part of their careers, this class rode roughly and pounded the track to the point that a special gang stood by at the bottom of one long grade to repair the damage. Huddleston notes that some crews adopted "kidney" belts to cushion their innards.

Add to that an observation that these engines sometimes moved empty coal trains at 50 mph and, says Huddleston, "...the jolting must have been pronounced."

They were retired in 1952-1953.

125 slightly modified 2-10-4s of the basic Chessie design were built by Pennsylvania RR during WW II as the J-1 class; see Locobase 98. These benefited from cast-steel frames with integral cylinders and are regarded by many as the finest steam locomotives ever operated by the PRR.