Intercolonial 2-2-0 Locomotives in Canada

Class unknown (Locobase 16613)

Data from "Steam Motor Car--Intercolonial Railway", American Engineer and Railroad Journal, Volume 81, No 10 (October 1907), pp 391-393; and "New Motor Coaches on Intercolonial Railway", Railway and Engineering Review, Volume 47 (5 October 1907), pp. 872-873. (Many thanks to Chris Hohl for his 2 December 2022 email containing a detailed spreadsheet of data on a series of "steam motor cars" that included comments and links to contemporary accounts:)

After trialling a Ganz-type steam motor supplied by a European company through Railway Auto Company of New York, ICR's Superintendent of Motive Power G H Joughins created his own design steam-powered motor coach. Railway Review reported that three of the design had been turned out at ICR's Moncton, New Brunswick shops. A test run between Moncton & Harcourt covered the 37 miles in 62 minutes (a 37 mph/60 kph average).

Like the Canadian Pacific pair, these outwardly resembled a passenger coach, but were laid out with a power (or "boiler") section, baggage section, and passenger accommodation. Its general design, though, based on Great Western Railway of England designs (see Locobase 10592, 20036, 20159)..

AERJ's account includes (p 392) both a photograph and a diagram of the motive-power unit. The picture shows a short bogie with two powered axles and on the front end of which held the cylinders. Outside constant-lead radial valve gear actuated the slide valves. A main rod drove the rear axle, which was coupled to the front axle. To accommodate changing track levels, the powered bogie moves independently of the car body through a truck bolster suspended from the truck center casting and centered by longitudinal springs. The rear, unpowered truck rotated to round curves, the front bogie having very little rotational movement.

A tall, 4-foot diameter vertical boiler dominated the assembly, its lower section holding the water surrounding the tubes and larger-diameter upper section providing the steam space. From this space, a throttle opened to allow the steam to flow downward through external pipes to the valve chests; a similar set of pipes sent the exhaust upward to escape. The system's output was rated at 120 horsepower (89.5 kW).