2-8-0 "Consolidation" Steam Locomotives in the USA

Class 27/37 (Locobase 12647)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volumes 27, p. 312 and Volume 29, p.239 and Hocking Valley 1924- Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2025 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange collection. Works numbers were 27066-27067 in December 1905 and 29578 in November 1906.

The 29's specifications were set down in April 1906 and reveal the attention to a myriad of handwritten details. One required "solid bushings in side rods rather than brasses with straps." while the main rod was to get a "strap on the back end ...instead of filling block and bolt." Frequent appeals for cast steel components suggest the power and size of these engines.

"Independent sand boxes, one on each side, to sand rear drivers," read still another. From operating the other two in the class came this instruction: "Arrangement for holding the cyl. [sic[ cock to cab floor to be firmer." Detail as follows" Put board on headlight brackets for headlights to set [sic] on."

A little more than a decade after these Consolidations went to work for this Pennsylvania shortline, all three were sold to the Hocking Valley in November 1917 as their 280-282.

See Locobase 7854 for the HV's superheated upgrade.

Class K (Locobase 6570)

Data from 1936 C&P locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The C&P was a short line in Maryland's Allegany County that moved coal to the Mt Savage junction with the Baltimore & Ohio. Patrick Stakem of the Western Maryland Historical Society writes that this small railroad established a competent locomotive-building facility at its roundhouse in Mt Savage, Maryland.

At the turn of the century, Mt Savage supplied two classes of Consolidations for the C & P. This trio represented the smaller design; the Ls (see Locobase 6571) the larger.

Stakem's account shows that this unusual capability resulted from the arrival of James Milholland as director of the locomotive shop. Milholland was even then a well-known locomotive superintendent who had worked on the Philadelphia & Reading. The C & P shops took on several rebuilding projects before offering a catalogue of new locomotives for the railroad and for export.

C&P diagram books and a 1921 locomotive list give the road numbers of this pair of Consolidations as 21-22. But Mt Savage construction records show 1898 and 1899 engines as originally 60-61, then 20 and 22. It's possible that at some later point 20 took 21 as its number

It eventually came under the control of the Western Maryland and the shops were closed.

Class L (Locobase 6571)

Data from 1936 C & P locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The C & P was a short line in western Pennsylvania that had its roundhouse in Mt Savage, Maryland; see Locobase 6570 for a more complete history. The L series seems to have been an enlargement of the two Ks that were delivered 5 years earlier, although the firebox heating surface remained about the same.