2-8-2 "Mikado" Steam Locomotives in the USA

Class 18 (Locobase 13047)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 51, p. 24 ' See also Raymond Piltz, "Lumbering Mikes: A Hogger on the McCloud River Railroad Takes a Fond Look at Baldwin's Timber-Hauling 90-Ton Mikados." Railroad History, no. 196 (2007): 58-64. [] . Works number was 41709 in September 1914.

A repeat of the basic Mikado design bought by McCloud in 1907 (Locobase 13046), the 18 replaced some of the boiler tubes with superheater flues with little loss of combined heating surface area. A slight increase in the firebox heating surface coupled with the superheater made for a much more powerful engine. Other changes included the adoption of 12" (305 mm) piston valves and Walschaert's outside constant-lead radial valve gear.

McCloud was proud of this new engine and made up a special train with the 18 at its head to appear in San Francisco at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. By the later 1930s, the 18 had acquired a spark-arresting shako on its stack.

It was this superheated version that Raymond Piltz operated in the late 1940s; the 15 shown in Locobase 13046 received a superheater at the Southern Pacific shops in 1920. 14 followed sometime later being modified in the McCloud shops using a kit supplied by Baldwin. The 19 originally operated as the 3 on the Caddo & Choctaw before being sold to the McCloud River in February 1923.

Piltz's summary of these Baldwins' qualities epitomizes the positive qualities of a steam locomotive: "The 90-tonners were good engines to run. All the 'old heads' viewd them as good steamers (that is, readily producing enough steam to do the work) and easy to fire. They were very reliable as well, due at least partly to the excellent maintenance provided by McCloud shop crews."

After more than 40 years of service, the 18 was sold to the Yreka Western. It sat idle and boarded up in the desert for three decades before being repurchased by a later MCRR incarnation for museum service. In 2011, the locomotive had been leased from the state Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V&T Railway to the Virginia & Truckee in Nevada. The 18 had a boiler reconstruction and was declared fit to resume service in July 2010.