Bethlehem Steel Cambria Plant 0-4-0 "Switcher" Locomotives in the USA

Class 89 (Locobase 8487)

Data from [] (accessed 1 June 2007), archiving an article by Rodney Weaver, "Steelworks Baldwins", Industrial Railway Record, No.60 (June 1975) - pp 52-54. See also DeGolyer, Volume 80, p. 30. Works numbers were 61189-61190 in December 1929.

These steelyard Baldwins had a very odd look imposed on them by the confines of a narrow-gauge rail line that snaked around steel plan buildings. Track gauge on the curves was 36 1/2" (927 mm) and minimum curve radii were 75 ft. Endurance was enhanced by 2,000 galllons of water carried in a saddle tank that completely enshrouded the boiler from smokebox door to cab front. In fact, there were no front windows in the cab at all. Coal came from a tender trailed behind the engine.

The photograph accompanying Weaver's account shows the entangled components of a full-size Walschaert gear installation, piston valves, stubby stack, and nearly invisible dome. As with the other Baldwin steelworks engines profiled in Weaver's article, the size is 89's most noteworthy feature to the author. In the caption, he says #89 "...can be compared with the largest standard-gauge 0-6-0s used on European industial lines ..." and, in the body of the description, "...its dimensions will be a revelation to those whose idea of a 3ft gauge lcomotive is an Isle of Man 2-4-0 side tank." [see Locobase 7514].