Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Traction 0-4-0 "Switcher" Locomotives in the USA

Class Woodsdale (Locobase 12237)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 21, p. 19. See also John H White, The American Railroad Passenger Car, Volume 2 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), pp. 585-587, "Baldwin Motor Car for the CH&D Traction Company," The Age of Steel, Volume LXXXIII, No 10 (5 March 1898), p.24, and "Steam Motor Cars for Minor Railway Lines," Railway World [London], Volume 7 (5 May 1898), pp. 138-140. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 1 October 2021 email containing corrections on weights, wheelbase, and overall length.) Works number was 15337 in May 1897.

White explained that this stubby steam rail coach was Baldwin's attempt to compete with Schenectady (Locobase 15948) in the motor-coach field. Baldwin's specs show some interesting inked amendments dated 11/7/1897 that suggest the original boiler size was too small. As originally prescribed, 216 tubes, each five feet long, were to make up the boiler. Total heating surface area with that configuration worked out to 407 sq ft (37.81 sq m). Cylinder volume was first calculated at 0.73 cu ft, derived from two 4 1/4" HP and two 7" LP cylinders. Boiler diameter measured 38" (965 mm).

The revised design featured a vertical, self-stoking "magazine" boiler standing on the floor in the front of the car. Coal loaded in the top fed itself through a 30" (762 mm) diameter pipe to the firebox at the bottom; twelve 2" (52 mm) diameter circulating tubes that were 8" (203 mm) long helped guide the coal to the center of the firebox added a mite to the heating surface area. Steam from the boiler fed through flexible metal connections to the Vauclain-compound cylinder setup underneath. After its passage through both cylinders, the exhausted steam arrived in a condenser on the car roof. One of the two below-floor 150 US gallon (568 litre) tanks received the condensation as it dripped.

Behind the boiler and engineer was an eight-foot long baggage compartment and the passenger compartment, which was finished in quartered oak; total car length came to 32 ft 9 in (9.98 m). 24 persons sat in transversely mounted seats, were heated by steam and "well-lighted". Windows had sashes and spring rollers. The car's body was painted in English vermillion. Like most trolley cars, the Woodsdale had a clerestory running the length of the vehicle. Cost to CH&D Traction was $6,000.

Although Baldwin had estimated adhesion weight as 19,000 lb (8,618 kg) and total weight at 38,000 lb (17,237 kg), Chris Hohl notes the CH&D reported an increase of 13,000 lb (5,897 kg) in adhesion weight and a 10,000 lb (4,536 kg) increase in all-up weight in practice.

Tests suggested that the engineering was sound. The Age of Steel report claimed that "The fire required no attention and received none during the entire run of 38 miles [61 km]. The operation of the car was more free from noise than the ordinary trolley at that speed [30-40 mph/48-64 km/h]; rode as smoothly as a Pullman car."

Verdict, according to the Age of Steel: "[T]he examining engineers made a very flattering report of its capacity in every way."

The CH&D's service experience, which began in mid-March 1898, proved otherwise with the boiler steaming poorly, the lower ends of the tubes failing, a myriad of mechanical issues, and poor riding qualities. Within six months, the Woodsdale had retired.

This experience would be repeated for other Baldwin steam motors (e.g., Locobase 12269, which shows a larger version of this design). In addition to the inevitably constrained capacity of a vertical boiler in a carbody, White says, the extra framing in the car and the large water tanks hanging beneath the trucks added considerable weight to the vehicle. "The cars rode poorly, being part locomotive and part car," he adds, "It was in general an unhappy combination, with all the poorest qualities of both components."