New York Dock Company 0-6-0 "Switcher" Locomotives in the USA

Class 6 (Locobase 15038)

Data from DeGolyer Library, Vol 31, p. 29. See also Philip M Goldstein's website Industrial & Offline Terminal Railroads of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx, and Manhattan at []. Works numbers were 31607 in August 1907, 31983 in October, and 32613 in January 1908.

According to the quite detailed New York Dock Company website, "The New York Dock Company was a rail-marine offline contract terminal." Goldstein explains that such companies maintained "carfloating operations, carload and less than carload contract terminals, direct bulk offloading of ships to railcar, and would have large storage warehouses at their disposal (whereas the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal did not have direct ship to rail or large warehouses)."

Serving such a densely loaded railroad fell to locomotives like this trio of Baldwin tanks. The Baldwin specs say that grades could briefly reach 8% in inclination and curve radii were as tight as 122 feet 7 3/4" (37.4 m) or 48 degrees. All three were converted to oil-burning in 1931.

Class Porter (Locobase 15037)

Data from Roy V Wright (Ed.) 1912 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice, Sixth Edition (New York: Simmons-Boardman Publishing Company, 1912), p. 159. Works number was 4564 in April 1910.

Locobase 15038 has a short description of the work of this New York dockside railroad.

This muscular tank seems to have been ordered to the same specification as the 1907 Baldwins shown in Locobase 15038. Its boiler pressure rating was lower, but otherwise all of the dimensions are the same.