Bessemer & Lake Erie 2-10-2 "Santa Fe" Locomotives in the USA

Class D1A (Locobase 5435)

Data from a table in January 1917 RME and DeGolyer, Volume 55, pp.137+ See Locobase 7655 for a later upgrade of this design. Also consulted was the text of a 1954 booklet prepared by the B&LE's General Manager Roy C Beaver prepared for the Annual Meeting of the Veteran Employees Association at Conneaut Lake Park on August 21, 1954. It was published in place of the September 1954 Bessemer Bulletin employees magazine. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 6 March 2018 email noting the 505's tender truck boosters.) 43950-43951, 43994-43997 in August 1916; 44100-

44104, 44134-44136, 44156-44157 in September; 44205-44206 in October; 44207-44208 in November

This very large Santa Fe greatly increased the B&LE's hauling power. Much of the data is similar to that of the CB&Q and C & IM engines of contemporary vintage and builder. Locobase notes the enormous quantity of flexible stays such a large, mobile coal furnace required: "1,000 in number ...four top horizontal rows of each outside side sheet, in throat sheet throughout, in back head, throughout except at fire door frame. Three vertical rows at each end of side sheet diagonally across (at ends of side sheets from said horizontal rows to said vertical rows." The combustion chamber was braced by 380 additional flexible stays.

Firebox heating surface included 129 sq ft (11.98 sq m) in the combustion chamber and 43 sq ft (3.99 sq m) from five arch tubes. Fifteen-inch (381 mm) piston valves served for steam admission. The trailed cylindrical Vanderbilt tenders. Other upgrades included aWorthington 5-S and the Chambers 10" throttle upgrades

Beaver's commemorative booklet described an attempted innovation tested by the B&LE in 1930. The shops turned out a tender with two tender boosters and fitted it behind the 505. Each of the two six-wheel trucks had its own booster, whose power turned two of the three axles (the rear two in the front truck, the front two in the rear truck). Together with the 505's own power, the power system--placed in its own class D1B--generated 111,900 lb (50,757 kg or 497.75 kN) or of starting tractive effort. It proved too much of a good thing for a road-service engine, so the 505 pushed trains on the Conneault Branch and was the only D1A to be converted.

Relatively high-drivered for their arrangement, the class lasted until the end of steam and entered retirement in 1948-1951.

Class D1A - syphons/D1B (Locobase 7655)

Data from B&LE 1 - 1944 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See the "ovefire jets" thread begun on trainorders.com by "grande473" on 24 March 2003 at [],589090, last accessed 9 June 2018. See also Eugene L Huddleston, "Smoke Consumers" in Uncle Sam's Locomotives: The USRA and the Nation's Railroads (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002), pp. 112-113. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 21 April 2018 email noting the tender boosters and larger tender on the D1B, and the incorrect driver diameter on all of the class.)

Although the B&LE liked its Santa Fes as they came off the production line (Locobase 5435), the design wasn't allowed to stand completely still. Later modifications included a large combustion chamber that contributed 129 sq ft (12 sq m) to total firebox heating surface. In addition, three thermic syphons added 99 sq ft (9.2 sq m) of direct heating surface; two of these served the firebox, one the combustion chamber. Other upgrades included a Worthington 5-S feed water heater and Chambers 10" (254 mm) throttle. The firebox also retained its 27 sq ft (2.5 sq m) of arch tubes.

The single D1B was fitted in 1930 with a larger tender fitted with two Franklin reversible engines with side rods driving the last two axles of each three-axle truck The installation supplied an additional 33,000 lb (14,969 kg) of starting tractive effort. Hohl notes that the tender's greater water (22,000 US gallons/ 83,270 litres) and coal (23 tons/20.87 metric tons) capacity increased loaded weight to a hefty 401,150 lb (181,959 kg) and overall wheelbase to 91 ft 3 1/2" (27.83 m).

At least three (505, 518-519) were also fitted with "overfire steam jets", similar in concept to the earlier "combustion tubes" and likewise intended to reduce smoke by pulling outside air through tubes under the brick arch and over the grate.

In the train orders thread, edselinsky wrote that the purpose of the four to ten 2" (50.8 mm) tubes on each side was to provide more oxygen to help burn all of the coal fuel on the grate. "LLW8673" added that in some installations, the left side tubes were offset from their right side counterparts "to create further swirling motion inside the firebox from the cross action flow of air." Using steam to pull in the air heated it so that cold air wouldn't drop the firebox's overall temperature.

Overfire steam jets were most often used to fix mid-trip smokiness or to improve combustion during station stops, although they were quite noisy. Also known as "smoke consumers", they can be recognized by the small canisters or "hats" fitted to the outside tube ends.. Because the tubes lay parallel to the grate about 18" above it, the outer fixtures can be seen as a rising set of circles or canisters from front to back of each side.

Perhaps one reason the B&LE liked these Santa Fes better than those designed by the USRA (See Locobase 9030) was the provision of Baker valve gear instead of the less widely used Southern setup. The D1As also put 20 more tons (18,144 kg) of adhesive weight on the rails than did the USRAs.

These differences meant that most of the class saw steam out on the B & LE.

Class D2A (USRA) (Locobase 9030)

Data from B&LE 1 - 1944 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

Although the 1919 quintet of engines from Baldwin were USRA Santa Fes (Locobase 90) when they came on the road, later modifications added considerably to their direct heating surface as shown in this entry. A similar program was applied to the D1As (this modification is described in Locobase 7655).

The 104 sq ft (9.65 sq m) combustion chamber received one of three thermic syphons; the other two were placed in the cavernous firebox, which retained its 27 sq ft (2.5 sq m) of arch tubes. In addition, the thermic syphons contributed 110 sq ft (10.2 sq m) of firebox heating surface. 14" (356 mm) piston valves actuated by Southern valve gear let the steam into the cylinders.

Drury (1993) comments that these engines weren't as well liked as the pre-Great War D1As and were retired in 1947, before those engines were withdrawn. (There were four times as many of the D1As, which may have had something to do with it.)