Aberdeen & West End 2-4-0 "Porter" Locomotives in the USA

Class John C Winder (Locobase 16549)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 18, p. 76. See also Aberdeen & Star Railroad on the uniquely valuable North Carolina Rails website at [], last accessed 12 August 2021. Works numbers were 9114 in March 1888 and 10223 in September 1889.

Several of the small wood-burning six-wheelers proved sufficient to serve short lines in the Southeast. Considering the the lght rail on lightly ballasted, the specifications included the frequent request for '"extra heavy" springs.

[Locobase cannot locate the firebox heating surface area on three identical engines and consequently cannot estimate the evaporative heating surface area. In all three specs, the firebox dimension appeared with identical length, width, height at the throat tubesheet and at the backhead-- 56 7/16 x 33 3/8 x 41 1/4 and 35 3/4" He chose to add three entries to the database to allow for some future discovery.]

This North Carolina short line originally laid as a tram road to link Aberdeen to Star, NC, where Daniel McDonald's distillery created turpentine. Allison Francis Page then laid a steam railroad line along the right-of-way. Its independence lasted only two years, long enough to acquire the nickname The Briar Patch. In 1889, Page incorporated the A&WE to extend the railroad from Aberdeen to Candor, 25 1/3 miles (40.8 km)

The A&WE specified a 12" (305 mm) diameter Radley & Hunter spark-arresting balloon stack as did most timber harvesters who bought from Baldwin.. Locomotive #2 was named "Montgomery".

In 1897, both were relettered for the Aberdeen & Asheboro after it was formed from the merger of the A&WE and the Aberdeen & Montgomery. The A&A disposed of both in December 1918, selling the 1 to Goldsboro Lumber Company as their #3.