Pioneer Mining & Manufacturing 2-4-0 "Porter" Locomotives in the USA

Class 10 (Locobase 12350)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 22, p. 96. Works numbers were 16672 in April 1899 and 20131 in February 1902.

Although the 10 operated in the same general area as other PM&M coal-switching engines, its second owner was Apollo Gold Mining. Apparently it didn't leave the Thomas, Ala area, as it was sold to Republic Iron & Steel in July 1905. The 13 followed a more direct route to the RI&S.

Three decades later, the 10 was sold to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, which scrapped it in January 1927.

Class Pioneer (Locobase 11853)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 13, p. 110. Works number was 8126 in September 1886

It's odd to see a 2-4-0 arrangement with tender in American use after 1850, yet this little Six-wheeler handled duties for Pioneer supporting its hematite and coal mining near Thomas, Alabama for decades. In the late 1890s, PM & M built the 4-mile Thomas & Sayreton and assigned the Pioneer to that run.

By 1907, the 1 worked for Republic Steel, which had formed in 1899 and included Pioneer's three blast furnaces and the T&S.

Class Pioneer (Locobase 12302)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 21, p. 278. Works number was 16292 in November 1898.

See Locobase 11853 for the earlier 2-4-0 that Baldwin delivered to this Thomas, Ala ore-extraction company. Although the grate in this later addition grew only slightly, the firebox sat deeper, the boiler had more tubes of the same length, cylinder diameter increased by 2", and the boiler pressure rose as well. Engine wheelbase actually decreased, but the tender was larger.

Class Thomas (Locobase 16430)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 13, p.110. Works number was 10355 in October 1889.

On the same 23 January 1886 order that gave details of a Thomas Iron for a small six-wheeler for its Pennsylvania site (Locobase 11844), Baldwin recorded a PM&M order for a duplicate for its Thomas, Ala works. But the 7 wasn't delivered for three more years (Locobase suspects the actual order came later than January 1886, but was recorded on the same page for some reason.)

Compared to the other 2-4-0s acquired both before and after the 7, this was a small locomotive. Locobase supposes it was used to move coal cars within the Thomas Works site. Over the next two decades, the 7's ownership ID changed twice, first to the Thomas & Sayreton Railroad in 1899, then to Republic Iron & Steel in 1905

RI&S sold the 7 to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Birmingham Rail & Locomotive, which gave it serial number 220. BR&L found a buyer in February 1910 in the lumber company William Drews Jr, Walker, La. Within a year, however, William Drews Jr was reported by the St Louis Lumberman as "out of business." Two years later, Blanks Lumber Company of Vicksburg, Miss bought the William Drews plant and possibly the 7 as well.