Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain 2-4-2 "Columbian" Locomotives in the USA

Class 102 (Locobase 12068)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 18, p.150. See also [], later recast as "Logging Railroad Technology" in the Logging Railroads of the Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico history at [], last accessed 5 December 2024. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 6 November 2024 email supplying the updated link to the NPS history.) Works number was 13361 in April 1893.

Originally built by Baldwin to display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, this tank was sold to the New Mexico Coal & Railway Company. But apparently the engine was sold to the A&SM before it was delivered - the tender description in the specs shows Baldwin's name being struck and changed to Alamagordo & Sacramento Mountain.

The A&SM was chartered to connect the newly founded Alamagordo with the projected "Cloudcroft" resort farther up in the mountains. The Mountain Monthly website -- [], accessed 8 September 2007 [link no longer active]-- presented a long article about the real objective, which was to cart logs down from the summit of the Sacramento Mountains. To achieve this goal, the railroad had to ascend 4,000 ft over a winding 26-mile line to a maximum of 8,700 ft, the highest elevation reached by a standard-gauge railroad. The line was finally torn up in 1947.

When the A&SM was absorbed by the El Paso & Southwestern, the 102 was renumbered 202. In 1906, the EP & SW sold the tank to the Ferrocarril Nacazari, the latter located in Sonora State in Mexico.