Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class I-1/I-1, I-2 (Locobase 7550)

Data from C & NW 1 - 1905 Locomotive Diagrams books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also "Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western", Railroad Gazette, Volume 23 (18 December 1891), p 901; and "Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railway" in Wikipedia at [],_Lake_Shore_and_Western_Railway, last accessed 20 November 2022. Works numbers were 2310-2314 in January 1890 and 2512-2516 in July.

Formed in 1872, the MLS&W combined the Appleton & New London Railway; Milwaukee, Manitowoc & Green Bay Railroad; Vieux Desert & Lake Shore Railroad; and Wolf River Railroad Company. Over the sixteen years, the MLS&W created a 367 mile (591 km) route to Ashland, which took eleven hours (speed averaging 34 mph/53.7 kph), and branch lines to Rhinelander, Wausau, Oconto, Two Rivers and Oshkosh.

RG's 1891 account notes that the railroad benefited from the Gogebic's "sudden development ... [which] gave it an enormous traffic all at once", but over short distances. On the other hand, much of this part of northern Wisconsin "was a pure wilderness when the road was built." RG reported the positive benefits of a mixture of pine and hard woods logging because "as the timber goes off [sic] farmers come in, and there is a permanent growth, something like that of the lower peninsula of Michigan, for instance."

The class operated under the MLS&W herald for only three years before the railroad came under Chicago & North Western ownership. In addition to 733 miles (1,180 km) of Lake Shore track, the C&NW inherited 112 locomotives, twelve of which were these modest Moguls. The last two were delivered with 196 tubes. Renumbering consisted of adding 900 to the two-digit road numbers and 1000 to the three-digit ones.

All but one of the I-2s were sold for scrap in 1923-1925. In September 1923, the C&NW sold the 1012 to Sever Anderson Logging Company., an Oconto-based contractor for the Holt Lumber Company. For six years, the company operated a railroad from Tipler to Alvin, Wisc. When it closed in 1930, the aging 1012 was most likely scrapped.

Class I-2 (Locobase 7551)

Data from C & NW 1 - 1905 Locomotive Diagrams books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

These two Rhodies differed from the batch of ten Moguls delivered in the previous year (Locobase 7550) in having a slightly larger grate and four fewer tubes. In 1893 the MLS&W was taken over by the Chicago & North Western and the two locomotives were renumbered.

In September 1920, the 1012 was sold to the Sever-Anderson Logging Company of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The 929 remained with the C&NW until it was scrapped in February 1926.

Class I-4 (Locobase 7552)

Data from C & NW 1 - 1905 Locomotive Diagrams books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 1871-1873 in September 1887.

A trio delivered to the MLS&W a few years after the first couple of batches, these were smaller and lighter. In 1893, the MLS&W was taken over by the Chicago & North Western for its Ashland Division.

Thirty years later all three were scrapped in April 1923.