Chestnut Ridge Railway Company 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 6 (Locobase 15298)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Vol 73, pp. 19+. See also a short history of the CRRR in an article from the 29 July 2001 Pocono Record and archived at []. Works number was 56725 in July 1923.

This powerful Mogul was bought by the New Jersey Zinc Company of Pennsylvania, a later owner of the CRRR. When the road was originally financed in the late 1800s, it supported white-brick making operation in Palmerton, Pa, which lies north of Allentown. Investors such as J.P. Morgan, Howard Gould, Chauncey Depew and John Jacob Astor bought 4,000 acres in Eldred Township to encourage development of both the brick-making business and to draw tourists to eastern Pennsylvania.

It all failed and in 1901 (or 1902) the railroad was reorganized to haul local passenger traffic at the rate of up to 200 passengers a day. Its line measured 12 miles long from Lehigh Gap to Kunkletown. NJZC bought the railroad in 1907 and its zinc-processing mill added revenue to the railroad.

Business was brisk and the NJZC bought this powerful Mogul to help with traffic. It was similar in size and power to an 0-6-0, but had the leading truck. Rolling on relatively hefty 80 lb/yard (40 kg/metre) rail, the 6 served the CRRR for twenty-three years before being retired in 1946.

Passenger service closed in 1935, but freight service continued at high levels (hauling 4 million tons in 1947-1948). It remained in service into the 21st century.