John L Roper Lumber Company 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 25 (Locobase 13177)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 31, p . See also Floyd W Mundy (of James H Oliphant & Co), The Earning Power of Railroads (New York: Moody's Magazine Book Department, 1912), p. 379. Works number was 31597 in August 1907.

In 1906, the Norfolk Southern Railroad reorganized its railroad holdings and took control of all Roper stocks and bonds. By 1910, Moody' verbal snapshot illustrates just how big this lumber processor had become: "This company owns ten mills with an annual capacity of 150,000,000 feet of timber, together with timber rights on lands (800,000 acres, of which 600,000 acres owned in fee) containing 3,000,000,000 feet of standing timber."

To move all of this harvest, the Roper Company had laid 150 miles (242 km) of fully equipped standard gauge logging railroads. Altogether, reported Moody's, "The value of the properties of the John L. Roper Lumber Co. has been estimated at an amount exceeding $10,000,000."