Class 202 (Locobase 14037)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 45, p. 18. See also [] and the Mississippi Rails website entry at [] . (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 4 August 2015 email giving the tender's cord capacity.) Works number was 40862 in November 1913.

Part of the logging country served by the Red River & Gulf Railroad, this 4.36-mile line met the RR & G at Cocodorie Junction in Mississippi. It was formed by C. T. Crowell and A. B. Spencer in 1913. The Meridian was bought by the RR&G by 1920.

The wood-burning cabbage-stacked 202 trailed a tender carrying 3 1/2 cords of wood (about 8,000 lb/3,269 kg). It has been quite long lived, although its career was almost cut short in 1915 by a head-on collision with an RR & G locomotive at the Meridian yard. The 202 was later lettered for the Crowell Lumber Company.

In the 21st Century, the 202 was stored at the Southern Forest Heritage Museum.

Class 204 (Locobase 14269)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 62, p. 373+. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 4 August 2015 email giving the tender's cord capacity.) Works number was 51711 in April 1919.

Small as the Meridian's railroad might have been, the company seems to have felt it needed a larger Mogul locomotive than the 202 (Locobase 14037) of 1913. So it bought this wood-burner seven years later; its tender carried the same amount of water and 3 1/2 cords (about 8,000 lb/3,269 kg) of wood . It later served the Crowell Lumber Company of Long Leaf, La.

Class 5 (Locobase 14272)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 52, p. 284. See also Robert Wooster, "BENFORD, TX," Handbook of Texas Online ([]), accessed July 07, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association and the Texas Politics website at [] . (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 11 March 2016 email noting the fuel capacity.) Works number was 43023 in March 1916.

The specification spells out the future for this wood-burning logging Mogul: "Loco to be built to stand very rough service ...Springs and spring rigging to be extra heavy." Among the challenges were curves of 33 degrees (176 foot/53.6 metre radii). Its tender carried a relatively high amount of wood--3 1/2 cords.

MLC was owned by the Benford & Western Transportation Company of Benford, Texas and was incorporated in 1916 by Lynch Davidson, GM Seaman, and HJ Cullen. In 1921, the same year he was inaugurated as Texas's 16th lieutenant governor, Davidson consolidated his three lumber companies--Continental, Mardez, and Southland--under the name of Lynch Davidson & Company.

Davidson served only one 2-year term, but during that term, he was appointed chairman of the Texas State Railroad and found ways for the state prison system's railroad to show a profit.

The 5 was sold at some point to Crossett Lumber; see Locobase 11089 for a short biography of that company's founder.