New Berlin & Winfield 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 12996)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 29, p. 158. See also the Midwest Central museum-railroad site at [], last accessed 8 August 2011. Works number was 28868 in August 1906.

Locobase found another Baldwin-built Mogul with identical dimensions that entered service on the Alexander & Rich Mountain in 1891 (Locobase 11987). The only difference between the two after fifteen more years of development was a 30-psi increase in boiler pressure and a ton more adhesion weight.

The NB&W served a central Pennsylvania agricultural region as a common carrier along the eight miles between New Berlin and the river town of Winfield on the Susquehanna from 1904 to 1917. Its inevitable demise meant a trip south for the 2 where it went to work for the Argent Lumber Company in Hardeesville, South Carolina.

This career lasted about three times as long as the Pennsylvania stint. According to the Midwest Central site, the 2 burned all three main types of fuel: coal, wood, and oil and sported a cabbage stack suitable for containing sparks in such a flammable setting. It made two round trips per day from the swamps where the logs were harvested to the mill at Hardeesville.

Such extended duty wound up saving the locomotive for preservation. Its sale in January 1960 attracted the attention of the Midwest Central museum road of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. At MCRR, the 2 ran for more than 20 years until it became apparent that the engine needed a complete overhaul. As of 2007, much work and money still needed to be expended before the 2 might return to service.