Philadelphia & Reading / Williams Valley 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class A F Baker (Locobase 12037)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 18, p. 46 Works number was 12806 in June 1892.

The Williams Valley Railway was a 7.2-mile short line based in Lykens, Pa that hauled coal and general freight. Never very prosperous, it ran deficits throughout most of its independent existence. This mogul may have been its only locomotive. The Philadelphia & Reading took over the WV in 1908-1909 and gave the A F Baker road number 1460. It was scrapped in June 1916.

Class N4-a (Locobase 12664)

Data from S F Prince, Jr, "Rebuilding Locomotives - Philadelphia & Reading", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXVII, No 2 (24 June 1904), pp. 46-48.

Prince explains the original 2-4-2 (see Locobase 8879) that was modified into this unusual Mogul "...was frequently shopped on account of broken frames and cylinders." The overhaul resulted in this express engine whose drivers were six inches taller than any other of the 2-6-0s in Locobase. Eight more of the original class

Unlike most Moguls, 303 did not have its pony truck equalized with the drivers, instead having its weight borne by a cast-iron bed plate. The boiler was modified by removing the combustion chamber (which increased tube length by 40.34 inches) and the water-bar grate; the latter was replaced by shaking grates.

The boiler's centerline also was raised to allow the third driving axle to pass under the firebox.

Four of the rebuilds were scrapped in December 1906, another in May 1908.

The other 4 underwent a further transformation as L-6a class 4-6-0s; driver diameter was probably reduced to 68". In only one instance did an engine survive past 1911: 682 (now 315) was rebuilt again as a 4-6-0 (class L-6b) and operated until 1927.