Savannah, Americus & Montgomery 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class Ocmulgee (Locobase 11575)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1888, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 15, p. 13.

Works numbers were 9889-9890 in March 1889. For railroad information, see the comprehensive Railroad History of Georgia website at [], last accessed 8 August 2010 and [] . See Locobase 11856 for a short account of the Americus, Preston & Lumpkin. When the railroad extended service east and west from its original APL territory, operated steamboats on the Altamaha and Ocmulgee, converted to standard gauge in 1888, and changed its name to the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery, its impact was felt even more keenly. "The effect of the new railroad's arrival in the rural areas east and west of Americus was immediate," says the web account. "Villages and towns sprang up overnight. Many were planned directly by the railroad and its holding company." By 1892, the SA & M owned 5 riverboats, several more branches, and had leased the 35-mile Albany & Northern.

These small Moguls, the latest in a string of such engines, they were delivered to the SA & M after it was formed from the reorganized AP & L in December 1888. The wood-burning engines were also surprisingly small considering the many other 2-6-0s then be procured by standard-gauge railroads in the US. In addition to the Ocmulgee, Baldwin delivered the Thronoteeskee.

The Panic of 1893 distressed this road enough for it to suffer foreclosure in 1895 and be sold and reorganized as the Georgia & Alabama. When the Seaboard Air Line took over the G & A a few years later, these 2-6-0s were classed "Odd", then sold to W E Boone in January 1901.