Wabash / Wabash Saint Louis & Pacific 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class F1 (Locobase 6928)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. New York Locomotive Works numbers were 99 in November 1884, 100-104 in December, 105--109 in January 1885.

Although the Wabash 1907 Locomotive book lumped three F classes of Moguls together, only two builders from Rome, NY and Philadelphia, PA actually built engines to this design. Locobase 16642 shows the Baldwins, which had 19" (483 mm) cylinders and this entry comprises the eleven New York engines.

When foreclosure on the WStL&P's assets led to its reconstitution as the Wabash Railroad Company, the new management used the first original three numbers and subtracted 1000 from the rest.

Class F2 (Locobase 16642)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange; and DeGolyer, Volume 12, p 117. Works numbers were 7473, 7475 in October 1884;, 7488, 7491, 7495-7496, 7503, 7506, 7511-7514 in November; 7515, 7522 in December., and 7694 in October 1885. (Road numbers for the last four were 1113, 1187, 1204, and 1214).

Locobase 6928 originally described the 1907 summary of three F series, which, it turns out, really only represented two builders. Moreover, although the data were essentially duplicates from New York Locomotive to Baldwin, the Philadelphians used 1" (25.4 mm) larger cylinders. Hence Locobase's decision to divide the entries by creating this one for the Baldwins.

Some details include the use of 1" (25.4 mm) radial stays instead of crown bars and a "hereafter" note insisting that furture angle iron braces to side sheets of tender should be placed "vertically instead of lengthwise."

Class F6 (Locobase 6930)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 26, p. 10; and "Baldwin Engines for the Wabash", Railway and Locomotive Engineering, Volume 16, No 10 (October 1903), p. 463. Richmond works numbers were 3237-3270 in 1901; and Baldwin works numbers were 22551, 22569, 22580 in July 1903; 22589-22590, 22623, 22665, 22679 in August, 22817, 22836, 22849, 22855, 22876, 22902 in September; 22912, 22931-22932, 22949, 22957, 22968, 22985, 22995-22996, 23012-23013, 23027, 23049, 23082, 23097 in October; 23133, 23176, 23203 in November.

Apparently the results from the first five compound Moguls (Locobase 6929) were favorable, so favorable that the Wabash had Baldwin produce 32 and Richmond supply 34 in 1901-1903. By 1917, however, only three had not been converted to simple-expansion F-7s. For the latter, see Locobase 6931.

Class F7 (Locobase 6931)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 27, p. 120. Baldwin works numbers were 24314-24316, 24323, 24337-24338, 24358-24360, 24370, 24381-24382, 24386, 24391, 24397-24398, 24403, 24410-24411, 24416-24418 in June 1904; 24437-24442, 24448-24449, 24467-24468, 24475-24476, 24491, 24501, 24510 in July.

The F-6 Moguls (Locobase 6930) were of serviceable size, but their compound cylinder arrangement disappointed their operator soon after the large class of cross-compounds entered service. By 1917, only a few were left unchanged.

Meanwhile, Baldwin was delivering the simple-expansion twins to the F-6 compounds. By 1917, the new-builds and the makeovers together comprised the one of the largest single Mogul classes on any railroad.

On they went, decade after decade, in part because their axle loading was so low. Drury (1993) says that four were retained until 1955 because the Keokuk Bridge over the Illinois River couldn't handle anything heavier. And, like the other Wabash 2-6-0s, they steamed well with a generous portion of direct heating surface and a relatively large grate.

Class I compound/F5 (Locobase 6929)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Rhode Island works numbers were 3144-3145 in October 1899 and 3146-3147 in November; Richmond works numbers were 2856-2859 in 1899.

As part of the worldwide interest in compounding, Rhode Island (4) and Richmond (1) supplied these two-cylinder cross-compound versions of the F-4 (Locobase 6927) to the Wabash. 582 had been converted to simple expansion and place in the F-4 class in December 1914; the other three followed in March 1915. See Locobase 15820.

Class I simple/F4 (Locobase 6927)

Data from WAB 1 - 1907 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange and DeGolyer, Volume 22, p. 180. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 6 January 2018 email noting the original boiler pressure setting and noting the tender's capacities.) Richmond Works numbers were 2852-2855, 2857-2859 in 1899. Baldwin works numbers were 16952-16953 in August 1899, 16997-16999 in September.

Relatively small boiler, relatively big grate and generous direct heating surface area for a turn-of-the-century North American Mogul. F4s achieved this difference by placing their fireboxes above the rear axle, allowing them to present significantly higher grate area than that available from the narrow fireboxes that had dominated locomotive layouts.

By 1907, Wabash had raised the boiler pressure setting to 195 psi (13.45 bar), raising the calculated traffic effort to 26,594 lb (12,063 kg or 118.3 kN)..

Locobase 15820 shows another twelve that are grouped by Wabash with the twelve as in the same class in 1907. As ordered from Rhode Island, however, they had bigger boilers. All of the F4s used a long-stroke design to increase cylinder volume.

The five compounds produced as F5s were identical except for their unequal cylinder diameters; see Locobase 6929. They were converted to simple expansion by 1917. Renumbered in the following order: 576, 578, 581, 569, 588, 583, 574-575, 580, 584, 587, 585, 589, 590-594, 596, 595, 597-599.

582 and 589 were transferred to the 11.3 mile New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois short line in 1926. This was the year that the Wabash bought the line from the Singer Manufacturing Company, which built it in 1905.

Class I simple/F4 - Rhode Island (Locobase 15820)

Data from "Manufactures--Supplies", The Railway Age, Vol 27 (24 February 1899), p. 142. Joe G Collias, The Last of Steam (Forest Park, Ill: Heimburger House Publishing Company, 1960, 1988), pp.51-52. Works numbers were 3133-3143 in October 1899. Works numbers were 3133-3143 in October 1899, 3144-3147 in November.

Note on the builder:

In 1896, Rhode Island Locomotive was forced to idle its works as an after-effect of the 1893 Panic. No locomotives came out of the Providence works for the next three years, by which time the builder had reorganized as the International Power Company. After building about 250 locomotives over the next few years, the IPC works were rolled into the newly formed American Locomotive Company. Within Alco, this location was known as Alco's Rhode Island Works.

In addition to the long stroke, these engines placed their fireboxes above the rear axle, allowing them to present significantly higher grate area than that available from the narrow fireboxes that had dominated locomotive layouts.

The detailed description of the order included a list of the special equipment suppliers, which Locobase likes to include to illustrate the web of businesses that supported steam locomotive construction in the US by different builders at various times.

Keasbey & Mattison magnesia boiler covering

Westinghouse-American brakes

Sterlingworth brake beams on tender

Crosby chime whistles

Gould couplers

cast-steel driving wheel centers, manufactured by the American Steel Foundry co

Carbon firebox and boiler steel

Ohio injectors

United States bronze journal bearings,

Michigan lubricators

Crosby safety valves and steam gauges

Houston sanding device

Scott springs

Richardson valves

Midvale, Latrobe and Standard tires

Although grouped by Wabash in 1907 with Richmond and Baldwin locomotives in the same class (Locobase 6927), this set from the Ocean State was ordered with bigger boilers. Locobase added this entry because of the source's specificity, while acknowledging that its owner would ascribe to these engines the same characterstics as the others by 1907.

They were further rebuilt in 1913-1916.

The Wabash sold the 582 and 589 to the New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois in June and July of 1928.

The availability of this particular entry allows Locobase to include a cite to Joe Collias's Last of Steam salute to an unlikely survivor. still at work on the Wabash in 1954. The photo showed engine 573 (product of a later renumbering) as it "shuffles past the order board at Clayton, Ill, with five cars of the daily freight run over the Bluffs, Ill to Keokuk, Iowa branch." It owed its survival, Collias explained, to the seven-span bridge that crossed the Illinois River at Meredosia, Ill, "whose aged and spindly beams will support nothing heavier than a 2-6-0, and one at a time if you please!" as they "baby the consists across the weight restricted bridge."

"[Quietly and determinedly" the Wabash put an end to "50 years of Mogulism" in late 1954 by leasing 44-ton General Electric diesel switchers, added Collias. But 573 survived to be donated to the National Museum of Transportation in St Louis, MO in June 1955. It remained on display in the early 2020s.