Wichita Falls & Northwestern 2-6-0 "Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class 15/E (Locobase 13323)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 32, p. 37 and Volume 34, p. 178. See Locobase 11402 for a history of the WF & NW. Works numbers were 33975-33976 in September 1909, and 34477-34478 in April 1910.

This quartet of Moguls were very similar to the Brooks engines that arrived on the Wichita Falls Route in 1907 (Locobase 11402) although they had a 2-inch (51 mm)-longer stroke. When the Missouri-Kansas-Texas acquired all of the WF & NW's capital stock in 1912, it took possession of this class, dropped it into Class E, and renumbered the engines 900 to 903.

Class 2/E (Locobase 11403)

Data from "Locomotive Building ", The Railroad Gazette, Vol XLIII, No 8 (23 August 1907), p. 214. Railroad information from the Handbook of Texas Online [] . See also Donald L Hofsommer, Katy Northwest: the story of a branch-line railroad (Bloomington, IN, 1976, reprinted by IUP in 1999). Works numbers were 44708-44709 in March 1908.

The WF&NW was founded to encourage more traffic through Wichita Falls from surrounding states. Its first charter (signed on 26 September 1906) envisioned a 17-mile line from Wichita Falls to the Red River. A second incorporation under the laws of the Oklahoma Territory envisioned a much larger network. Wichita Falls to Wellington, Texas (in the Panhandle) opened on 10 November 1910. Ultimately, the Wichita Falls Route included 359.3 miles (578 km) of track,climbing 1,500 ft (457 m) as it ran north from Wichita Falls, Tex to Beaver County, Okla.

The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad leased the WF&NW on 1 May 1914 (after the Katy had acquired all of the latter's capital stock), but the smaller road operated independently until 1 April 1923 when it was consolidated with the MKT.

These two Moguls, then, formed part of the startup stud.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.