Caddo & Choctaw 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 13830)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 39, p. 76. See also Guy Lancaster, "Caddo River Lumber Company", Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture at [], last accessed 4 February 2012. Works number was 36381 in April 1911.

Like most logging Prairies, the C & C #2 faced 56-lb/yard (28-kg/metre) rail and "rough track".

Caddo River Lumber Company opened the C & C in 1907 and at its zenith had extended track 14 miles from Rosboro, Ark into the woods to Cooper (near Daisy, a 500-person town). It was bought by the Memphis, Dallas & Gulf in 1911, but the MD&G didn't comply with the terms of the purchase and returned to CRLC control in 1913. The railroad closed in 1924.

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Class 8 (Locobase 14695)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 62, p. 305 and Vol 73, pp. 230+. See also Guy Lancaster, "Caddo River Lumber Company", Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture at [], last accessed 4 February 2012. Works numbers were 51770-51771 in May 1919, 58131 in December 1924

When the C&C went back to Baldwin for more logging Prairies, they ordered a repeat of the 1911 design shown in Locobase 13830. There were some changes, most notably 12" (305 mm) was added to each tube to present more evaporative heating surface area. But the firebox area shrank by more than 15%. In addition, Baldwin substituted constant-lead radial valve gear actuating 9 1/2" (241 mm) piston valves replaced the inside link motion operating slide valves.

8 went to New England Shipbuilding in the early 1940s to support their new yard at South Portland, Maine. After the end of World War Two, the 8 was scrapped in 1947. 9 went from Caddo River to Ozan Graysonia Lumber Company as their George Teat (#2). In 1983, OGLC sold the 2 to the Prescott & Northwestern in Arizona as their 7. Like the 8, the 7 went to war at a shipyard, serving the Higgins Shipbuilding complex in New Orleans.

After the war, Higgins SB sold the 7 back to the P&NW. The Black Hills Central tourist road, located southwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, bought the 7 in 1962. Last restored in 1993.

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Class G W Hackworth (Locobase 14696)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 62, p. 305 and Vol 73, pp. 230+. See also Guy Lancaster, "Caddo River Lumber Company", Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture at [], last accessed 4 February 2012. Works numbers were 58131 in December 1924 and 58194 in January 1925.

These were duplicates of the coal-burning logging Prairies bought by the Caddo River in 1919 except for the conversion to oil fuel. These too used 9 1/2" (241 mm) piston valves for steam admission to the cylinders.

Each was named. Hackworth (#12) came first with the Lee Williamson (11) following a month later.

The 11 was sold to the Reader Railroad in 1943. More than three decades later, the Reader sold the engine in 1974 to Frank Pollack. Pollack later sold the locomotive to the city of Hartwell in Georgia in August 1985. 12 was sold to the US Army's Transportation Corps as their 6993, where it served the big training complex at Fort Benning, Ga.