2-6-2 "Prairie" Steam Locomotives in the USA

Class 1 (Locobase 16705)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 65, p. . See also Megan Biesele, "Ewing, TX (Angelina County)," Handbook of Texas Online, accessed January 01, 2026, [] number was 53413 in June 1920.

For the longest time, this locomotive languished in the Baldwin specifications holdings at the DeGolyer Library. As Locobase went through the 77 volumes, he must have seen how hard it was to read this particular record when he got to volume 65. So he skipped this high-hanging fruit in favor of hundreds of other more-accessible entries. What he hadn't counted on was a lapse in coverage in the otherwise extensive index that goes with this collection combined with a very sketchy index within the volume.

Anyway, when Locobase encountered the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine River in another entry, he found a reference to this logging Prairie. After further excavation, he finally encountered the Baldwin document and found it just legible enough to extract the data.

In researching other logging 2-6-2s in this database, Locobase found only one other entry that matched the data (Locobase 14331) and also had a superheater. (Of the 194 2-6-2 entries in Locobase with driver diameters between 38" and 50", only 18 were fitted with superheaters.)

Like the Sierra engines, the 1 used 8" (203 mm) piston valves to admit the hotter, drier steam to the cylinders. A "Hereafter" note in the specs advised "Back truck springs to carry 5,300 pounds [2,404 kg] instead of 6,300 pounds [2,858 kg]". Locobase supposes the goal was to put more weight on the drivers.

H G Bohlsson and S W Henderson founded Southland Paper Company of Heltys, Tex in 1920 and this Prairie seems have the first locomotive on the property. According to Megan Biesele, Bohlsson was crushed by a falling stack of lumber and his widow sold his share to Henderson.

Renamed Angelina Hardwood Company, the company operated into the 1940s turning out 40,000 board feet per day. Henderson died in 1943 after falling into a pile of burning sawdust and the company's name reverted to Southland Paper. By that time, much of the nearby hardwood was cut down and the mill closed after World War II.

Still in service, the 1 now journeyed to the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity & Sabine River into the late 1950s before being donated to the Moody Foundation in 1959. Restored for display at the Galveston Railroad Museum, the 1 remained in view in 2025.