W G Mitchell Lumber Company 2-6-2 "Prairie" Locomotives in the USA

Class 6 (Locobase 14951)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Vol 65, p. 192+. Works number was 54783 in May 1921.

Baldwin's 45-ton logging Prairie had saturated boilers measuring just under 1,000 sq ft (92.9 sq m) in heating surface area with grate areas of between 13.7 and 14.1 sq ft (1.3 sq m, approximately). By the time this shortleaf lumberer (headquartered in the west central Alabama town of Shortleaf bought its engine, the design was well established. WGMLC's railway profile included 18-degree curves (radii of 210 ft/64 m) and challenging 4% grades.

East Alabama Lumber, which was established about 140 miles (225 km) east near Tuskegee in east central Alabama in 1925, bought the 6 from Mitchell in 1927. The EALC was serious about exploiting timber stands northeast of the town and built 25 miles (42.5 km) miles of railway from Chehaw to Society Hill.

Still numbered 6 a decade later, the locomotive then served the Alabama & Western Florida, a 1926 reorganization of the 19.25 miles run by the Birmingham, Columbus, & St. Andrews between Chipley and Greenhead, Fla.