Caspar, South Fork & Eastern 2-6-6-2 "Mallet Mogul" Locomotives in the USA

Class Samson (Locobase 4050)

Data from [] and DeGolyer, Volume 73, pp. 241+. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 1 October 2021 email noting the correct wheelbases.) Works number was 56789 in July 1923.

This was a younger sister of the Trojan (Locobase 4049) with a higher-pressure superheated boiler and LP cylinders 1" (25.4 mm) larger in diameter. HP cylinders used 8" (203 mm) piston valves, LP cylinders were served by 10" (254 mm) diameter valves. The side tanks were moved 4" (102 mm) farther forward of the low-pressure cylinders than on the earlier Trojan, realizing a commensurate increase in wheelbase. The front truck was required to offer "ample clearance" on curves of up to 32 degrees.

An insight to the Samson's operating conditions appears in supplemental note 58: "Crosshead link must not project below lowest point of low pressure cylinder in order that valve motion will not strike object such as logs [tht] might fall on right-of-way."

Samson had a similar career to the CSF&E's #5, serving the Californian logging road until 1945. It too was scrapped in 1958.

Class Trojan (Locobase 4049)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 34, p.305. See also [] . See also "Logging Railroads in Mendocino County, California", Railroad Gazette, Volume XIX [19] (21 January 1887), p. 48. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 1 October 2021 email noting the correct wheelbases.) Works number was 34875 in June 1910.

The CSF & E was a logging road that was opened in Mendocino County in California in 1874 and became the CSF & E in 1903. Soon after its opening, Caspar's superintendent C H De Camp wrote the Railroad Gazette reporting that total mileage had reached eight standard gauge miles (12.9 km) over which two locomotives and 20 cars as a logging road from woods to mill. "It was a very hard road to build", Camp observed, "and has 29 degree curves." The longest trestle spanned 680 ft (207.3 m) and cleared the river by 142 ft.(43.3 m).

Of perhaps greater interest was the timber the railway hauled. The trees were 10-15 ft (3.05-4.57 m) in diameter, "and very heavy, the butt cuts weighing 7 to 8 lbs (34.23-39.08 kg/sq m) to the square foot. Fully one-quarter of all the logs hauled will sink in water."

This small Mallet--the smallest to operate in American service--operated for 35 years on a road that had maximum grades of 6%, curves with radii as tight as 30 degrees, and rails weighing between 35-40 lb/yard (17.5-20 kg/metre). It was delivered in pieces and reassembled on the road. Soon after its delivery, a note dated 12/22/1911 said that Engineer Sissler had written in two letters (1/8 and 1/13) that he had bored out the HP cylinders from their original 13" diameter to the 13 17/32" shown in Locobase's specs and that the valve lap had been reduced from 7/8" to 13/16".

A strike in December 1945 closed the railroad and the sawmill. The sawmill reopened but the railroad was abandoned. After this enforced retirement in 1945, the Trojan languished until it was scrapped in 1958.