Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 "Allegheny" Locomotives in the USA

Class H-8 - 1600 (Locobase 304)

Data above from Locomotive Cyclopedias 1947 and 1952, amended and corrected by C&O 4 -1947 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Many thanks to Barry Adico for his 30 September 2021 email commenting persuasively on the rear truck's bearings )

Built in several batches: 1600-1609 in 1941 (works numbers 7820-7823 in December 1941, 7824-7829 in January 1942), 1610-1619 in 1942 (works numbers 7883-7892 in September), and 1620-1644 in 1944 (works number 8613-8622 in July, 8799-8813 in October-November). (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 9 March 2022 email noting the two tenders used in this class.)

The 1948 locomotives--1645-1659--were copies of the Virginian's AGs (Locobase 421), which had less heating surface and were a bit lighter; see Locobase 11065.

Firebox had three syphons and arch tubes combining for 162 sq ft (15.05 sq m) of heating surface as well as a huge combustion chamber. Each cylinder was served by a 12" (305 mm) piston valve. A Worthington Type 6 1/2 SA feed water heater raised the temperature of incoming boiler water.

Locobase understood that all engine and tender axles turned inside Timken roller bearings. Barry Adico's question (and Wes Barris's hunting down a photo that homed in on the rear truck) led Locobase to examine the two C&O diagrams. Both showed the driving and front truck axles using Timkens and specified diameters only; the rear drivers in each engine set used 12 9/16" (319 mm) while the other four axles rolled in 12 1/8" (308 mm) . The specs for the rear truck's three axles used the standard friction bearing notation (diameter x length). The wheels in the front and center axles in the truck were smaller and had 7" x 14" (179 x 356 mm) bearings. The larger rear axle's wheels used 9" x 14" (229 x 356 mm) bearings.

H-8s could operate 11,500-ton coal trains at speeds up to 45 mph (72.5 km/h). Probably the heaviest twelve-axle locomotives ever built, with certainly the highest axle load ever put on rails. Average axle load was 84,650 lb (38,397 kg) and the first driving axle bore 86,700 lb (39,327 kg).

Chris Hohl noted that by 1947, all but three of the class trailed the 25-RB tenders with Buckeye trucks shown in the specs. 1607-1609 used a 25-RA that weighed 437,600 lb (198,492 kg) and used GSC trucks. Both variants had three axles under the front end, four axles under the rear.

C&O Power gives higher weight on drivers (507,900 lb for the first batch, 504,010 lb for the 1948 engines), and heavier engine weights (771,300 lb and 751,830 lb, respectively.) The answer is that Cyclopedia weights were as designed, which specified 471,000 lb on the drivers, 724,500 for the engine. C&O Power weights came from C&O drawings.

Bob Quehl (EMail:rquehl@adelphia.net) from Pittsburgh, PA offered considerable detail on the difference as well as other information ([] Feb 4 2000, 4:06) " In the December 1998 issue of Trains Magazine there is a very interesting article that suggests the first 10 H-8s delivered in December 1941 to January 1942 weighed actually weighed in the area of 775,330 lbs in "working order". This was just the engine weight including water in the boiler, 12,000 lbs of sand in the domes an a two man engine crew. This is interesting because the specifications for the order between the C&O and Lima called for a weight of 726,000 lbs."

Quehl implies that it was the Virginian's order of eight in 1945 that finally exposed the disparity. "One engineer at Lima gave the H-8's weight as high as 778,200 lbs. For the engine and tender combined weight I have seen several references in other sources around 1,200,000 lbs."

There are many (including Eugene Huddleston and Thomas Dixon, Jr in their book Allegheny: Lima's Finest) who contend that the C&O's Advisory Mechanical Committee contributed mightily to the problem. One example cited is four different changes to the design of the connecting rods, each of which made them heavier. According to Huddleston and Dixon, Lima later paid the C&O a $3 million penalty for missing the weight targets by so wide a margin.

But did the C&O get what it paid for, whatever the cost in weight? It appears so, although the coal traffic they served didn't require the Challenger-like 67" drivers and massive tenders that this class deployed. To cope with an adverse grade of about 0.6%, the C & O would marshal 100 loaded coal cars, place one H-8 at the front and one at the rear and put the whole thing in motion. Once the train crested the summit, the pusher would drop off and the front H-8 would manage the train by itself.

23 were equipped for passenger operation, but if they were so used, it was to pull troop trains.

Class H-8 - 1645 (Locobase 11065)

Data above from Locomotive Cyclopedia 1947, amended and corrected by C&O 4 -1947 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 16 April 2017 email reporting the greater water capacity of the last H-8 tender.) Works numbers were 9390-9323 in December 1948.

See Locobase 304 for comments on the serious weight miscalculation in the original H-8 design.

Locobase understood that all engine and tender axles turned inside Timken roller bearings. Barry Adico's question (and Wes Barris's hunting down a photo that homed in on the rear truck) led Locobase to examine the two C&O diagrams. Both showed the driving and front truck axles using Timkens and specified diameters only. The specs for the rear truck's three axles used the standard friction bearing notation (diameter x length). The wheels in the front and center axles in the truck were smaller and had 7" x 14" (179 x 356 mm) bearings. The larger rear axle's wheels used 9" x 14" (229 x 356 mm) bearings.

When adding to the stud, the C & O adopted the smaller design sold to the Virginian in 1945 (Locobase 421). The big change from the 1941 Alleghenies was a 21% cut in the number of flues for the Type E superheater, which was only partially offset by an increase in the 2 1/4" tubes of 10.

Firebox had three syphons and arch tubes combining for 162 sq ft (15.05 sq m) of heating surface as well as a huge combustion chamber. Could operate 11,500-ton coal trains at speeds up to 45 mph (72 kph).