Class H-1 (Locobase 9341)

Data from CStPM&O 4 - 1900 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 16, p. 37. Works numbers were 10875 produced in May 1890, 12328 in October 1891, and 13484 in June 1893.

The Omaha Road didn't operate all that many Consolidations and this trio was supplied as singles over a three year period. The specifications differ slightly from those drawn up by Baldwin in January 1890, but only in tube count (271 in 1890) and driver diameter (50").

They were big for their time and had the large-diameter firetubes Baldwin often used for this kind of engine.

Class H-2 (Locobase 9342)

Data from CStPM&O 4 - 1900 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Baldwin supplied the class in two pairs: 16264-16265 in October 1898 and 18732-18733 in March 1901.

Locobase is surprised that a late-90s locomotive will still have a boiler pressure of only 160 psi. But the diagram hints at the service use of this quartet. The slope-back tender suggests a switching role.

NB: Page 270 of Volume 21 in the DeGolyer Library's digitizedRail Data Exchange of Baldwin specifications is covered by a blank sheet in the image. Thus the original spec for this quartet was not available to Locobase.

Class H-3 (Locobase 11462)

Data from "Locomotive Building," The Railroad Gazette, Vol XXXVIII, No 2 (13 January 1905), p 13. Works numbers were 30474-30475 in July 1905.

These Consolidations are described in the RG report as "transfer locomotives". That is, they moved freight cars from one terminal to another to allow them to continue the journe y on another line.

Locobase can't resist including the long list of equipment suppliers to a pair of relatively small 2-8-0s:

Westinghouse-AmerIcan air-brakes

Gollmar bell ringers

Franklin sectional asbestos boiler lagging

Diamond brake-beams

Perfecto brake-shoes

Chicago couplers

Westinghouse friction draft gear

Adams & Westlake headlights

Monitor injectors

Ajax Journal bearings

Jerome piston and valve rod packings

Ashton muffled safety valves

Leach sanding devices

Nathan sight-feed lubricators

Scott Spring Co.'s springs

Ashton steam gages

McLaughlin's flexible steam heat equipment

Latrobe driving wheel and tender wheel tires

American Locomotive Co.'s wheel centers.

Class Z (Locobase 8951)

Data from 1927 C & NW Description of Locomotives books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also "Simple 4-6-2 and 2-8-0 for the Chicago & North Western", Railway and Locomotive Engineering, February 1910, pp. 76-77; and DeGolyer, Volume 35, pp. 148+. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 24 April 2015 email reporting the Baldwin batch's tender capacity and loaded weight as well as their valve gear.)

Baldwin and Schenectady turned out the class over a four-year period from 1909-1913, with Schenectady introducing the Zulus in 1909, Baldwin supplied 25 in August-September 1910, and Schenectady producing all of the rest in 1910-1913.

Schenectady's works numbers were 46607-46646 in November 1909, 47845-47870 in August 1910, 49035-49061 in December, 49062-49084 in January 1911, 50494 in May, 50495-50497 in November, 50498-50512 in December, 50489-50893 in May 1912, 53047-53050 in May 1913, 53051-53091 in June.

Baldwin's works numbers were 34991, 35015-35022, 35060-35065, 35101-35106, 35144-35145 in August 1910; 35223-35224 in September.

Drury (1993) characterizes these "Zulus" as "good-sized Consolidations" and notes that some came with Baker, others with Walschaert valve gear.. The 1927 diagram book shows that all of the 1909-1912 engines (201) came with Walschaert gear that was to be arranged to "cut off equally at all points of the stroke." . The last 45 Schenectadies delivered in 1913 were equipped with Baker gear. All used relatively capacious 14" (356 mm) piston valves with 6" (152 mm) travel to supply the steam. These were hand-bombed when delivered with neither coal pushers nor automatic stokers.

It's apparent that they also demonstrate the North Western's penchant for standardizing on a single class. Firebox heating surface included 30.1 sq ft (2.8 sq m) of arch tubes.

All were superheated in the 1920s; see Locobase 4368.

Class Z - superheated (Locobase 4368)

Data from 1927 C & NW Description of Locomotives books supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Thanks to Justin May for his 2 May 2020 email supplying the road numbers, builder's numbers, and NdeM road numbers of the five locomotives sold to the Seaboard Air Line.) The original, saturated-boiler variant is shown in Locobase 8951.

Superheating this large class of Consolidations didn't lead to a standardization of valve gear; Some still came with Baker, others with Walschaerts valve gear. Otherwise, the tack taken was typical of such upgrades: Sacrificing 190 small tubes in favor of 36 larger flues to hold the superheater, although it was a bit unusual in those early days of superheater conversion to increase boiler pressure.

Tenders for very few of the class were ever fitted with coal-pushers and only a handful received automatic stokers. The rest were hand-fed for their entire careers except for the 12 converted to oil burning.

At the end of their careers, 31 engines--1458, 1461, 1466, 1468-1469, 1486-1487, 1702 (the only Baldwin), 1729, 1746, 1759, 1764, 1781-1782, 1784, 2789-1790, 1799, 1820, 1831, 1848, 1853, 1860, 1866, 1872, 1874, 1881, 1883, 1888, 1897, 1898-- were sold in 1942 to the Nacional de Mexico and grouped in clase GR-43. Their road numbers were 1550-1581 and most of the class operated into the early 1960s.

Five more--1744, 1787, 1806, 1843, 1859--were sold to the Seaboard Air Line as their class H-2 and carried road numbers 933-937. They were all scrapped in January-March 1949.