Class 201 / G-11 (Locobase 12648)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 25, p. 147. Works numbers were 21856-21857, 21872-21873, 21889 in March 1903; 21902, 21916, 21929, 22022-22023 in April 1903.

These Consolidations were ordered by the Cincinnati, Richmond & Muncie, but delivered to the renamed CC & L. At the time, this line had the shortest route between Chicago and Cincinnati at 284.5 miles. According to the Abandoned Railroads site ([], last accessed 30 May 2011), however, it also crossed every watershed between the two, ths qualifying as "a mountain railroad in Indiana".

The CC & L went into receivership in 1908 and was absorbed by the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1910.

The C & O renumbered the engines several times and operated for another two decades before scrapping them in January 1925 (1), 1929 (7), December 1930 (1), and November 1934 (1). 12649-12650 show later batches, each of which had fewer tubes than the one before.

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Class 211 / G-11 (Locobase 12649)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 31, p.148. Works numbers were 32509-32510 in December 1907, 32596, 32610-32611 in January 1908; 32676-32677 in February.

Locobase 12648 gives an overall view of this set of Consolidations, all of which were reclassed and renumbered in 1910 by the Chesapeake & Ohio. This batch of 7 had fewer boiler tubes than the 1903 engines, but were otherwise similar. All were scrapped in 1929 except for 1071, which in December 1930.

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Class 218 / G-11 (Locobase 12650)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 32, p.92. Works numbers were 33304-33307 in March 1909; 33334 in April.

The last of the CC & L Consolidations to come to the Straight Line (between Chicago and Cincinnati, in any case), this quintet had even fewer boiler tubes than the 1907 group described in Locobase 12649.

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Class C-1 (Locobase 11956)

Data from NdeM 1950 Locomotive Diagrams Standard Gauge supplied in December 2010 by Allen Stanley. Works numbers were 1983-1992 in August 1899. NB: The tender weights and fuel data come from the NdeM period.

After 17 years on the HV, the whole class was sold to the Nacional de Mexico. 765 was sold in 1919 to the Cia Maderara a la Sierra a Durango. 761, 763, 767, 769 were all retired by 1930, so only the remaining 5 were renumbered. These operated as class G-9 until 1956-1957.

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Class C-2 (Locobase 11957)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 22, p. 165. See also NdeM 1950 Locomotive Diagrams Standard Gauge supplied in December 2010 by Allen Stanley. Works numbers were 17295-17299 in December 1899; 17976-17980, 17997-17998.

This decade of Consolidations was produced in the same year as the C-1s from Pittsburgh (Locobase 11956) to the same specs. Only very small differences can be detected between the two orders.

In 1911, seven were sold to the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1911 and renumbered three different times.

Like all the C-1 class, four of these -- 213-215 and 218 -- went off to the Nacional de Mexico in 1916 where they were renumbered 750-753. In 1930, now designated G-10, 751-753 were renumbered 1044-1046. Note that oil-firing would be found only on the NdeM locomotives; the others continued to burn coal.

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Class C-4/C-7 (Locobase 7851)

Data from Hocking Valley 9-1924 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. C-4 works numbers were 3679-3686 in November 1900 and 3937-3941 in August 1901. C-7 works numbers were 26809-26818 in December 1902.

Like many of the HV's engines at the time, these Consolidations were equipped with square-shouldered Belpaire fireboxes. The 10 C7s produced in 1903 were identical to the 13 C4s of 1900 except for a slight increase in weight.

Except for the 226, which went to the Middle Creek Railroad in Hartland, WVa in 1924, the entire C-4 class had been retired by 1930. Renumbered 2, the ex-226 enjoyed as long a second career as it did its first. It was scrapped just after the end of World War II in November 1945.

Likewise, the 254 was the only engine of the C-7 batch not to be scrapped by May 1930. The 254 was sold to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Georgia Car & Locomotive, which found a buyer in the Greenville & Northern. Taking delivery in December 1927, the G&N assigned road number 5 to this locomotive and operated it for twenty-five years before scrapping it in 1952.

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Class C-5 (Locobase 11958)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 24, p. 195. See also NdeM 1950 Locomotive Diagrams Standard Gauge supplied in December 2010 by Allen Stanley. Works numbers were 20164-20165 in February 1902; 20189-20191 in March; 21177-21179 in October; 21193-21194 in November.

Continuing in the same vein as the previous batches of Consolidations, the HV bought this quintet two years later and made only minor changes to the design.

In 1916, the first four went directly to the Nacional de Mexico as their class G-11 and were numbered 755-758 and renumbered 1047-1050 by NdeM in 1930. 242 was sold in 1916 to the Cumberland & Manchester short line as their 54 only to be disposed of four years later to General Equipment, which sold 54 to the NdeM. The NdeM reunited the now-numbered 759 with its former stablemates; unlike the others it was disposed of by 1930.

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Class C-6 (Locobase 11960)

Data from DeGolyer, Volume 25, p. 49. See also NdeM 1950 Locomotive Diagrams Standard Gauge supplied in December 2010 by Allen Stanley. Works numbers were 21177-21179 in October; 21193-21194 in November.

Only a few months after completing the C-5s for the HV (Locobase 11958), Baldwin delivered another five with the slightest bit of difference in heating surface area. They were produced as half of a ten-locomotive order that saw the other five run on the Kanawha & Michigan; see Locobase 9841.

The latter machines had different second careers, however, from the first set. Three were sold to US shortlines in 1920. 245 and 247 were sold in March to the Marion & Eastern (as their #1) and Buffalo Creek & Gauley (as #3); 244 went to the Morristown & Eastern in Whippany, New Jersey in June and took #8. M & E 1 went with the railroad when it was absorbed by the Missouri Pacific; the MoPac put the engine in its own class C-55 and numbered it 550. The BC & G scrapped the 3 in 1930 and the M & E #8 retired in 1933 and was scrapped in 1935.

243 and 246 were scrapped before the HV was absorbed by the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1930.

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Class C-9 (Locobase 7853)

Data from Hocking Valley 9-1924 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 43678-43683 in June 1907; 43676, 43684-43685 in July.

Although based on the earlier Brooks Consolidations delivered to the HV (see Locobase 7851), this set featured a boiler with ten fewer tubes, a somewhat wider Loughridge Belpaire firebox that still sat between the frames, and radial valve gear operating 11" (279 mm) piston valves.

271-274 were relettered and renumbered for the Kanawha & Michigan as their 523-526. In 1924 they remained with Toledo & Ohio Central as their 9590-9593 and ultimately in 1936 on the T&OC's parent New York Central in class G-96c, road numbers 910-913.

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Class C10 - slide valve (Locobase 11246)

Data from Hocking Valley 9-1924 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also the article "From Ohio to Korea: C&O's wandering 2-8-0s" by Thomas W Dixon, Jr. in the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Magazine (Nov 1999), accessed on [] . Works numbers were 48154-48163 in August 1910.

After the C & O gained control of the HV in 1910, its preferred builder was the natural choice for the coal road's new Consolidations, says Dixon. And these were big 2-8-0s - big radial-stayed boiler and wide grate serving a relatively large amount of cylinder volume.

Locobase wondered why the piston valves in this first set of ten locomotives were so much smaller. His earlier note said that ten of the locomotives were delivered with slide valves and ten with piston valves.

These were rated at 4,800 tons up a 0.3% grade.

The lack of superheat was likely soon remedied; see Locobase 7846 for the superheated update.

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Class C10/C11/C12//G-3/G-4/G-5 (Locobase 7846)

Data from Hocking Valley 9-1924 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also the article "From Ohio to Korea: C&O's wandering 2-8-0s" by Thomas W Dixon, Jr. in the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Magazine (Nov 1999), accessed on [] . Works numbers for the Brooks-built 160-169 were 48282-48290 in August 1910. Richmond added ten more--49909-49918--in May 1911.

After the C&O gained control of the HV in 1910, its preferred builder was the natural choice for the coal road's new Consolidations, says Dixon. Locobase suggests that the first ten in the class used slide valve that they were soon fitted with Universal or Economy piston valves in the square steam chest. Such a retrofit suggests the reason that the C10/G-3 engines had smaller, 9" (229 mm) piston valves.

Right on the heels of the C10s were the Brooks Works' C11s. These were big 2-8-0s - big radial-stayed boiler and wide grate but now serving a relatively large amount of cylinder volume through 14" (356 mm) diameter piston valves designed to handle superheated steam. Only the superheat ratio was just average. Richmond delivered the last ten a year later.

Dixon tells of one C-12's unusual duty, for which it proved admirably suited: "Not surprisingly these locomotives stayed generally in their old HV haunts in central and southeastern Ohio through the rest of their lives. No. 701, however, was taken out of this service and sent to Clifton Forge, Virginia, in 1940, and it spent the next decade and more pulling the passenger trains operating on the Hot Springs branch from Covington to Hot Springs. The high tractive effort, short wheel base and ample boiler made this a logical decision for trains that consisted of two to six passenger cars and an occasional freight car, going up a 25-mile long branch with one tremendous 4.6% grade at its end." Locobase applauds how this description conjures up an image of a workmanlike locomotive straining against the pull of gravity.

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Class C13 / G-12 (Locobase 7854)

Data from Hocking Valley 9-1924 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The HV diagram notes that these Baldwins came on the HV in November 1917, more than 10 years after their original manufacture for the Cumberland & Pennsylvania (see Locobase 12647).

By the time the diagram was completed in 1924, the engines had been superheated as shown. The new distribution of tubes and flues, however, is not depicted. The HV was taken into the Chesapeake & Ohio. The C & O retired the class in August 1935 and scrapped them in December.

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Class G-3 (Locobase 16473)

Data from James Dredge, A Record of the Transportation Exhibits at the World's Columbian Exposition (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1894), p. 271, and Plate LXV). (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 13 January 2020 email and well-drafted spreadsheet, the latter noting the absence of this locomotive from Locobase and providing detailed data.) Works numbers were 2279-2284 in 1892, 2285-2293 in 1893. Exhibition locomotive works number was 2337.

Although the 350 was a specially fitted exhibition engine, it is likely to have been otherwise similar to the other fifteen Consolidations in the G-3 class. The design sits squarely in the middle of all the ranges for 2-8-0s in the late 80s-early 90s.

All of the class remained in service into the 1920s and all were gone by the end of 1925.

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Class G-5 (Locobase 12250)

Data from Railway Age and Northwestern Reporter, "Compound Consolidation Locomotives for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway", Volume XXI [21],No 12 (21 March 1896), p. 157; and Volume XXIV [24] (17 September 1897), p.764. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 19 April 2018 email that reported the more complete and earlier article, corrected tender capacity and driver diameter while supplying several datapoints that were mssing in the later,.shorter listing.) Works numbers were 2505-2506 in January 1896, 2507-2509 in February, 2612-2617 in June 1897, 2663-2670 in December, and 2672, 2671, 2673, and 2674 in January 1898.

RA's earlier report noted that these cross-compounds would operate on the Mountain Division between Clifton Forge and Charlottesville, VA. Detailing a later twelve-engine order due for delivery beginning October 1897, RA said that full-up engine weight had risen to 146,700 lb (66,542 kg). The March 1896 article includes a half-tone showing the engine's very large right-hand side cylinder and slide valve, a very tall steam dome over the third driving axle and just ahead of the firebox, and a clerestory in the cab's roof.

The firebox's direct heating surface area seems high in relation both to the grate and to the evaporative heating surface area. Further study shows that the grate still occupied a traditional location between the frame bars, which restricted its width. It's also described as shallow, which, given its area, meant a long throw for coal to the front corners.

Like most C&O locomotives, the class went through several renumberings. Even before the last set was delivered, 315-318 were renumbered 327-330 and 351-355 reduced to 346-350. So in 1898, the last eight led the class as 319-326, followed by the immediately preceding 327-330, then the June 1897 engines 340-345, and finally the first five, which now had the highest road numnbers. In 1915, the class was renumbered in the 237-259 range. All but four were renumbered in the 690-708 range.

259 (ex-355/350), 705 (ex-344/253), 690 (ex-319/237), and 695 (ex-324/242) were rebuilt to simple expansion engines with 21" x 24" cylinders. All the others retained their cross-compound setup untl they were sold for scrap beginning in late 1924; most left the roster in 1929.

247 (delivered as 317) was sold in December 1922 to the Coal River Coal Company. as one of three locomotives serving the company's collieries.

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Class G-6 (Locobase 3930)

Data from Railroad Gazette (16 March 1900). See also The Daily railway age, Volume 13, No 6 (21 June 1899), pp. 4; C&O 9 - 1936 Locomotive Diagrams supplied by Allen Stanley in May 2005 from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 2782 in March 1899, 2887-2895 in August, 2917-2926 in January 1900, 2927-2931 in February, 3076-3100 in December 1900-January 1901, 3189-3210 in July, and 3211-3213 in August.

A conventional Consolidation with clerestory cab and a relatively narrow, but deep firebox. Superintendent of Motive Power W S Moris [sic] shared his pleasure at the performance of this mountain-climbing design. At the time, G-5 2-8-0s were rated at 2,250 tons in service, a figure that these G-6s outstripped by 750 tons. Perhaps most telling was the observation that "[s]ince her [#351] trial trip the percentage of tonnage hauled has been increased by about 40% over the tonnage of the largest engines used [before]."

This was not an economical system for converting fuel to steam: 14,300 pounds of coal were burned and 12,208 gallons of water (7.11 pounds of water per pound of coal) were evaporated during the 83-mile run, which had a running time of 5 hours and 21 minutes and a total time of 7 hours 21 minutes.

This large class, which was delivered in batches of 25 in each of the three years from 1899-1901, carried on until the 1930s. In 1933, 42 were still in service, 35 remained in 1934, but only 11 in 1935.

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Class G-7 (Locobase 9103)

Data from C & O 9 - 1936 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 26, p. 150 and See also Philip Shuster, Eugene Huddleston, and Alvin Staufer; C&O Power (Alvin Staufer, 1965), pp. 42-43.

This was the largest single class of road engines to serve the C & O. Alco-Richmond produced the great bulk of the orders from 1903-1907. Considerably bigger than earlier C&O Consolidations, the design retained the inside link valve motion, but that gear drove 12" (305 mm) piston valves.

Baldwin added 25. In its 1902 order, the Philadelphia builder recorded the following counts and areas, which are quite different from the Richmond number. Baldwin builder planned 276 2" tubes with a calculated heating surface area of 2,880.4 sq ft (267.6 sq m). (A straight calcuation of tube heating surface area yields 2,904 sq ft.) A greater disparity appears in the firebox heating surface area, which is 112 sq ft (10.4 sq m) greater at 295 sq ft (27.41 sq m), even though the firebox dimensions are the same.

The C&O Power authors commented that the G-7s, "along with the G-9's [sic] that followed, were to become the bread and butter workhorses of the C&O and for nearly 10 years reigned supreme over the freight power stables ...They were known in every terminal and very few were the tracks that did not throb to their power."

As might be imagined, given their ubiquity and utility, the class fragmented into many variants over time. Those that were not superheated (see below) were nonetheless often reworked. Many lost seven boiler tubes and had a slightly smaller evaporative heating surface area of 2,969 sq ft (275.83 sq m). A more substantial makeover removed all of the 2" tubes and replaced them with 300 2 1/4" (57 mm) tubes encompassing a calculated heating surface area of 2,607 sq ft (242.2 sq m)--the Chessie measured the same area as 2,590 sq ft (240.6 sq m)--and a total evaporative heating surface are of 2,773 sq ft.(257.62 sq m). Most other distinctions related to particular tenders trailed by different locomotives.

Six--790, 828, 867, 876, 904, 946-- were retrofitted with Walschaert valve gear and designated G-7-A. Another nine--817, 837-838, 850-851, 872, 913, 926, and 947 were redesignated G-7-B when they were fitted with Baker valve gear.

In 1916, Pittsburgh added 6 more with superheaters and some of the earlier G-7s were brought up to this design; see Locobase 9106.

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Class G-7-S (Locobase 9106)

Data from C & O 9 - 1936 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also Philip Shuster, Eugene Huddleston, and Alvin Staufer; C&O Power (Alvin Staufer, 1965), pp. 42-43. Works numbers were 55657-55662 in February 1916.

C&O Power's authors explain that the 1916 sextet were the only G-7s (Locobase 9103) delivered with superheaters. In addition, Pittsburgh used Walschaert gear to operate their 12" (305 mm) piston valves. Firebox heating surface area included 26 sq ft (2.42 sq m) in four arch tubes.

From 1916 to 1923, the C&O rebuilt 35 more G-7s to this configuration and numbered the 41 as shown above. Variations among the rebuilds in particular required 11 pages of diagrams and tables to detail, but most of the differences related to tender capacities.

Unlike the saturated G-7s, almost all of which were withdrawn before World War II, all but four of the G-7-S engines survived until 1948.