Detroit, Toledo & Ironton 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class 100 (Locobase 7864)

Data from DT&I 7-1955 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also William C Pletz, "The Railroad That Went No Place (but eventually made it)", Ann Arbor Train & Trolley Watchers, 1979 as hosted on the Michigan Railroads site at [].

Pletz's account goes into detail about the origins of the DT & I and is a worthy read. (The maps help). When the DT & I was formed out of several mostly bankrupt railroads, the it built new shops at Jackson, Michigan and laid 85 lb/yard (42.5 kg/metre) rail. It also went to Brooks for new power and took delivery of this set of 18 Consolidations.

NB: Superheater area is estimated based on similar installations for which the area is given.

Class 200 (Locobase 5433)

Data from table in January 1917 issue of RME; and DT&I . Works numbers were 55847-55848 in 1916.

A sturdy Consolidation with a relatively big grate for a bituminous coal burner and a sizable superheater fraction as well. The 200s exerted a high tractive effort for a 2-8-0, the steam for which flowed through generously proportioned 14" (356 mm) piston valves. RME's 1917 table showed the 200-201 as rolling on 52" (1,321 mm) drivers; By 1930, the DT&I sacrificed some tractive effort potential for higher average speeds when it replaced those with the 57" wheels shown in the specs.

The 200 was scrapped in October 1954.

Class 88 (Locobase 6925)

Data from WAB 1 - 1917 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also George H Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing, 1915), p 167. Works numbers were 38023-38052 in August 1905

Apparently one of the first purchases by the newly created DT&I was this sizable batch of 30 mid-sized Consolidations. But as the new railroad consisted of of the bankrupt Detroit Southern (itself a composite of the Detroit Lima, and Northern; the Ohio Southern; and the Iron Railway), its resources proved insufficient to pay and they defaulted on payments for the class in April 1909.

Four never left the rails, however. The DT&I paid to keep the 103, 106, 108-109, renumbered them 88-91 in 1910, and operated them until discarding them in 1929-1936. Three travelled to the Tennessee Railroad in the 1930s. ex-103 went to the Okmulgee Northern in eastern Oklahoma as their 48.

Seventeen of the defaulted engines went to the Wabash as their I2 class bearing road numbers 2150-2166; five to the Chicago, Milwaukee and Gary as road 5-9; and two each to the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic as class F-2 606-607; and the 61-mile 98 km) New Iberia & Northern 1-2 in Louisiana..

Roster compiler Al Weber suggested the NI&N never actually ran this pair as they were more likely sent north to work in parent territory as St Louis-San Francisco as New Orleans, Texas and Mexico 850-851.