Class 40 (Locobase 7295)

See data from EJ&E 11 - 1938 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange and DeGolyer, Volume 17, p. 223 and Volume 18, p. 117. (Thanks to Steve Low for his 2 May 2018 email reporting a consistently incorrect use of the word "Mogul" to identify these 2-8-0s.) Works numbers were 12503-12505, 12509 in February 1892; 13554-13555 in June 1893; 14384 in August 1895; 14486 in October 1895; and 14774-14775 in March 1896. See [] for the history of the EJ&E and its constituents.

The first few engines of this class of Consolidations had 215 tubes in the boiler. A note in the Baldwin specs directs the builder to omit eight tubes in the top [cads?] beginning with Baldwin #1459, works number 14384, road number 46. Another note dated 20 August 1895 says that the "grates were entirely reconstructed."

The railroad to which these freighters were originally sold was part of an assembly of terminal and transfer roads associated with Illinois Steel Indeed its name survived as the lessor of four other lines: Illinois-based Chicago & Kenosha Railway Co, the Chicago & Southeastern Railway Co, and the Joliet & Blue Island Railway Co as well as Wisconsin-based Milwaukee, Bay View & Chicago Railroad.

Two years later the C&BL and all of the leased roads were rolled into a new corporate entity - the Chicago, Lake Shore & Eastern, which included new track of its own. At the time of their order in late 1895, the last two engines' tenders were lettered for the CLS&ES. In 1896, the class received their 540-series numbers. The CLS&ES owned the locomotives and the numbers remained in that series until 1909 when the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern leased the railroad. (They wouldn't formally merge until 1938.) At that time, these 2-6-0s were renumbered 500-508.

Small as they were, the engines wouldn't remain in EJ&E service for long. Most were sold in the mid-teens to dealers like J T Gardner. 503 went on to the Ann Arbor as their 140. 504-505 and 509 were operated by the Nacional de Mexico as Class G-36a and G-36 (2090-2091) respectively until they were scrapped in June 1925 and December 1923.

Class 510 (Locobase 10791)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 19, p. 152. Works numbers were 14096-14097, 14205 in January 1895 and 14942 in July 1895.

Identical to the two Calumet locomotives described in Locobase 7870, this quartet had quiet careers in which they served the EJ & E for 30 years before being scrapped. The figure given for the heating surface area in the EJ&E diagram describes a locomotive with 2" tubes, but the areas seem clearly to refer to a boiler with 2 1/4" tubes.

Class 518 (Locobase 7871)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 24, p. 177. Works numbers were 20069-20071 and 20100-20106 in February 1902. (See Locobase 10793 for essentially identical locomotives from Richmond Locomotive Works.)

The tender was lettered with the EJ&E's nickname--Chicago Outer Belt Line and, when delivered, carried 5,000 US gallons of water (18,925 litres) and 10 tons (9.1 tonnes) of coal. Middle-sized mainline Consolidations in 1902, the class served the EJ&E for about 20 years before being sold or scrapped in 1924-1926.

Six of the class were scrapped. The other four (518, 520, 523, and 527) were sold to the Chicago Attica & Southern in November 1924. The CA & S was the reincarnation of the Chicago & Indiana Coal Railway (which was sold off by a bankrupt Chicago & Eastern Illinois in 1913) that was organized in 1922 to serve western Indiana. 523 and 527 were scrapped in 1929, but apparently 518 and 520 lasted on the Dolly Varden Line until its closure in 1946.

Class 553/A (Locobase 12683)

See data from EJ&E 11 - 1938 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange and DeGolyer, Volume 25, p. 287. For roster information, see "The EJ&E Photo Archive" database, specifically the roster pages [] (accessed 23 Feb 2006, 5 June 2011).

This quartet constituted the first Consolidations on the CLS&E with 22"-diameter cylinders. Firebox heating surface shown in the specs includes 24 sq ft (2.23 sq m) of arch tubes.

They were followed a year later by similar-size order from Alco's Pittsburgh Works of engines with shorter tubes; see Locobase 12684

All of these were rebuilt to 0-8-0s in 1929 and scrapped in 1941-1945.

Class 557/A-1 (Locobase 12684)

See data from EJ&E 11 - 1938 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. For roster information, see "The EJ&E Photo Archive" database, specifically the roster pages [] (accessed 23 Feb 2006, 5 June 2011). Works numbers were 30047-30050 in September 1904.

After Baldwin delivered the four A class Consolidations (Locobase 12683), the CLS&E turned to Pittsburgh for four more engines with the same power dimensions, but 18" (457 mm) shorter tubes. In later years the firebox heating surface included 28 sq ft (2.60 sq m) of arch tubes, which is reflected in the specification value.

The shorter tubes probably were not satisfactory, because the next, much bigger order for Consolidations also came from Pittsburgh (Locobase 7297) reverted to the 15 1/2-foot tubes of the original Baldwins.

All of these were rebuilt to 0-8-0s in 1929 and scrapped in 1941-1945.

Class A-2 - saturated (Locobase 7297)

See data from EJ&E 11 - 1938 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. For roster information, see "The EJ&E Photo Archive" database, specifically the roster pages [] (accessed 23 Feb 2006, 5 June 2011). 37521-37526 in August 1905; 42080-42083 in April 1907; 43049 in July; 44408-44415 in August 1907; 47753-47758 in June 1910; 48372-48386, 48575-48584 in August.

Four of this large class of Consolidations (road numbers 568-571) went straight to the EJ&E in 1905; their works numbers were:38006-38009 in August. Once the CLS&E was leased by the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern in 1909, all A-2s took number 549-602.

Class A-2 - superheated (Locobase 7296)

See data from EJ&E 11 - 1938 Locomotive Diagrams and EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

Beginning in 1918, the EJ&E's shops installed superheaters in more than half the class of A-2s shown in Locobase 7297. Each engine gave up 160 of its 372 small tubes (43%) to make room for 30 flues holding superheater elements. The 1918 diagram showed locomotives 574, 583-584, 588, 590, 598, 601 as engine so treated.

The result was a pretty potent set of low-drivered 2-8-0s. Even so, all of the A-2s were converted to 0-8-0s, most of them in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Class B (Locobase 10793)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also "Richmond Locomotives for the Chicago Outer Belt", Railway Age, Volume 29 (18 May 1900), p. 508. Works numbers were 2896-2897 in 1899.

Richmond didn't supply many locomotives to the EJ&E. This pair of Consolidations were only slightly different from the Baldwins delivered at around the same time (Locobase 7871) and they had about the same lifetime.

517 was scrapped in September 1925 and 516 followed almost four years later in June 1929.

Class B-2 (Locobase 7872)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 42075-42079 in April 1907 and 43050-43054 in uly.

These were very similar to the Baldwins the EJ & E had purchased a year or two earlier (see Locobase 7871). But the boiler held more, smaller-diameter tubes which resulted in a higher total evaporative heating surface area.

Like many of the earlier EJ & E 2-8-0s, these were converted to 0-8-0 switchers in 1925 and 1929. For some reason, the class leader 528 wasn't rebuilt until March 1939.

Class C - new boiler (Locobase 16203)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The original locomotive pair delivered in 1898 (see Locobase 10792) had a boiler with fewer tubes of 2 1/4" (57 mm) . Its firebox measured 125 7/8" x 41" (3,198 mm x 1,041 mm) long x wide and was 67 1/2" (1,715 mm) at the front and 64 1/4" (1,632 mm) at the back.

The new boiler featured smaller-diameter tubes in enough number to increase its tube heating surface area by 109 sq ft (10.13 sq m). A new firebox was 5" (127 mm) shorter, 1/2" (12.7 mm) deeper at the front, and 3/4" (19 mm) deeper at the back.

515 was scrapped in November 1924, 514 in May 1926.

Class C - original (Locobase 10792)

See data from EJ&E 1924 Locomotive Data supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 21, p. 224; and "Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Baldwin Consolidated Engine," Locomotive Engineering, Volume 12, No. 2 (February 1899), p. 100. Works numbers were 16099-16100 in July 1898.

This pair inched closer to the definitive Consolidation design for the EJ & E. Compared to the earlier 2-8-0, the engines had 1"-larger cylinders, but retained the 26" stroke. LE's report described the 52 as "a very powerful and well designed heavy locomotive without any peculiarities which enginemen denominate as frills."

A 2 September 1898 letter from the Chicago Outer Belt Line's R H Soute stated that the "engineer's brake valves was awkwardly placed. They were on a fore-and-aft line just back of boiler head. They ought to have been located with the centerline crosswise of the engineer."

Later in its career, the railroad replaced the boiler with a vessel carrying more tubes of smaller diameter and a shorter firebox; see Locobase 16203.