Lancaster & Chester 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class 40 (Locobase 16036)

Data from Excel spreadsheet created by Chris Hohl upon discovering that Locobase lacked this entry. See also Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 76, pp. 357+; and the new Hope & Ivyland Railroad website's history page at [] (last accessed 24 April 2015). (Many thanks to Chris Hohl for his 31 March 2015 email. ).Works number was 58824 in November 1924.

Although this Baldwin Consolidation design was sold to several companies (mostly for logging railroads), Meridian Lumber oil-burner of 1923 (Locobase 15210) was the closest match to the 40., right down to the grate area, boiler, valve gear, and 10" (254 mm) piston valves.

Unlike the Meridian engine, however, this locomotive used saturated steam, showing that several kinds of applications simply required sturdiness, a good supply of power, and reliability. The 40's longevity suggests that it met the criteria admirably. After 25 years on the L&C in South Carolina, it was sold to Cliffside Railroad, a 5-mile (8 km) road in North Carolina.

A dozen years later, the Cliffside retubed the 40, but bought diesels and sold the 40 to Steam Trains Inc, which operates the locomotive on its New Hope & Ivyland tourist road in Pennsylvania. The NH&I used the 40 off and on over the next 25 years before storing it as unserviceable. The Bucks County Railroad Preservation and Restoration Corporation's purchase of the road in 1990 led immediately to a joint effort of the NH&I and Strasburg Railroad to fully restore the 40, a job completed in June 1991.