Texas Central 2-8-0 "Consolidation" Locomotives in the USA

Class 115 (Locobase 10772)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works, Record of Recent Construction ((1903), No. 31, p. 20-21. See also DeGolyer, Volume 24, p. 17. Works numbers were 19274-19275 in July 1901and 19793-19794 in November. For the history of the TC, see [] . The Texas Central was an independent railroad until it was taken over by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas in 1910. Nicknamed by the railroad the Lone Star Line or the Great Daylight Route, the "Tin Can", as it was also known, was first incorporated as the Texas Central Railway and built between Ross Station near Waco and Albany, 177 miles distant. In 1882-1884, the company also laid tracks between Garrett and Roberts, which lay some miles to the Northeast; this line operated independently.

After a reorganization, new managements took over the renamed Texas Central Railroad in 1892 and built more trackage from Albany and Stamford in 1900 (extended to Rotan in 1907) made the final link to Waco from Ross in 1905, and added a 40-mile branch line from De Leon to Cross Plains in 1910. By this time, a healthy traffic in goobers led to an additioanl nickname: The Peanut Line. At one point, the railroad's herald resembled the badge of the Texas Rangers.

Motive power included this quartet of modestly scaled Consolidations fitted with cylinders of dimensions not usually found in 2-8-0s. Baldwin cited the class's minimum curve radius as a relatively tight 260 feet. When the Katy actually leased the line in 1914, these engines were designated Class G, renumbered 676-679, and operated for another ten years before being sold for scrap.