2-8-0 "Consolidation" Steam Locomotives in the USA

Class 20 (Locobase 16652)

Data from Alco specs and from Jonathon Van Aken, whose 6 October 2023 email suppllied copies of the orginal Alco specs as well as extensive details on the 22's career.) Works numbers were 40686-40687 in December 1906.

According to Van Aken's notes, the WI&M's William Deary consulted Northern Pacific's superintendent David Van Alstyne concerning just what kind of Consolidation should he order. "Evidence points," Van Aken goes on, "to both early locomotives being at least based on NP designs ...[20-21] prototype was NP's' Y-5 class (Locobase 10573). He adds that Baldwin supplied the specifications, which puzzled Locobase as NP's Consolidations came mostly from Schenectady and these came from the premier Paterson, NJ works.

Neither engine lacked defects. Two 3" (76.2 mm) engine and tender hoses were cut 7" (178 mm) too short. (Any amount of "short" in this case would have been too short.). "20's left side counterbalance spring bracket was broken, and the throttle was disconnected in the steam dome". Alco and the WI&M settled on a refund for the latter error when the railroad forwent (forego's past tense?) 60 cents of its estimated $3.60 cost in labor (12 hours at 30 cts/hour--no wonder labor organizers were proving increasingly persuasive.) Alco rebuffed the railroad's complaint that #21, saying the tarnish "was caused by snow and getting wet." (Van Aken comments " you don't say .")

Once on the road, however, the pair served the railroad for decades. Shops converted both to oil-burning in 1912 using "Nisqually-Russel oil burners and around the same time equipped with Bellhouse flange lubricators and Franklin driving box lubricators." Later, 21 also received superheaters, but 20 did not. It was scrapped in 1951. 20 remained on the books until 1957.

Class 22 (Locobase 16651)

Data from Alco specs and Jonathon Van Aken for his 6 October 2023 email supplying copies of the orginal Alco specs as well as extensive details on the 22's career.) Works number was 47980 in June 1910.

Van Aken describes this 2-8-0 as a "maverick ...a strange adaptation" of the earlier 20-21 design (Locobase 16652), which in turn derived from the Northern Pacific Y-5 Consolidation (Locobase 10573). The plan to fit the 22 with Walschaert's outside radial constant-lead valve gear, which would have cost the railroad an additional $150 to install. Deary later changed his mind and stuck with inside link motion. Van Aken wondered "if this [using Walschaert's gear] would have led to the locomotive staying in service longer." Its boiler and firebox was so long that it extended back into the cab "so the engineer and fireman could not see each other from their seats."

To its immense dismay, the WM&I found out that Alco's Richmond Works were not equal to the recently closed Rogers Works. Van Aken supplied Locobase with two letters, one from the railroad's master mechanic and another from the management that together alleged a startling level of poor-quality materials as well as shoddy and sloppy fit and finish.

The master mechanic cited many examples. The misaligned inside link motion was "square in her valves" when the reverse lever was set in the corners, "but when hooked up she is very lame", a performance "noticed by all who see her work.". There were "blow holes at joints and gaskets", difficulty keeping tight the nuts on steam chest studs (which weren't "taped straight"), the steam chest cover was "f\ull of pin holes", various pins and jaws were made of metal that was "too soft".

Then there were the baffling failures to follow through. The 22's air sanders "cannot be used, no connection in sand dome for air with sand." One set of driving brasses didn't have the grooves necessary to supply grease to the journals, nuts were threaded too large for the boiler check. Richmond didn't use the specified system of main rod adjustments. . And a cardinal defect: "Water will pass with steam through her throttle into the cylinder causing unnecessary supply of fuel and water."

No wonder Master Mechanic Witt finished his letter with: "From the foregoing you can see that the engine is not what we contracted for."

Management took the discontent to a higher level. "We are very much disappointed in this engine and the repairing that we have had to do to it has caused u s a great deal of inconvenience. We will ask you to take immediate steps to put the engine in good shape in the near future, as we need it working in A-1 condition very badly at this time."

Then the writer added: "I have instructed our Accounting Department not to make any further remittances until this engine is put in shape."

Perhaps Alco jumped in and fixed everything. In the event, the WM&I used the 22 for the next 29 years. According to Van Aken, the WM&Isold it to the US Army in 1939, who used it to support construction of the Fort Peck Dam and duty on the Fort Clairborne Polk Military Railroad.