The Florida East Coast Railway only bought one order of the "Mikado" type locomotives. This was a group of fifteen built by the American Locomotive Company in 1925. These locomotives were given road numbers 701 through 715 and they had 63" diameter drivers, 27" x 30" cylinders, a 190 psi boiler pressure, they exerted 59,800 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 325,000 pounds. The firebox was 318 square feet, the evaporative heating surface was 3,783 square feet and with the superheater the combined heating surface was 4,776 square feet.
There are no surviving FEC 2-8-2 "Mikado" type locomotives.
| Qty. | Road Numbers | Year Built | Builder | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 701-715 | 1925 | ALCO | 1 |
Data from FEC 1926 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection; and George Drury, North American Steam Locomotives-revised ed (Waukesha, WI: Kalmbach Publishing, 2015), pp. 177-178. (Many thanks to Steve Low for 2 August 2016 pointing out the clear inaccuracy in the original comments to this entry. He correctly noted that the data he saw was more like that of the USRA Light Mikado. Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 1 October 2021 email correcting the valve gear.). Works numbers were 66355-66369 in September 1925.
These were the only pure freight locomotives to operate on the Florida East Coast, according to George Drury. Like many Mikados built for US railroads in the 1920s, this design borrowed heavily from the United States Railroad Administration's 1918 series of standard locomotives' (See Locobases 40-41 for the USRA Light Mikado and Heavy Mikado, respectively.) But, again like most such orders, "standard" was a suggestion usually countermanded by local preference or even operating requirements. So Alco-Schenectady's batch were "Light-Heavy" Mikados that used the 26"x 30" cylinders and smaller grate of the Light (although it had slightly more area), but adopted the larger superheater. In addition, the original coal-burning firebox was modified as an oil-burner. Changes included the deletion of a combustion chamber and arch tubes in favor of 60 sq ft (5.57 sq m) of thermic syphons and the tubes and flues were shortened by 12" (305 mm). The 14" (356 mm) piston valves were the same as both USRA Mikados, but the FEC engines replaced the Walschaert valve gear with Baker-Pilliod assemblies.. The specifications show the original tender. The later tender carried more water (12,000 US gallons/45,420 litres) and oil (5,000 gallons/18,925 litres); empty weight rose to 120,500 lb (54,658 kg) and loaded weight climbed to 255,900 lb (116,074 kg). The 704 was scrapped in December 1954 with all but two of the remainder going in January 1955 and 702 and 709 in February.
Principal Dimensions by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media | |
|---|---|
| Class | 701 |
| Locobase ID | 1349 |
| Railroad | Florida East Coast |
| Country | USA |
| Whyte | 2-8-2 |
| Number in Class | 15 |
| Road Numbers | 701-715 |
| Gauge | Std |
| Number Built | 15 |
| Builder | Alco-Schenectady |
| Year | 1925 |
| Valve Gear | Baker |
| Locomotive Length and Weight | |
| Driver Wheelbase (ft / m) | 16.75 / 5.11 |
| Engine Wheelbase (ft / m) | 36.92 / 11.25 |
| Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheelbase | 0.45 |
| Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender) (ft / m) | 71.71 / 21.86 |
| Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle) (lbs / kg) | 57,200 / 25,946 |
| Weight on Drivers (lbs / kg) | 221,500 / 100,471 |
| Engine Weight (lbs / kg) | 296,000 / 134,264 |
| Tender Loaded Weight (lbs / kg) | 201,700 / 91,490 |
| Total Engine and Tender Weight (lbs / kg) | 497,700 / 225,754 |
| Tender Water Capacity (gals / ML) | 10,000 / 37.88 |
| Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal) (gals/tons / Liters/MT) | 4000 / 15,140 |
| Minimum weight of rail (calculated) (lb/yd / kg/m) | 92 / 46 |
| Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort | |
| Driver Diameter (in / mm) | 63 / 1600 |
| Boiler Pressure (psi / kPa) | 200 / 13.80 |
| High Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm) | 27" x 32" / 686x813 |
| Tractive Effort (lbs / kg) | 62,949 / 28553.22 |
| Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort) | 3.52 |
| Heating Ability | |
| Tubes (number - dia) (in / mm) | 190 - 2.25" / 57 |
| Flues (number - dia) (in / mm) | 45 - 5.5" / 140 |
| Flue/Tube length (ft / m) | 18 / 5.49 |
| Firebox Area (sq ft / m2) | 313 / 29.08 |
| Grate Area (sq ft / m2) | 67.30 / 6.25 |
| Evaporative Heating Surface (sq ft / m2) | 3494 / 324.72 |
| Superheating Surface (sq ft / m2) | 1052 / 97.77 |
| Combined Heating Surface (sq ft / m2) | 4546 / 422.49 |
| Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume | 164.73 |
| Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information) | |
| Robert LeMassena's Power Computation | 13,460 |
| Same as above plus superheater percentage | 16,556 |
| Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area | 76,998 |
| Power L1 | 14,383 |
| Power MT | 572.62 |
