Green Bay & Western 2-8-2 "Mikado" Locomotives in the USA

Class D-47 (Locobase 15)

Data from Builder's Card for #406 dated October 1939 and depicting Order No S-1815, found in the Green Bay Route website at [] . (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 21 November 2015 email pointing Locobase to the Green Bay & Western site and the builder's card, and his 2 February 2016 email noting the absence of a valve gear, which he reported correctly as Walschaert and for his 22 September 2017 email reporting unlikely boiler pressure values for 177 entries. A Locobase macro caused the error .) See also tables in 1947 Locomotive Cyclopedia.

A late Mike design with late-steam tube-to-flue ratio, but no change in the firebox that had 26 sq ft (2.42. sq m) of arch tubes included in the heating surface area. This was a subclass that followed the first three D-47s (Locobase 4950) by two years -- the earlier engines had a more conservative tube-flue arrangement.

All three of the 1939 batch arrived in October 1939 and each cost $91,667. Like the earlier trio, these engines could easily manage fast freights at speeds up to 65 mph (105 kph).

All three were retired in early March 1950.

Class D-47 (Locobase 4950)

Data from Alco builder's card dated January 1937 and showing order S-1762, road number 401-403.

Many years after creating his first GB&W D-47 entry (Locobase 15), Locobase's compiler discovered that there were really two sub-classes. According to the builder's information that accompanied the first group, the tube-flue ratios were old school -- lots of 2" tubes, several dozen 5 1/2" flues. But Locobase's 15, which was based on the 1947 Locomotive Cyclopedia entries, showed a "superpower" arrangement of many fewer 2" tubes, many more 3 1/2" flues. The latter's table, however, covered 404-406, which were delivered two years after the first three. The firebox was the same in all six and included 26 sq ft of arch tubes in its heating surface area.

These three, like the later three, served only until 1950, pulling freights at speeds of up to 65 mph (105 kph). Locobase doubts whether they were brought up to the later standard with a new boiler, but cannot say for sure.