Seaboard Air Line 2-8-2 "Mikado" Locomotives in the USA

In 1900, the Seaboard Air Line Railway was incorporated and started through service from New York to Tampa, Florida with trains operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York to Washington, D.C.; by the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond; and by the Seaboard from Richmond to Tampa, an arrangement that lasted until the creation of Amtrak in 1971.

In 1904, Seaboard subsidiary Atlanta and Birmingham Air Line Railway, purchased the previous year, completed construction and extended the Atlanta route to Birmingham, Alabama, the largest center of iron and steel production in the South, and a valuable endpoint for the Seaboard which had grown to a 2600 mile system. In 1926, an extension from the main line at Coleman, Florida, to West Palm Beach and Miami was completed.

The best known SAL train was an all sleeper car train carrying tourists from New York City down to resorts in Florida known as the "Orange Blossom Special". The train originated in 1925, and was immortalized in an extremely famous fiddle tune of the same name. Other Florida trains were the Silver Meteor and the Silver Star.

The first "Mikado" type locomotives on the Seaboard Air Lines arrived in 1914. There were nineteen delivered from the American Locomotive Company which were designated as Class Q and assigned road numbers 300 through 318. These locomotives had 63" drivers, 27" x 30" cylinders, a 185 psi boiler pressure and they exerted 54,588 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 282,000 pounds. The firebox was 247 square feet, the evaporative heating surface was 3,537 square feet and with the superheater the combined heating surface was 4,295 square feet. .The Class Q locomotives were hand-fired and were delivered with Vanderbilt tenders.

In 1918, ten "Mikado-Light" locomotives were allocated by the USRA to the SAL. They were designated as Class Q-1 and given road numbers 390 through 399 and were renumbered 490 through 499 in 1925 to make room for more ALCO-built 2-8-2s. These locomotives had 63" drivers, 27" x 30" cylinders, a 200 psi boiler pressure and they exerted 54,725 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 292,000 pounds. The firebox was 280 square feet, the evaporative heating surface was 3,783 square feet and with the superheater the combined heating surface was 4,665 square feet.

In 1922, ALCO delivered fifteen of what would be designated as Class Q-2 locomotives. The "Mikados" were very similar to the Q-1 and were assigned road numbers 319-333. These locomotives had 63" drivers, 27" x 30" cylinders, a 185 psi boiler pressure and they exerted 54,588 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 284,800 pounds. The firebox was 247 square feet, the evaporative heating surface was 3,537 square feet and with the superheater the combined heating surface was 4,295 square feet. .

The next group of 2-8-2s arrived in 1923, and this group of twenty-three locomotives was assigned road numbers 334 through 356 and designated as Class Q-3. The Class Q-3s had 63" drivers, 26" x 30" cylinders, a 200 psi boiler pressure and they exerted 54,724 pounds of tractive effort and each weighed 300,000 pounds. The firebox was 291 square feet, the evaporative heating surface was 3,786 square feet and with the superheater the combined heating surface was 4,668 square feet. .They were equipped with a Delta trailing truck booster, which raised the tractive effort to 65,200 pounds. In the following three years the SAL took delivery of ninety-four more Class Q-3s. ALCO built twenty with road numbers 377 through 396 and seventy-four were built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works with road numbers 357 through 376 and 397 through 450.

There was one more Class Q-3 on the SAL. In August 1930 number 441's boiler exploded and the locomotive was severely damaged. A new boiler was built and the locomotive was rebuilt in the Portsmouth Shops in 1931. The SAL renumbered the rebuilt locomotive 451.

Eight more "Mikados" were added to the roster in 1942. The SAL acquired ALCO-built ex Wabash numbers 2414 and 2415 and Baldwin-built ex Wabash numbers 2424, 2427, 2434, 2436, 2439 and 2440.

There are no surviving Seaboard Air Line Railroad 2-8-2 "Mikado" type locomotives.