Central RR of New Jersey 4-4-0 "American" Locomotives in the USA

Class 162 (Locobase 11789)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 10, p. 217. See also "THE FASTEST AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE", English mechanics and the world of science, Volume 34, No. 878 (20 January 1882), p. 464. Works numbers were 5618, 5626 in May 1881.

This breathless article reported that the two engines (as well as six others with 18"-diameter cylinders - see Locobase 9638) were "...designed particularly for fast passenger service, and is considered by the builders to be their best design, combining more desirable features than any other style of locomotive ever built at their works."

Noting that in all outward appearance they were the very model of a modern American locomotive, the report highlighted "...some very important improvements. In order to supply steam to larger cylinders, a larger furnace, more heating surface, and greater boiler

capacity are required" The grate also was equipped with 2 1/4" diameter water tubes.

And here was the crux of the improvement. In ordinary locomotives, the boiler and fire sat inside the frames, which imposed limits on grate width (and thus area) as well as leading designers to skimp of the all-important water space to either side of the firebox wall. Raising the boilers to sit on top of the frames yielded more width for sure, but at the expense of a shallower firebox.

"To overcome these objections the new design has been adopted. Fresh coal is placed just within the door, and the jarring of the coal upon the inclined grates when the locomotive is running, feeds the coal ahead as fast as it is required to supply the fire. It is, therefore, highly necessary that the firebox be made deeper at the front part." This was accomplished by pitching the frames at an incline. Such inclined fireboxes were to be a feature particularly of French locomotives before too long.

Another design feature was the mounting of the boiler on the frame: "The boiler is strongly bolted to the cylinder-saddle, which is formed of two pieces, each cylinder being cast solid with the saddle, and bolted together at the centre. The back part of the boiler is strongly supported by four links, which allow a free expansion without springing the frame."

"The quickest mile ever run by this locomotive was in 45 seconds [80 mph]+timed between mile posts with a stop-watch." Not bad on 68" drivers that would be turning at 395 rpm.

162 was rebuilt in 1908 with six 63" drivers. 163 was scrapped August 1901 - Locobase does not know why.

Class 166 (Locobase 9675)

Data from Emory Edwards, Modern American Locomotive Engines, (Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird & Co, 1883), pp. 111 and Baldwin Locomotive Works, International Exhibition 1876, Exhibit of Locomotives by Burnham Parry Williams & Co (Philadelphia: J P Lippincott & Co, 1876), pp. 8-12. See also DeGolyer, Volume 7, p. 234. Works numbers were 3880-3881 in May 1876.

Cited by Emory Edwards as a standard American engine, this pair of 4-4-0s appeared at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Like the Lehigh Valley Consolidation shown at the same fair (Locobase 11179), these were anthracite burners. Unlike the Wootten-boilered camelbacks just then being developed, this pair had narrow fireboxes that were two-thirds again as long as the soft-coal fireboxes Baldwin used in boilers of similar size. They were also shallower by about 10" (254 mm).

The Exhibition catalogue shows these suppliers as having contributed to these locomotives:

Boiler and Fire-Box, Hussey, Wells & Co.'s Homogeneous Cast Steel [Pittsburgh, Pa];

Tires, Standard Steel Works' Crucible Cast Steel [Philadelphia, Pa];

Engine Truck-Wheels, Washburn's Steel-Tired Wheels [Worcester, Mass];

Tender-Wheels, Taylor Iron Works' Steel-Tired Wheels [High Bridge, NJ];

Flues, W. C. Allison & Sons' Lap-Welded Charcoal Iron Boiler-Tubes [Philadelphia, Pa] ;

Injector, Rue Manufacturing Co.'s "Little Giant" Injector [Philadelphia, Pa];

Steam-Gauge and Headlight. Buffalo Steam-Gauge and Lantern Co [Buffalo, NY].;

Brass and Copper Piping, Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co [Waterbury, Conn].;

Jacket Iron, W. D. Wood & Co.'s Patent Planished Sheet Iron [Pittsburgh, Pa];

Staybolts and Tank Iron, Catasauqua Manufacturing Co [Catasauqua, Pa].

Planishing was used to buff the boiler jacket and "close the pores". It was developed as an alternative to importing "Russian iron". (See Locobase 11179 for a description of this 19th century technique for protecting a boiler.)

768 was scrapped in March 1911; 767 followed 4 years later in March 1915.

Class 168 (Locobase 9638)

Data from T. Everett Austin, "Fast Passenger Locomotives," Proceedings of the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia (Vol. V, No. 2, August 1885), pp 97-99. See also DeGolyer, Volume 10, p. 241. Works numbers were 5660, 5666, 5671, 5675 in June 1881 and 6250-6251 in June 1881.

These Eight-wheelers were saluted in the journal as enhanced designs for more speed and power. They featured wider fireboxes with water tubes and corrugated sides. This pair had 18" cylinders - two others (5628, 5626 in May 1881) had 19" cylinders. See Locobase 11789 for the 19" cylinder locomotives for an extensive description of their firebox construction.

In the original Baldwin specifications entry, Locobase found that all six locomotives were ordered with 18" cylinders. Unlike other specifications pages in which some engines had significant detail differences, there's no evidence on page 241 of any such variations. One One possible source of confusion is the change in the road numbers inked on the page. As originally ordered (Baldwin class 8-30 C37-C40 and C45-C46), the number sequence ran 170-171, 168-169, 172-173. It was later changed to the sequence shown in our specifications.

Four other engines ordered on the same day would take road numbers 164-165, 174-175 and did indeed have 17" cylinders.) They had slightly shorter fireboxes of the same distinctive design, but possessing grate areas of 34.8 sq ft (3.25 sq m) and slightly less depth. Tubes had the same length and diameter as the 168s, but numbered 181. Works numbers were 5679, 5683 in June 1881 and 6223, 6224 in May 1882.

Several sources credit some of the engines with 17" cylinders, however. Al Weber's painstaking locomotive-by-locomotive archive shows 168-169 with 18" cylinders throughout their working lives. His entries for 170, 171, and 172 say they were delivered as 17" engines and later rebuilt in 1898 as camelbacks with new boilers, 69" drivers, and 18" cylinders. All were placed in class D4.

They went out of mainline service at the turn of the century and were scrapped over the next decade.

Class 21 (Locobase 12014)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 17, p. 181. Works number was 12435 in January 1892.

Originally ordered by Lehigh Coal & Navigation, this Eight-wheeled Vauclain compound camelback wound up on the CNJ. It was a loner in the CNJ stud and was comparatively underpowered as Vauclain compounds went, which may have been the main reason all but the boiler was scrapped in December 1901. The pressure vessel served as a stationary boiler at Mauch Chunk (later Jim Thorpe), Pa until 1942 .

Class 38/D3, D5 (Locobase 11882)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 13, p. 252. Works numbers were 8552-8553 in May 1887 and 8589-8590 in June.

This was the first of two small classes of passenger Eight-wheelers with 19"-diameter cylinders. See Locobase 11674 for the slightly larger version that came in 1888.

They were rebuilt as mixed-traffic engines with 63" drivers. 41 was converted first in April 1905; 39 was last in July 1911.

Class 385 (Locobase 6457)

Data from Reder (1974, pl 266); DeGolyer, Volume 17, p. 176; and from Taylor, Kenyon & Mathey, "Comparative Test ....", Stevens Indicator (Stevens Institute of Technology, Volume XII, #3 (July 1895), pp. 266-267. Works numbers were 12378 in December 1891; 12688, 12692-12693, 12699 in May 1892; and 13410 In May 1893.

450 - the last engine of this class of Vauclain compounds -- was put up against a conventional two-cylinder simple locomotive and showed reductions of 19.7% in coal use and 18.7% in water consumption. The illustration shows a classic high-stepping Eight-wheeler of the era. Compared to her simple-expansion sisters (Locobase 8410), 450 had a third less direct heating surface than they did. The consumption difference derived more from the much greater reduction in high-pressure cylinder volume.

Locobase wonders too about the higher evaporation rate per pound of coal - how does compounding contribute to that except perhaps by reducing the amount of required steam and allowing for more complete heat transfer from firebox and tubes to the water?

Each set of one HP and one LP cylinder was served by one 10 1/2" (267 mm) piston valve.

In any case, the CNJ converted this engine, now the 550, in 1906 to a 19"x 24" (483 x 610 mm) simple-expansion D7. The others in the class underwent a similar reconstruction, but were classed D8. In 1912, the 550 shed its 78" wheels for 69" (1,753 mm) drivers; by this time all of the others were rolling on 69" drivers as well.

The class was scrapped in the middle 1920s..

Class 451 (Locobase 8401)

Data from Taylor, Kenyon & Mathey, "Comparative Test ....", Stevens Indicator (Stevens Institute of Technology, Volume XII, #3 (July 1895), pp. 266-267; see also DeGolyer, Volume 18, p. 224. Works numbers were 13602-13604, 13616 in July 1893; 13629 in August.

This was the conventional class of simple-expansion Eight-wheelers that served as trial horses for the four-cylinder compound described in Locobase 6457.See the compound entry for the results. The Baldwin specs showed a firebox heating surface area measuring 166 sq ft (15.42 sq m), but this didn't include the ten 1/4" (6.25 mm) diameter water bars, each of which was 11 ft 1 in long (3.378 m).

Beginning in May 1907 with the now renumbered 545 (from 451), the CNJ reduced cylinder diameter by one inch and mounted 69" drivers on this quintet. The others-- now designated D7 -- suffered similar refits in April 1908 (548, ex-452), December 1908 (547, ex-454), April 1909 (546, ex-453),and June 1913 (549, ex-455). 547 was scrapped in November 1924 with 549 following in April 1927. The other three all went in 1929 (May , June, and September, in road number order).

Class D-9s (Locobase 5363)

Data from table in June 1906 AERJ. See also "Heavy Eight-Wheel Passenger Engine, Cen~ tral Railroad of New Jersey," Railway Master Mechanic, Vol XXX, # 2 (February 1906), pp. 60.

These camelbacks used the wide Wootten fireboxes to burn anthracite. According to Drury (1993), these were the heaviest Americans ever built. (He credits them with 173,600 lb, over 6 tons more than when built.) RRM explained the choice of an Eight-wheeler arrangement for this service: "The requirements of speed on grades and curves that could only be met by a high drawbar pull and a wheel base offering a minimum resistance, were the conditions responsible for the design."

The grades and curves were considerable in the 105-mile long division over which this class was intended to run. In a 67-mile segment, the rise was 1,394 feet in a continuous ascent that averaged 21 ft per mile (almost 1/2%) and spiked at 37 to 62 feet in one direction and 95 ft (almost 2%) in the other. Combine the hilly profile with 36 stops including 7 regular and 15 flag stops and it's not a surprise that the average speed remained at 30 mph. In such a service, tall drivers would have not just proved superfluous, but even counterproductive.

RRM added: "The engine, designed by Wm. Mclntosh, superintendent of motive power, and B. M. Flory, mechanical engineer, is strictly modern in all details of construction, to produce an enine that would do the work of a ten wheeler, which while able to haul the loads could not overcome the curve resistance as well nor be maintained at a figure possible in the type shown."

The last of their line (and the only class built after the turn of the century), the trio was retired in 1934.

Class D2 (Locobase 11674)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1888, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Vol 14, 154 and Vol 16, 38. Works numbers were

1888

June 9291, 9293

July 9366

1890

May 10883-10886, 10889

This design of conventional-cab Eight-wheelers all had the same dimensions when they came to the CNJ, but the 35-37 (by then renumbered 525-527) were rebuilt with 63" drivers and redesignated D3a.

Class Inspection engine (Locobase 12676)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works datacard as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 25, p. 263. See also "More Recent Baldwin Locomotives," Daily Railway Age, Volume XXXV, No 25a (24 June 1903), pp. 1062-1063. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 15 June 2019 email noting the 900's overall length.) Works number was 22132 in May 1903.

Like several other inspection engines, the 900 had a car body built by Wilmington, Delaware's Jackson & Sharp. Unlike many, the locomotive was built from scratch. Its boiler was set quite low to offer more room to the inspectors riding in the coach-like car body that straddled it. Tes Of the seven openings on each side, the five in the passenger section could be dropped into pockets; they served ten easy chairs altogether. Fixed windows between engineer and passengers and the two front windows in the carbody provided the engineer with an unobstructed view.

Anthracite coal burned in a long narrow grate reduced smoke. Its cylinder dimensions changed twice, first to 16"x 20", then to 15" x 20" (the latter in February 1920).