Michigan Central / Mississippi Central 4-4-0 "American" Locomotives in the USA

Class 100 (Locobase 12807)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 28, p. 55. See also the Mississippi Rails website's entry on the MC at [], last accessed 2 July 2011. Baldwin works numbers were 25665 in May 1905; 26733, 26740 in October; 30353 in March 1907; and 31022-31023, 31037 in July.

See Locobase 12806 for a description of the Mississippi Central. This pair of Eight-wheelers had small grates for their size, but were serviceable enough to serve the MC until the early 1940s. 100 was scrapped in December 1942 and 102 followed in January 1943.

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Class 98 (Locobase 1314)

Data from builder's card archived at the Wilmington & Western, physically located in Marshallton, DE and on the web at []. Works number was 45921 in January 1909.

According to the Wilmington & Western, the 98 was one of five Americans to operate on the MC; 2 of the others (Baldwins) are shown in Locobase 12807. By this time, the major railroads had adopted larger locomotives for their main-line service, so most of the 4-4-0s still being purchased operated on local passenger or mixed-train service. Among these the 98 was a relatively big engine.

After providing passenger service for 35 years, the 98 was retired in 1944 and later sold to the Comite Southern Railroad, a 1,000-ft industrial spur in Tangipahoa, Louisiana. Paulsen Spence later famously assembled a collection of second-hand engines including the 98.

In 1960, Thomas Marshall bought the 98 to run on a retired branch line of the Baltimore & Ohio; he later donated the locomotive to the Wilmington & Western in 1977. The 98 has twice undergone major overhauls, the last in 1997-2004. The tourist line celebrated the engine's 100th birthday in 2009. As of 2011, according to the W & W, the 98 was "...the only standard-gauge 4-4-0 American in regular operation east of the Mississippi."

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Class Persian (Locobase 9506)

Data from "An Old Detroit Locomotive" Railway and Locomotive Engineering, May 1899, page 199. Works number was 12.

Wood-burner profiled many years after its service and more than 20 years after it had been scrapped. Sinclair speculated the locomotive was broken up in 1876 probably because of its crank axles. Among the construction details were of the "Sweet" truck, a closely spaced bogie made of boiler plate and suspended below the truck boxes.

He quotes an engineer who ran one of the class about its virtues: "They were smart as a steel trap; were built upon honor, could run like lightning, pull a full train up a hill, and they rarely ever broke down on the road." And eat coal from a teaspoon and wrestle grizzly bears, too, most likely.

Gene Connelly's roster suggests another history for the Persian. He records that it was rebuilt in 1877 with 18" x 24" cylinders and fitted with 57" drivers. Its new class was G9.