Queen Anne's Railroad 4-4-0 "American" Locomotives in the USA

Class 2 (Locobase 12476)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 21, p. 1 and Volume 23, p. 223. Works numbers were 15273 in April 1897, 15437 in July, 16736 in May 1899, and 18883 in April 1901.

The Queen Anne's route took it across the Delmarva Peninsula from Love Point on Chesapeake Bay across from Annapolis to Lewes, Del on the Delaware Bay. Incorporated in 1895, it would be combined with two shipping lines in February 1905, at which point the 60-mile (97 km) line would form the Maryland Delaware & Virginia Railroad, which was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

These four Eight-wheelers constituted four-fifths of the QA's motive power roster and were the only locomotives bought new for the railroad. The specs for the first three contained a noting apparently reflecting the belated discovery of just how low the factor of adhesion had turned out to be. From road number 4 and 5, they advised in a 28 November 1898 note: "Increase weight on driving wheels by adding heavy foot plate and increase gauge cock height one inch." (Repositioning or resetting the latter raised the minimum water held in the boiler.)

The spec for road number 5, drafted 27 September 1900, admonished severely" "Give particular attention to workmanship and materials. Company complains that cab was of very poor materials on 8 28 C 876 [road number 4].

Sometime after 1911, the 2 & 3 were sold to the Baltimore, Chesapeake & Atlantic, which rebuilt the boilers and renumbered the engines 29-30. The BC&A later sold the 29 to locomotive rebuilder/reseller Georgia Car & Locomotive. The trail of the 30 goes cold at that point, but records show that the GC&L found a buyer for the 29 in August 1939 in the Georgia, Southwestern & Gulf. This engine's travels weren't done; in July 1942, it moved not too far to the Albany & Northern, but kept its road number.

The MD&V sold the 4 to another well-known rebuilder/reseller, Southern Iron & Equipment, in 1915. SI&E quickly turned the engine around and sold it to the Mickey Dougherty Lumber Company of Pearson, Georgia.

Much of the railroad was abandoned in the 1920s, which is probably why the 5 was sold to another line in June 1924 (possibly the Baltimore & Eastern). The eastern 50 miles between Denton, Md and Lewes were reorganized as the Maryland & Delaware Coast Railway, but that line ended passenger service in October 1931. The last segment to operate was a freight line between Ellendale and Milton.