Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 4-4-0 "American" Locomotives in the USA

Class 16 (Locobase 11816)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 11, p. 239. See also RF&P 1908 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. (Locomotive and tender weights from Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Richmond, Fredericksbug & Potomac Railroad Company, 24 November 1889 (Richmond: Dispatch Printing House, 1889) , p. 28. Works numbers were 7007-7008 in October 1883.

A pair of relatively small, relatively low-drivered Eight-wheelers gave good service to the RF & P. The 51 (ex-16) remained on the books until 1913, when it was sold to the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton as their #10 and ran another 7 years. The 14 left in 1905 for the Bellefonte Central, another Ohio road, and took number 8. The BC sold it in 1912.

Class 20 (Locobase 11589)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines, 1888, as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 15, p. 32. (Locomotive and tender weights from Fifty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Stockholders of the Richmond, Fredericksbug & Potomac Railroad Company, 24 November 1889 (Richmond: Dispatch Printing House, 1889) , p. 28. Works number was 9871 in March 1889.

This single Eight-wheeler gained some cylinder volume by extending its stroke 2" past the usual for a 17" cylinder. Only a few 4-4-0s would adopt a similar measure, most of the rest increasing the cylinder diameter an inch or more.