Norfolk & Western 4-4-2 "Atlantic" Locomotives in the USA

Class J (Locobase 4093)

Taken from a table in Paul T Warner's article on Atlantics in the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin #62 (1943, p 20), with additional information from "Atlantic Type Locomotive for the Norfolk & Western", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXV [35], No 6 (6 February 1903), p. 98.

Angus Sinclair (ed), Railway and Locomotive Engineering, March 1903, p. 134; N&W 12 - 1929 supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange; and DeGolyer, Volumes 25, p. 140 and 26, p. 270. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 10 December 2016 email pointing out the updated valve gear and his 18 March 2017 email noting the original coal capacity.) Works numbers were 22178, 22180, 22254, 22292 in May 1903; 22309, 22367 in June; and 23922 in March 1904.

This was a relatively small Atlantic designed by Mechanical Engineer J A Pilcher under the direction of Superintendent of Motive Power W H Lewis that was delivered to the N&W in small numbers. Equalization was continuous along all five axles; adhesion weight could be adjusted by shifting the position of a spring that bore a casting that spanned the frame under the firebox.

The engines were delivered with 9 1/2" (241 mm) piston valves. Chris Hohl noticed in a 1917 photograph that the N&W replaced the original inside valve gear with the outside radial Baker-Pilliod gear. By that time weight on the drivers came to 85,390 lb (38,732 kg) while the engine's allup weight was reckoned as 167,700 lb (76,068 kg). Max axle loading weighed in at 43,370 lb (19,672 kg) and rested on the leading set of drivers.

Chris Hohl pointed out the original coal capacity in the Baldwin specs, which Locobase found hard to credit as it seemed so low. But the specs do indeed give the coal capacity as 10,000 lb (5 tons) or 4,534 kg. Given that the Railroad Gazette article in February 1903 gave the capacity as 10 tons, the lower figure is likely an error.

See excerpt from article reproduced on [] (4 April 2004). The N&W J is used as an example of the gains made when the builder put a trailing axle under the boiler.

But for the N&W, the 4-4-2 layout was a bad fit and these were the only engines of that arrangement they bought or built. None was superheated and all had been retired by 1926.