Pittsburg & Shawmut 4-4-2 "Atlantic" Locomotives in the USA

Class E-1s (Locobase 16386)

Data from Amerlcan Locomotive Company builder's card for Order No B-1527 for June 1920. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his December 2018 emails noting this pair of engines and for the data card that supplied the details.) Works numbers were 61954-61955 in June 1920.

In many respects, this order for a western Pennsylvania coal road repeated that of the five Atlantics built by Schenectady for the Ann Arbor in 1907. The grate areas matched, all of the power dimensions were identical, and the wheelbases matched to the inch.

Two big differences: This pair came from Alco's Brooks Works in Dunkirk, New York and the boiler was superheated to a satisfactory degree. The tubes and flues were 6" (152 mm) shorter in the P&S engines and the firebox seems smaller too, even with 16 sq ft (1.49 sq m) of arch tubes. They also put 8,000 lb (3,629 kg) more on the drivers.

They were the last new engines purchased for the Brookville-based Shawmut line. Although relatively low-drivered for Atlantics, these engines were not really suitable for other than passenger work on the short, 88.1-mile (142 km) main line between Brockway and Freeport. When the P&S changed its passenger service in the 1930s to a gasoline coach known as the Hootelbug, the E-1s lost their jobs.

Although relatively young and low in mileage, both were scrapped in November 1938.