Chicago & Northern Pacific 4-4-4 "Jubilee" Locomotives in the USA

Class 20 (Locobase 2913)

Data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899, pp. 218-219. See also "A Brooks Suburban Locomotive", Railroad Gazette, Volume 23 (11 September 1891), p. 629; "Double Ender Side Tank Suburban Locomotive -- Chicago & Northern Pacific Ry" Railway Master Mechanic, New Volume VI [6], No 9 (September 1891), pp. 134-135. (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 19 February 2024 email pointing to disparities between Brooks's own catalogue and articles in the techincal railway press, as noted below.) Works numbers were 1825-1826 in February 1891.

Odd arrangement and odd-looking engine. It had a high cab with windows all around, wagon top boiler sharply coned to a slender boiler. RG's September 1891 report said the engine had "the modern smooth finish and a taper stack and has a wooden pilot in the front and rear ...[T]he engine presents a handsome appearance, and the details are well designed." (NB: RG's description of the wheel arrangement works out to a 2-4-2T.) Notably, as Chris Hohl pointed out, both the RG and the RMM articles offered different values for several data points:

"I) All sources list the water capacity as 1,600 gallons [6,056 litres], not 1,120 [4,240 litres].

II) 2 sources list the fuel capacity as 2 6/10 tons coke, not 3 [2.722 kg]. I suspect that the Brooks catalog may have rounded that number up (as the others seem more exact).

III) All sources (excluding the Brooks catalog) show the boiler pressure was 180 psi, not 165 [11.38 bar]. In the Railway Master Mechanic (page 134), they calculate the tractive effort to be 13,286 lbs. That can only happen if the boiler pressure is 180 psi (not the 165 listed in the catalog)." (bracked metric conversions calculated by Locobase.)

The C&NP conducted commuter operations out of Chicago. The development of an electric railway and related commuter service in Chicago is a complicated story laid out by David J. Fiore in [] (viewed 5 August 2004)

For Locobase's purpose, suffice to say that the C&NP, whose commuter service dated back to 1881, leased that service to the newly created Suburban Railroad in 1896 and the C&NP reorganized as the Chicago Terminal Transfer in July 1897. Our pair of suburban tanks kept their C&NP numbers.

RMM's report commented on the "particularly neat appearance". They praised the design's frame splice forward of the front drivers ("a capital job"), the equalizing rigging between the drivers and the back truck (having the "merit of simplicity and looks efficient"), and the pedestal caps "or binders, by means of which no holes need be drilled in the frame itself."

On the other hand, the path from the cab to the front end, while of "minor importance" in suburban service with frequent stops, posed difficulties, "the stretch from the front of the tank to the steam chest casing top being an especially awkward one."

The two later operated on the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville (The Straight Line) in 1902, having been renumbered 25-26. The CC&L was built as an independent line running diagonally through Indiana and Ohio to Cincinnati (it never got to Louisville). It failed not long after its inauguration and the line was absorbed by the Chesapeake & Ohio in 1911. At that point, the C & O took #25 as 1008, while 26 was sold to J. Joseph Brothers in 1911.