Chicago Great Western 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" Locomotives in the USA

Class 200A/E1 (Locobase 16498)

Data from CGW 7 - 1902 Locomotive diagram book supplied in August 2016 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 22, p. 67. Works numbers were 16576-16580 in March 1899.

Hearty mixed-traffic Ten-wheelers that consisted of two quintets. The first five were fitted with simple-expansion cylinders and appear here. (The second five were delivered as Vauclain four-cylinder compounds; see Locobase 8048.).

See Locobase 4162 for the final version of the combined E1 & E2 classes.

Class 300B/E3 (Locobase 9982)

Data from "Ten-Wheel Compound for Chicago Great Western," Locomotive Engineering, Vol XIII, No 8 (August 1900), p. 352. Works numbers were 3162-3171 in January 1900.

Brought into service as cross-compounds, these mixed-traffic Ten-wheelers may not have been satisfactory in a number of respects, or the traffic requirements didn't favor a neither-fish-nor-fowl design. .

Locobase supposes as much given that all were soon "simpled" with two 20" x 28" cylinders; see Locobase 8055.

Class E-3 (Locobase 8055)

Data from the CN to 1953 Locomotive diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

The Chicago Great Western took delivery of this class as cross-compounds in 1900 (Locobase 9982). Like most North American railroads, the CGW simpled the engines as shown here in February-December 1910.

As part of a general sell-off of many of its stud of Ten-wheelers, the CGW sold six to the Indianapolis & Evansville in 1910-1911 as their 600-605.

The other four remained on the roster until 1917 when they were bought by locomotive reseller General Equipment, who sold them to the Canadian Government in 1917 to run on the National Transcontinental Railways. These were never superheated and in the amalgamation of fleets that followed the formation of the CNR, they were instead retired in 1925.

Class E1 (Locobase 4162)

See [] for the original 1917 railroad diagrams.

Locobases 8054 and 16468 show the original set of ten engines (five simple, five compound) delivered in 1899. A later boiler revision deleted 19 tubes from the boiler, but added 24 sq ft (2.25 sq m) of arch tubes to the firebox heating surface area. All five of the original E-1s were set on 68" drivers, but the 204 was retrofitted with 63" drivers (as originally equipped) in 1911. At the same time, E-2 206 was given 68" drivers.

All ten locomotives were later sold through General Equipment Corporation to the Canaadian Transcontinental Railway in June 1917. See Locobase 8052

Class E4 (Locobase 4163)

Data from CGW 7 - 1902 and CGW 1904 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 3106-3111 in 1901.

Firebox heating surface given as delivered. The CGW later fitted them with 28.75 sq ft (2.65 sq m) of arch tubes.

Obviously, this design presented problems. All of the class later had their cylinders bushed to 19" and 172 and 174 saw further reductions in diameter to 18".

The entire class was scrapped in 1920-1921.

Class E5 (Locobase 10780)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works, Record of Recent Construction ((1903), No. 35, p. 182-183 and DeGolyer, Volume 24, p. 237. Works number was 20272.

This was the one Vauclain compound Ten-wheeler that the CGW bought with the Vanderbilt corrugated boiler. (See Locobase 4104 in particular for a description of this unusual vessel.) Each set of one HP and one LP cylinders was supplied steam through a common 13" (330 mm) piston valve.

Baldwin's specification required that this novel locomotive could haul a 975-ton trailing load at 10 mph (16 kph) up a 5-mile (8 km) long grade ascending at 1%.

220 would later be rebuilt as a simple-expansion engine with 20" x 28" cylinders. In November 1916, 220 was sold to the Algoma Eastern as their class T-1, road number 40. The AE scrapped 40 in 1927.

Class E6s (Locobase 4164)

See [] for the original 1917 railroad diagrams. See also "Locomotives for the Great Western RR", Railway Master Mechanic, Volume 34, No 4 (April 1910), pp. 84-86; and DeGolyer, Volume 24, pp. 117+. Works numbers were 34051, 34073 in November 1909.

Firebox heating surface includes 20 sq ft (1.86 sq m) of arch tubes. E6s 500-501 similar but had more weight on the drivers (151,200 lb/68,583 kg).

Baldwin's specs gave the cylinder diameters as 26" (660 mm) each and the RMM report confirms that dimension But by 1917, the cylinders had been bushed to 24" (610 mm), probably because the original factor of adhesion was too low and the locomotives were "slippery". They retained their 13" (330 mm) piston valves, but starting tractive effort was reduced to 33,800 lb (15,331 kg or 150.35 kN).

The April 1910 article includes a full description of the design of the Emerson superheater:

"In the Emerson type, the smoke-box headers approximate the usual steam pipes in form. Each header is divided into two compartments, one for saturated, and the other for superheated steam. The large boiler tubes which accommodate the superheater elements, are placed immediately back of their corresponding headers, instead of being grouped in the upper part of the boiler barrel, as is usually the case with firetube superheaters. In the engines now under notice, the headers are straight, and stand vertically."

In the accompanying cross-section of the boiler, one can see the two columns of large flues flanked by small tubes to their outside and inside.

Further up, "The superheated steam section of the header is centrally located between the two arms of the saturated steam section, the latter being divided at the top. At the lower end, the superheated steam sections are connected by a transverse equalizing pipe.

" The superheater elements are composed of steel tubes having an internal diameter of 1 inch. These tubes are expanded into the headers and are arranged with a double loop in each large boiler tube. The loops are connected by cast steel return bends. A plug is screwed into the front of the header opposite each tube opening. Application has been made for a patent covering this design of superheater."

The pair was scrapped in April 1930 and in 1931.

Class E7 (Locobase 4156)

Data from [] for the original 1917 railroad diagrams. See also DeGolyer, Volume 35, pp. 179+ (Thanks to Chris Hohl for his 27 July 2015 email flagging tender data from the Baldwin specifications books.) Works numbers were 35286-35288, 35327-35329 in September 1910.

Firebox heating surface includes 27 sq ft of arch tubes; the original superheater was a low-superheat Vauclain smokebox design. Piston valves measured 13"(330 mm) in diameter. The first two were heavier than the last four for some reason; they put 162,000 lb on the drivers and 216,200 lb on all engine axles.

All were superheated with Schmidt firetube superheaters in 1913-1914 and in 1917-1920, the railroad fitted bushings in the cylinders to improve the heating surface-to-cylinder volume ratio. See Locobase 4165.

Class E7s (Locobase 4165)

Data from CGW 1917 and CGW 1 - 1943 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

Baldwin's saturated-boiler original of this class is shown in Locobase 4156.

In the 1913-1914 update, the firebox heating surface included 22 sq ft of arch tubes and featured 193 2" tubes. The 1925 modification saw the tube count climb to 202, arch tube area dropped to 22 sq ft, and total evaporative heating surface area grew to 2,457 sq ft. Weight on the drivers climbed to 162,000 lb and total engine weight rose to 216,200 lb. The 1917 diagram shows a grate area of 46.7 sq ft, but the firebox is the same as the original and that was measured at 53.6 sq ft.

All of the class was scrapped in March-June 1950.

Class L/200B/E2 (Locobase 8054)

Data from CGW 7 - 1902 Locomotive diagram book supplied in August 2016 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 22, p. 66. Works numbers were 16636-16640.(Vauclain compound) in April 1899.

Hearty mixed-traffic Ten-wheelers that consisted of two quintets. The first five were fitted with simple-expansion 20" x 28" (508 x 711 mm) cylinders; these appear in Locobase 16498.

The second fiveduplicated the 200As except for the installation of a four cylinder Vauclain compound system. Each 13" (330 mm) piston valve served a set of one HP and one LP in a single casting. Weights shown are for the compounds; the simples put 117,800 lb (53,433 kg) on the drivers and had engine weights of 157,550 lb (71,464 kg).

(NB: The Baldwin spec showed 281 tubes and 173 sq ft (17.65 sq m) of firebox heating surface area, but Locobase goes with only slightly later railroad diagram as definitive of the delivered engines.)

This mirror-imaging was common as railroads tried out compounding against an identical main-line design. Like most such engines, the five compounds were rebuilt by the CGW as simple-expansion engines in 1908-1909. See Locobase 4162 for the final version of the E2