Carolina & Northwestern / Cisco & Northeastern 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" Locomotives in the USA


Class Details by Steve Llanso of Sweat House Media

Class 206 (Locobase 13943)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 47, p. 270. Works numbers were 39557-39558 in April 1913.

Passenger engines in the Appalachians did not, for the most part, use tall drivers. The grades were simply too steep and the type of traffic much more disposed to local travel. So this pair of low-drivered Ten-wheelers fit right in. They lasted a long time before the 206 was wrecked in Clover, SC in 1946 and scrapped and the 207 withdrawn in 1947 when the Southern dieselized this section.


Class 31 (Locobase 14669)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 65, pp 70. See also "In the Texas Oil Fields," Earth Mover, Vol 6, No 12 (February 1920), pp. 5-9, and "Once World's Most Prosperous Railway, Cisco and Northeastern Being Dismantled", Abilene [Tex], Abilene Reporter-News, Saturday, 7 April 1951, archived at [link] . Works number was 54140 in November 1920.

In 1919, exploitation of the Texas oil patch 100 miles west of Fort Worth had oil derricks rising like "forests at Ranger, Eastland, Caddo, Pleasant Grove, Wichita Falls, and other proven districts," said the Earth Mover account. Land that didn't command even as much as $3/acre now was the subject of speculation that was "in the very air."

One immediate result was that railroads were bogged down with traffic "until weeks are required to move a car of freight a hundred miles." A group of investors combined to build a railroad 70 miles (113 km) from Cisco northeast to Graham in Young County. M A Wogan's Denver-based construction company won that contract, said Earth Mover, noting that such work surely was needed, "if only to relieve the wagon roads of the enormous volume of trucking, which tears them to pieces until they often are impassable."

The Oil Belt Line advanced 15 miles in the first year and would completed the 28 miles to Breckenridge by October 1920. By that time, Baldwin had received an order for this relatively small, if superheated, oil-fired Ten-wheeler. It had 9 1/2" (241 mm) piston valves to serve the cylinders.

The boom persisted for a few years, such that, said the railway's obituary in the Abilene Reporter-News, "it was the most prosperous railway line per mile in the world." The Texas & Pacific bought control in 1927, although the C&NE maintained its independence and extended its line another 37 miles (60 km) to Throckmorton in 1928. But the bloom faded with the Great Depression and the construction of motor roads "until its operations [sic] was a cost more than income."

Although the C&NE closed in 1942, taking up the rails didn't begin until 1951. Estimates of the salvage included 300 carloads of steel and 500 carloads of crossties. The 31 took part in this work, moving the salvage train south as the track was pulled up behind. After the last bit of track was taken up in Cisco, the 31 went to the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri.

Principal Dimensions by Steve Llanso of Middle Run Media
Class20631
Locobase ID13943 14669
RailroadCarolina & NorthwesternCisco & Northeastern
CountryUSAUSA
Whyte4-6-04-6-0
Number in Class21
Road Numbers206-20731
GaugeStdStd
Number Built21
BuilderBaldwinBaldwin
Year19131920
Valve GearWalschaertWalschaert
Locomotive Length and Weight
Driver Wheelbase (ft / m)11.33 / 3.4511.33 / 3.45
Engine Wheelbase (ft / m)21.83 / 6.6522.17 / 6.76
Ratio of driving wheelbase to overall engine wheelbase 0.52 0.51
Overall Wheelbase (engine & tender) (ft / m)51.42 / 15.6749.04 / 14.95
Axle Loading (Maximum Weight per Axle) (lbs / kg)
Weight on Drivers (lbs / kg)101,000 / 45,81398,000 / 44,452
Engine Weight (lbs / kg)130,000 / 58,967126,000 / 57,153
Tender Loaded Weight (lbs / kg)100,000 / 45,359109,500 / 49,668
Total Engine and Tender Weight (lbs / kg)230,000 / 104,326235,500 / 106,821
Tender Water Capacity (gals / ML)5000 / 18.945000 / 18.94
Tender Fuel Capacity (oil/coal) (gals/tons / Liters/MT)8 / 72400 / 9084
Minimum weight of rail (calculated) (lb/yd / kg/m)56 / 2854 / 27
Geometry Relating to Tractive Effort
Driver Diameter (in / mm)56 / 142257 / 1448
Boiler Pressure (psi / kPa)180 / 1240185 / 1280
High Pressure Cylinders (dia x stroke) (in / mm)19" x 26" / 483x66018" x 26" / 457x660
Tractive Effort (lbs / kg)25,644 / 11631.9423,240 / 10541.50
Factor of Adhesion (Weight on Drivers/Tractive Effort) 3.94 4.22
Heating Ability
Tubes (number - dia) (in / mm)268 - 2" / 51241 - 2" / 51
Flues (number - dia) (in / mm)21 - 5.375" / 137
Flue/Tube length (ft / m)12.85 / 3.9213.08 / 3.99
Firebox Area (sq ft / m2)157 / 14.59152 / 14.12
Grate Area (sq ft / m2)25 / 2.3228 / 2.60
Evaporative Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1949 / 181.072181 / 202.70
Superheating Surface (sq ft / m2)306 / 28.44
Combined Heating Surface (sq ft / m2)1949 / 181.072487 / 231.14
Evaporative Heating Surface/Cylinder Volume228.49284.73
Computations Relating to Power Output (More Information)
Robert LeMassena's Power Computation45005180
Same as above plus superheater percentage45005802
Same as above but substitute firebox area for grate area28,26031,494
Power L1538513,067
Power MT352.63881.87

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