Dunnellon Phosphate Company 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" Locomotives in the USA

Class 7 (Locobase 13205)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 31, p. 78. See also Richard E Prince, Seaboard Air Line Railway: steam boats, locomotives, and history (Indiana University Press, 1969), p. 121, and "Phosphate Mining," The American Fertilizer, Volume 36 (6 April 1912), pp. 46-50. Baldwin works numbers were 32173 and 32220 in November 1907 and 37692 in April 1912.

Surface-mining hard-rock phosphate deposits in Florida led to the incorporation of the Dunnellon Phosphate Company. They bought up the Standard & Hernando, which had built 13 miles from Hernando to Rockwell Junction, and extended the line to Port Inglis; all track weight 56 lb/yard (28 kg/metre). According to Prince, this gave them a port that they developed as a phosphate exporter.

As the decade wore on, mileage increased to 28 miles and traffic included some fruit movement and some saw-mill output. The Seaboard created the Florida Central & Gulf in 1916 to run the S & H trackage. It was abandoned in 1931.

The first two Ten-wheelers in this class came to Dunnellon at a time when such Ten-wheelers were typical light freight engines in the South. Both stayed with this line until it was closed in 1931. 9 arrived 5 years later and apparently was one engine too many so it was sold to the Tavares & Gulf as their 106 in 1919. After a short stint with the T & G, 106 was claimed by locomotive rebuilder/reseller Southern Iron & Equipment. In November 1921, Grand Prairie Gravel bought the 106.