Class 10/E-13 (Locobase 12220)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 20, p. 210 Works number was 15059 in September 1896.

Modest wood-burning Ten-wheeler with a long wheelbase for such small drivers. It was a younger, and identical, sister to the Nelson & Fort Shepard #8 (Locobase 8842) except for a 10 psi increase in working boiler pressure, but was assigned to the SF&N.

The SF&N was absorbed by the Great Northern in 1905 and the 8 and 10 were grouped together in class E-13a. In 1934, the GN sold the 949 to the Waterville Railway, which operated it for 13 more years before scrapping it in May 1947.

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Class 11/E-12 (Locobase 8841)

Data from GN 1916 and GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 20, p. 263. See Locobase 7460 for a short history of the SF & N. Works numbers were 15248-15249 in March 1897.

A year after the second of the class that would later be designated E-13 arrived on the SP & N (Locobase 8842), this pair repeated the design, but with two signficant changes. The 1897 pair were coal burners and the working boiler pressure rose to 180 psi (12.4 bar).

The Great Northern formally bought the SF&N in July 1907 and placed these two in their own class with road numbers 970-971.. A small disagreement between the two diagram books illustrates the occasional difficulty encountered in compiling Locobase. Both describe the same boiler - identical numbers of tubes of identical diameters and measuring exactly the same length. In 1916, that equated to 1,570.80 sq ft of tube heating surface; in 1929, the total came to 1,584.5 sq ft as in the original specs.

970 was sold for scrap in September 1932; 970's retirement came more than seven years later in February 1940

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Class 203 (Locobase 14070)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 45, p. 175. See also Georgia Rails description at [] . Works number was 41218 in March 1914.

The Nacoochee Valley Route linked Gainesville with Cleveland beginning in 1913. When extended to Robertstown, the total distance came to 35 miles, all in White County. Railga notes that the G & NW essentially existed for the lumber mills at Helen and Robertstown while meeting the needs of towns like Cleveland and Clermont with twice-a-day trains taking 2 hours 15 minutes to cover the distance.

Robertstown faded after the lumber was gone in the 1920s followed by Helen. Ten-wheeler 203 was sold to locomotive rebuilder/recycler Southern Iron & Equipment in 1925 and SI & E almost immediately passed it along to the Tampa & Jacksonville as their 71. That road was reorganized as the Jacksonville, Gainesville & Gulf in July 1927.

By 1934, the rest of the road had fallen quiet.

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Class 600 (Locobase 16168)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 18, p. 12. Works numbers were 12779-12780.

These Vauclain compounds were typical of the Baldwin four-cylinder design. Like most of the engines being delivered at the time, each set of HP and LP cylinders was supplied steam through one 10 1/2" (277 mm) piston valve.

Also like almost all North American compounds that were not Mallets, they didn't remain compounds for long. Both were simpled in the late 1890s; see Locobase 8840.

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Class 8 /E-13 (Locobase 8842)

Data from GN 1916 and GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 18, p. 250. Works number was 13807 in October 1893.

Sporting a bulky firebox topped by the steam dome as part of an extended wagon-top boiler, this freight Ten-wheelers came from Baldwin. The firebox was deep and dropped between the last two driving axles, but its modest grate area limited the amount of heat the system could generate.

After a stint in British Columbia, #8 went to the Spokane Falls & Northern and later to the Great Northern in 1907 as 948 in class E-13, which it shared with its sister (Locobase 12220). The GN's diagram shows tubes shortened by 2 1/2" from the original specs and a commensurate drop in evaporative heating surface area to 1,702 sq ft (158.12 sq m) and a firebox heating surface area reduced to 142.77 sq ft (13.26 sq m). (The 10 appears wiith its original dimensions in the GN books.)

It remained with the GN until its scrapping in January 1947.

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Class E-1 (Locobase 8869)

Data from GN 1916 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

These two W & SF locomotives were relatively small for the time in terms of their boilers and grates and the firebox area was only slightly larger. They rode lightly on their drivers, too.

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Class E-10 (Locobase 2970)

Data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899. See also "The Year in Locomotive Construction", Daily Railway Age (14 June 1899), pp. 9-16, esp. p.11; and "Ten-wheel Passenger Engines--Great Northern Railway", Locomotive Engineering, Volume XI, No 11 (November 1898), p.496-497.

Builder info from B.Rumary, 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND and Jeremy Lambert as supplied by Allen Stanley in March 2004. Works numbers were 2954-2961 in May 1898.

Burly passenger engine for mountain working. Fitted with a large "Improved Belpaire" boiler and long, narrow firebox with 24 sq ft (2.23 sq m) of arch pipes. Comparison with another Brooks Brooks product from just five years earlier (Locobase 2978) is striking: the later machine is significantly bigger in all dimensions, so much so that even with the larger cylinders, the boiler is more than capable of supplying steam.

The DRA reported that these Ten-wheelers were "...designed and built in accordance with the ideas of Mr. James J. Hill", the GN's fabled president. Cylinder proportions were singled out as being "...unusual in ordinary practice. They are also provided with an improved form of piston valve." LE claimed they were "believed to be the heaviest passenger engines in the world."

Like most other GN engines, these had John Player's version of Belpaire fireboxes. According to DRA, they were unusually deep for fireboxes carried above the frame. The water space above the firebox was described as "...unusually large, thus giving excellent circulation ..." Longer staybolts, especially at the top, provided "greater immunity from breakage."

Delivered to the Eastern Railway in 1898, the class was renumbered in 1899 and taken into the Great Northern with those new numbers in 1902.

The class was scrapped over an eight-year period beginning with 1007 in February 1928. 1001 went in November, then 3 in 1929 (1000 - April, 1002 - May, and 1005 - December). 1006 was scrapped a year later in October 1930 and 1004 was gone in March 1932. For some reason, 1003 hung on for another 4 1/2 years before being scrapped in October 1936.

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Class E-10-S (Locobase 8834)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

Only the first two of the E-10 Ten-wheelers (Locobase 2970) that formed this class retained their saturated boilers. The rest mated their Belpaire fireboxes to new superheated boilers. At the same time, they apparently lost their "arch pipes".

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Class E-14 - 1st batch (Locobase 6682)

Data from GN 1916 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange; see also Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 34, p. 26. Works nuumbers were 33840-33845 in September 1909; 33883-33887, 33907-33914, 33940-33943, 33948 in October; 33989 in November.

A long article -- [] (viewed 11 July 2005) -- describes both the E-14 and the H-5 Pacific that resulted from a substantial rebuild. It is based on a reference sheet originally drafted by Doug Bemrich for the GNR Historical Society and based on research by Bemrich and Larry Obermeyer, Jr.

The later E-14s were closer to the GN's Pacifics of the time than to the railway's other Ten-wheelers, the article points out. As such, they immediately took over the heaviest trains and served them well during the 'teens.

Locobase notes that there were other 4-6-0s of similar or larger size in terms of boiler and grate size, although few if any ever matched the E-14's cylinder volume. Indeed, the original specification called for 26" x 30" cylinders that would have resulted in a tractive effort around 50,000 lb and a factor of adhesion at about 3.

Possibly, it's the last number that's the key to the class's short life as a Ten-wheeler on the Great Northern, Locobase suspects. E-14s were strong and had drivers tall enough to pull heavy passenger trains at a good clip. But they were probably a bit short-winded; certainly the boiler demand factor (964) suggests a hard-working steam vessel. Also, the class's Emerson superheater was difficult to service and the Belpaire firebox was probably too shallow to draft well given the size of the grate.

Baldwin's specs suggest yet another reason for GN's makeovers in a list presented by GN's "Mr Hainger" in a 2/21/1911 letter to Eddystone. It tabulated problems--all non-trivial-- summarized by the Baldwin rep as:

"These Engines broke:

The front rail of their frames

The Engine Truck swing links

Engine Truck swing link pins

Cylinder Saddles

Piston Heads."

The specifications for the follow-on batch described in Locobase 8644 included notes written only a few months later that described the changes in materials and design to address some of the problems:

"Swing links on engine truck to be strengthened by adding metal to the outside of the link.

"[F]rames to be braced by the application of a cast sheet deck plate or crosstie on the top rail between the front and middle drivers--the valve motion bearer knees to be cast integral with the crosstie, also by a vertical cast sheet crosstie bolted to the back leg of the front pedestal."

By the early 1920s, the railway had decided to rebuild them as Pacifics; see Locobase 6450 for the H-5s that resulted.

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Class E-14 - 2nd batch (Locobase 8844)

Data from GN 1916 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 34, pp. 35+. Baldwin produced this class in July 1910 (works numbers 34988-34990) and August (35008-35014). Ten additional locomotives were sold upon completion to the Spokane, Portland & Seattle; see Locobase 8845.

As noted in Locobase 6682, the first batch of E-14s were "short of puff". Clearly the railway and the builder thought so because this batch delivered in the next year had considerably bigger boiler dimensions and an enlarged grate and longer Belpaire firebox. Baldwin's specs indicated that cylinder volume would increase considerably using 26"/660 mm (with provision to boring each cylinder to 27"/ 686 mm), but Great Northern's 1916 diagram shows the same cylinder diameter and 12" (305 mm) piston valves as the first batch.

Although specified to use the troublesome Emerson superheater of the earlier batch, it didn't remain in the engines for long. By 1916, it had been discarded in favor of a Schmidt smoke-tube installation, itself still a modest contributor to overall heating surface area.

These Ten-wheelers were rebuilt by the Great Northern as Pacifics and redesignated H-7; see Locobase 14987.

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Class E-15 (Locobase 8843)

Data from GN 1916 and GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also DeGolyer, Volume 34, pp. 40+. Baldwin produced all of the class in July 1910 in the following work-number batches: 34898-34903, 34936-34940, 34959-34963, 34979-34981. Almost as an afterthought, the builder produced one more (35023) in the next month.

This set of passenger Ten-wheelers were delivered with superheaters that clearly were a first-generation installation. Relatively small, the superheater made but a modest contribution to overall heating surface. Indeed the design has a narrow grate fitted between the rear drivers. Altogether, this order seems to have addressed stresses and strains imposed by the heavier and more powerful E-14 design (Locobase 6682). The slightly smaller cylinders used the same 12" (305 mm) piston valves.

The GN sold three of the class - 1074-1076 - to the Spokane, Portland & Seattle in November 1925, where they took class D-7 and road numbers 160-162. This trio was retired in April 1944.

Most of the others went much earlier, with the GN scrapping beginning in November 1927. A few survived World War II and were scrapped in 1947-1949, with the last - 1090 - going in November 1949.

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Class E-2 (Locobase 8837)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 55132 in May 1915, 55443 in October.

The SDC was formed in October 1902 to build a line between Watertown and Sioux Falls. These were the last new locomotives the SDC acquired and were classicallly simple mixed-train Ten-wheelers.

The SDC reorganized as the Watertown & Sioux Falls in June 1916, by which time it had accumulated 102.8 miles (165 km) of line. The GN took over the line on 31 December 1928.

The 16-17 were sold for scrap in March 1949.

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Class E-3 (Locobase 8838)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. See also "The Year in Locomotive Construction", Daily Railway Age (14 June 1899), pp. 9-16 , esp. p.11.

These modestly scaled Ten-wheelers had relatively tall drivers on a short wheelbase. The clerestory cab drew attention away from the small Belpaire firebox.

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Class E-4 (Locobase 8870)

Data from GN 1916 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange.

This Ten-wheeler was in the middle of pack for its day, all things considered. It did, however, have a puny firebox.

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Class E-6 (Locobase 8839)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 5754-5758 and 5764-5773 in June 1902

Although apparently from the same basic design as the 1899 Rogers engines shown in Locobase 8838, these had much smaller drivers and were freight engines. They also had larger grates and a few more tubes.

Only one of the class operated under more than one herald. 938 was sold to Pacific & Eastern in February 1910 as their 103 (later renumbered 3). In December 1912, the 3 moved on to the Spokane, Portland & Seattle as their 159.

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Class E-7 (Locobase 2978)

Data from Catalogue Descriptive of Simple and Compound Locomotives built by Brooks Locomotive Works, Dunkirk, NY (Buffalo, NY: Matthew-Northrup Company, 1899).

Builder info from B.Rumary, 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND and Jeremy Lambert as supplied by Allen Stanley in March 2004. Works numbers were 2275-2284, 2286-2294 in April 1893.(The single-number gap was filled by a Prairie delivered to the Cincinnati, Lebanon & Northern as their #9.)

Relatively high-drivered Ten-wheeler for the GN, presumably for flat running. Fitted with an "Improved Belpaire" boiler and long, sloping firebox. Large, beehive steam dome over the second driver set with sand dome half its size ahead.

An article on the Web entitled "The Great Northern Flyer" by Ted Doyle -- [], last accessed 7 July 2007 - says that this class was the first set of GN Ten-wheelers to be acquired specifically for pasenger service. They were rated for nine passenger cars and a trailing load of 350 tons (318 metric tons). He adds:

"While reliable Eight-Wheelers (4-4-0's) continued to handle the train for the level parts of the journey, the E-7 would serve as the backbone of the transcontinental passenger power pool until around the turn of the century."

954 was scrapped in May 1924, all but three others were scrapped in 1926 with the last to go (952, 957, and 962) being withdrawn in 1926 but scrapped in January 1927.

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Class E-8 (Locobase 4127)

Data from GN 1916 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. Works numbers were 5675-5679 in November 1901, 5680-5684 in December, 6068-6075 in February 1904, 6076 in March, and 6077 in April.

Part of a mixed batch of Rogers-built locomotives that began delivery in 1901, these Ten-wheelers arrived in two batches. The second ten came in 1904. They were smaller than the earlier Brooks 10-wheelers, but had the Belpaire boiler used by most Great Northern engines.

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Class E-9 (Locobase 8840)

Data from GN 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange..

Locobase 16168 describes the original pair delivered by Baldwin as Vauclain compounds to the Eastern Railway of Minnesota.

They were simpled in the late 1890s and renumbered, after which they were turned over to the Great Northern. That railway operated them for another 30 years before retiring them in June and December 1929, respectively.