Shelby County / South Carolina 4-6-0 "Ten-Wheeler" Locomotives in the USA

Class 4 (Locobase 14072)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University Volume 47, p. 260. Works number was 41012 in December 1913.

The SC Railway Company was incorporated in 1906 to link Shelbina to Shelbyville in Missouri. Distance covered was 8 mainline miles (12.9 km) and connected the county seat to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. It was almost entirely an agricultural-products road: of the 18,900 miles counted as revenue-earning in 1921, only 900 were generated by passengers.

The Ten-wheeler shown in this entry served the railroad until it was closed in March 1938.

Class B-1 (Locobase 15796)

Data from South Carolina RR 1891 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his ever-growing collection, supplemented by DeGolyer, Vol 10, p. 87. Works numbers were 5269, 5283, 5304, 5306, 6938, 6979, 6985 in September-October 1883. (Note: SC Railroad records show that #8 was built in their shops.)

Locobase wonders if the preparer of the 1891 diagrams might have had cognitive issues. In this case, the heating surface areas reflect the tube count shown in the current specifications. But the diagram gives a tube count of 196 tubes. It also gives the construction dates as 1880.

Class B/E-9 (Locobase 15620)

Data from South Carolina RR 1891 Locomotive Diagrams supplied in August 2013 by Allen Stanley from his ever-growing collection. Works numbers were 2320-2323 in January 1890 and 2519-2523 in September.

Within a few years of their delivery, the SCRR reorganized as the South Carolina & Georgia in 1894 and this class was renumbered. Six years later the Southern Railway took the SC&G into its folds and renumbered them again. A decade later, the Southern renumbered them again.

The class left the Southern in ones and twos. Most were sold for scrap, the first being the 3405 in 1914 and the last 24 years later in 1938 (3408). The Franklin & Pittsylvania bought the 3411 in April 1914, only a month before this 36.5-mile short line between Rocky Mount, NC and Pittsville, Va resumed independent operation after 34 years of leasing the line to other railroad. The Southern sold the 3411, one passenger and one combination car, and twelve flat cars for $20,000. As the #1, the engine would provide all the motive power until the railway folded in the late 1920s.

Elkin & Allegheny snapped up the 3404 in October 1919. See Locobase 13193 for more on this North Carolina short line.

the Augusta Northern bought the 3406 in December 1923. Now numbered 5, it joined the rest of the previously owned motive power on this lightly built, 11-mile (17.7 km) short line that ran between Ward and Saluda, SC.