Alaska Railroad 4-6-2 "Pacific" Locomotives in the USA

Class 901 (Locobase 5095)

Locobase doesn't have much information about this Pacific, other than what was supplied on the elevation drawing found on [] . Works numbers were 62515 in December 1940 and 70336 four years later in December 1944.

The Alaska Railroad site -- [] (visited 22 Dec 2004) gives data that suggests this is the 801-series 4-8-2 with one less driving axle and consequently fire tubes that are 18" shorter. Otherwise the two boilers are the same. The firebox heating surface is likely to be virtually identical, although Locobase cannot confirm.

901 & 902 pulled both passenger and freight trains; 902 came in 1945. [] (1 Feb 2004) tells us that even though 901 was one of two locomotives involved in the only head-on collision the road ever had (on 19 October 1943), it carried on until 1952, when it was sold to FC Langreo in Spain but apparently never entered service.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.