Syracuse & Utica 6-2-0 "Crampton" Locomotives in the USA

Class Lightning (Locobase 4897)

Data from Comstock (1971) and [] . See also "An Early Norris Express Locomotive," American Engineer and Railroad Journal, Volume LXIX [59], No. 2 (), p.87.

Unusual locomotive that wasn't really a 6-2-0, but rather a 6-(4+2)-2-0. Under the very tall stack rode a short-wheelbase bogie of two axles. Farther back, just ahead of the single set of drivers and behind the dome was a bearer axle with wheels slightly larger in diameter than the bogie wheels . A Crampton-like locomotive, it showed the speed these engines could reach when it covered 16 miles in 13 minutes 21 min. Its average speed was 71.9 mph (116 kph) while hauling eight eight-wheel cars.

But Lightning lacked adhesion and proved a short-lived phenomenon. Or, as William Buchanan, then locomotive superintendent of the New York & Hudson River Railroad, put it in 1895 (two years after his 999 [Locobase 1116] reputedly hit 112 mph) is said to have remarked, the Lightning's boiler "was too small to make steam, the cylinders were not large enough for the driving-wheels, and the wheels had not weight enough for adhesion, and that consequently the engine was not successful."

. Boiler pressure is estimated. Staufer (1967) says the tube area was about 670 sq ft; data from other sources give the tube count, diameter, and length as shown, which yields 731 sq ft. Adding in the reported firebox heating surface gives the total heating surface as shown.