Re: NdeM 2-6-6-2 questions

How fast? Hard to say now as they have been gone since the mid 1950's. They had 43" drivers, 1'' larger than the Sumpter locomotives, but otherwise excepting that they were designed as tender locomotives, were quite similar. My guess and it's just a guess, would be around 25 mph.

The first 6 were built in 1928 and show retirement dates of 1954 in Best's book. They were classed as HR-01
The next 2 were built in 1934 and the last 2 were built in 1936.

Looks like they had a service life of 17-26 years.

M.R. Turtin of IRCA told me in 1971 that they had looked at purchasing some, realizing that the last 4, being heavier, should have been better performers than the pair of Sumpter engines, but it never came about as they had the big Alco C-B-C diesels on order.