James Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've most frequently seen the "Mastodon" name
> applied to the 4-8-0, particularly being associ-
> ated with the S.P. machines.  The only 4-10-0,
> which led a short and useless life as little more
> than a point of trivia, had its own name.  I regard
> the "Cyclopedia" as clearly in error in this case.


"El Gobernador" – just like most politicians of the type it was named for – suffered from having lungs (cylinders) that were way too big and a brain (firebox) that was way too small.  IIRC, in tests she ran about 2-½ miles before running out of steam.

I vaguely remember seeing a photo back in the early fifties of an HO scale 4-10-0 that was built by the well-known modeller John Allen, but I think it was a freelance design (i.e. no full-size prototype ever existed).

- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender