Re: SAR 19-D 4-8-2 on a long, winding climb . . .

Russo Loco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That was especially true on the Southern Pacific,
> Scott -
>
> IMHO, the S.P.'s 4-8-2s were among the most
> beautiful locomotives ever built, and the 2-8-4s
> that they brought in (from the B&M?) during the
> mid-1950s among the ugliest.  IIRC, they were
> shopped in L.A. but never used due to a business
> slump followed by the arrival of a shipment of
> SD-9s.

Were those the notoriously hideous berks with the u-shaped external feedwater heater mounted ahead of the smokebox? Or am I thinking of something else?

SAR used both the 4-8-2 and the 2-8-4, and in similar types of service. I don't know why, maybe different mechanical officers had their own ideas? The 19D's specifically were, insofar as I understand, basically light engines for secondary service. They were on the small side compared to the heavy mainline engines, but there were a lot of them, they could run about anywhere, and they were used for most any kind of work. SAR's cape gauge network is an interesting mix of wide gauge and narrow gauge practice. It's something of an in-between. It uses a generous loading gauge that rivals some wide gauge networks, but for a long time (maybe to the present?) it used relatively light rails on many of its routes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2022 06:31AM by James.