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4-8-4 Pictorial By Robert Wayner 63 Pages Soft Cover
4-8-4 Pictorial By Robert Wayner
63 Pages
Soft Cover.
Copyright Date Unknown.
Which was the better steam locomotive the race horse or the draft horse? If we took an example of each (say. New York Central 999 and a Virginian 2-10-10-21 and positioned them side-by-side the disparity in dimensions and proportions would make comparison ludicrous. They shared a common limitation, though. Each was unsuited for the typical main-line freight or passenger train from the late 1920's onward, which required an Iron Horse that could move a heavy consist at competitive speeds. The hard-boiled railroad operating executive of that era would want neither the thoroughbred nor the Clydesdale: his "better engine" would be the optimum blend of speed power and reliability. Three dozen roads in North America found this machine to be the one with four leading wheels eight drivers and four wheels under the firebox.
Although the first 4-8-4's traveled between passenger terminals rather than freight yards they were not Hudsons with an extra set of drivers; the two types developed concurrently and on a few roads could even interchange parts. The 4-8-4 came from the 4-8-2 via the 2-8-4 these last two types having been introduced on American rails in 1911 and 1925 respectively. The Chesapeake and Ohio had ordered America's first 4-8-2's to pull heavy passenger consists up Allegheny and Blue Ridge grades combining a Pacific's speed with a Mikado's power. Seven years later the United States Railroad Administration authorized two standard 4-8-2 designs to which 47 light Mountain and 15 heavy Mountain engines were originally outshopped. Subsequent 4-8-2 history tells us that many railroads found this type the most they would ever need to maintain their passenger or freight schedules, or both.
But as trains ran with more and more all-steel cars and it became apparent that increased weight and more driving wheels were not enough to keep these heavier consists on schedule, the Lima Locomotive Works proposed the "super-power" concept which stressed more effective combustion through better boiler and firebox proportions and full utilization of state-of-the-art efficiency factors.
George M. Basford consulting engineer at Lima told Railway Age readers in 1923 that locomotives were then being built without boosters stokers and feedwater heaters due to axle-loading limits and that fires were being forced to the point of inefficiency because of grate-area limitations imposed by what one trailing axle could support. Two years later Lima translated its theories into steel with a bulldog-tough 2-8-4 designated A-I which was soon lettered "Boston & Albany" for road-testing over the Berkshires and thereby gained its universally-used name. Although this was not the first of Lima's super-power engines (that distinction goes to the H-I0 Mikado of 1922) it was the immediate success of the A-1 that helped Ale() and the Northern Pacific to usher in the 4-8-4 era in the following year with the 2600-series North Coast Limited locomotives. Ironically, Lima never became a big producer of 4-8-4's though the ones it did build for such lines as the Southern Pacific and the So warrant no apology.
Compared to most earlier and a few later wheel arrangements the 4-8-4 was a star-crossed configuration. The quarter-century in which it was built included a major economic depression. a global war and the diesel conquest each of which in some way retarded the full and leisurely exploration of 4-84 capabilities and possibilities. We know somewhat more about the limits of the Consolidation and Atlantic for example. But at least the disparity in specifications among 4-8-4's are enough to give students of steam locomotives an armada of empirical arguments in the search for the ultimate the perfect 4-8-4. The variance in engine weight was nearly 150.000 pounds and in tractive effort almost 30.000 pounds while the total wheelbase varied as much as eight feet. Driver diameter ranged from 69 to 80 inches and even the critical factor of grate area reflected a difference of about 45 square feet between the smallest and largest Steam pressure only 210 psi in the pioneer Northern Pacific Northerns hit 300 on Union Pacific counterparts eleven years later. Some 4-8-4's had boosters others didn't: their tractive effort, steam consumption and added weight are points of argument. Then too we don't know how fast a Northern could really travel since they weren't raced as 4-40's and 44-2's once were. As to their maximum pulling power suffice to say that photographs of 4-8-4's doubleheading are relatively uncommon: one 4-8-4 was usually enough for any size consist.
There were few refinements in original design or added accessories which were not bestowed at sonic time or other upon a 4-8-4. All the coal-burners had mechanical stokers (no human back could satisfy that insatiable firebox) and most had a cast-steel bed-frame with integral cylinders, permitting the most advantageous application of roller bearings in boxes and on rods. Lateral-motion control devices kept the monsters steady on curves and made them smooth-riding powerhouses. The main, side and piston rods were often of lightweight alloy-steel. Brian Reed in his excellent "Locomotive Profile" of the 4-8-4, contended that this wheel arrangement had the most successful combination and balance of steam-generating and steam-using portions ever achieved in the Iron Horse. His microcosm of 4-8-4 performance was the cylinder of a Union Pacific 800-class engine at 102 miles per hour. At that speed each driver made 71/2 revolutions a second, with the steam port open only one-fiftieth of a second, and within a fraction of that time a "steam hammer" force of nearly 80 short tons hit the piston. Moreover each piston valve stopped and restarted fifteen times a second.
The 4-8-4 found only limited acceptance outside North America, never displacing the Pacific and Decapod types as the world standard in main-line passenger and freight operation. Relatively few ran in Europe (among those that did were 4-8-4 tank engines) and one South American nation. Brazil had 4-84's. Celebrated examples roamed the wide open spaces of Australia. South Africa and the Soviet Union with the latter having the all-time world's largest fleet: 250 engines. North British Locomotive built some huge 4-8-4's for mainland China in 1939 some of which may still be running.
The 4-84's versatility made it invaluable during the Second World War. Carefully planned locomotive assignments matching engine capability with specific schedule and tonnage demands, went by the board as roundhouses were asked to furnish power for heavy troop and supply trains at any time of the day or night. The ideal wartime locomotive was the one that could move anything move it fast, and stay out of the back shop. Aside from switchers and articulateds most engines built new during World War II were 4-8-4's these to prewar designs and with heavier steel because of government restrictions.
If the diesel figuratively piled all steam-propulsion machines of whatever size and efficiency into one enormous heap of scrap metal those who designed and operated the Northerns could take comfort in the fact that the 4-8-4's were generally the last to go. The Pennsylvania Railroad Standard Railroad of the World largest American line never to buy a 4-8-4 or build one. found itself with too few remaining steamers and not enough diesels during a heavy traffic period in 1956- and leased Reading and R.F.& P. 4-8-4's were soon pounding Keystone rails. The New York Central's Niagaras designed to compete with diesels, were proudly numbered in the 6000 series to indicate their rated horsepower. Rut no one type of steam locomotive, no matter how outstanding could stop dieselization, particularly since 4-8-4's were only a small percentage of the total steam rosters of their owners, and a far smaller fraction of North American steam power in general.
Long retired from regular revenue service a few 4-8-4's still evaded the scrapper's torch as fan-trip engines, photographed by railfans who had not yet been born when the last Northern was newly delivered. Those memorable excursions postponed the day when the 4-8-4 would be an extinct species of ferroequinological wildlife, with only dead engines in city parks behind barbed wire to remind us of happy times past. But at least more preserved specimens will remain (vandals forebearing) in proportion to the total original number in active service than any other steam wheel arrangement except the Big Boy 4-8-8-4. That number was slightly more or less than eleven hundred, depending on whether you count the Missouri Pacific and Reading units rebuilt from other types. and the list of survivors on page 4 is a balanced and respectable legacy of the three-decade era when the aristocrats of the roundhouse had four leading wheels. eight drivers and four wheels under the firebox.
We sincerely thank Freeman Hubbard. Mike Eagleson. Harold K. Volfroth. Richard Kindig, H. L. Broadbelt. Jim Seacrest. Bert Pennypacker. Peter Tilp. William A. Raia. Victor Hand. Ron Ziel. 0.S.A. Lavallee. Charles M. Mizell. Jr.. Albert M. Rung. Frank Perrin. Marc Green. James A. Brown. Bob Lorenz. Frank Quin. Leslie V. Suprey. Elmer Treolar, Ed Nowak, Joseph R.Quinn. P.E. Percy. Bill Botkin and Joseph Lavelle for photographic and other assistance in the preparation of this book. The roster of preserved 4-8-4 locomotives was furnished by Mike Eagleson with the caution that the location or ownership of some of these engines will probably change as time passes.
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