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First Northerns, The Northern Pacific A class 4-8-4 Classic Power 4 Cover damag
The First Northerns Northern Pacific A class 4-8-4. Classic Power 4 by Thomas Dressler 100 pages.
NOTE: FRONT AND BACK COVER are damaged- feels rough. Pages are good. Some pages are loose. COMPLETE
INTRODUCTION - The first Northern or 4-8-4 type of steam locomotive was not necessarily an enlargement or lengthening of an existing design in use at the time, nor was it derived with the simple addition of a four-wheel trailing truck to the 4-8-2 or Mountain type. It was a design of necessity. Like wise the first 4-8-4 was not by any means a modern steam locomotive as the term is now used. It was thought that a steam locomotive, to be of modern design, must have been built with a cast-steel bed frame, with roller bearings on all axles and have a high horsepower output. Of course at the time of introduction, the 4-8-4 was of the latest design, utilizing all of the latest ideas and capabilities in locomotive design of the times.
The motive power men of the Northern Pacific gave serious thought to the 4-8-2 or Mountain type of locomotive. Since the NP used a low grade of coal, called rosebud, which was mined on company lands, it was felt that the firebox adapted to burn this type coal could not be safely supported by the two-wheel trailing truck. The NP consulted the major builders for design features and the result was the first 4-8-4 locomotive, the A Class engines of the 2600 to 2611 number series. Why the 2600 number series? Quite possibly it was due to the fact that the engines were built and delivered by ALCO, the American Locomotive Company in the year 1926.
That name Northern, at first, the Northern Pacific type, was not universally accepted. Many different names were applied by the various roads over the years. Some of the names were derived from rivers, mountain ranges or certain areas through which the locomotives operated. The New York Central called them Niagara for the river and falls in New York State: the Chesapeake and Ohio referred to the 4-8-4 as the Greenbriar type, again for a river which ran parallel to the C & O. After all, who could expect a railroad company with such deep origins in the South as the C&O had at the time to refer to any steam locomotive as a Northern? Yet, the neighboring Norfolk and Western, just as deeply entrenched at that time in the South, did in fact refer to their fleet of 4-8-4s as Northerns. The Union Pacific simply referred to them as the FEFs. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western called them the Poconos, for the mountain range of course, and the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis named the 4-8-4 the Dixie type, due no doubt to that roads deep South ties. At least, the first group of 4-8-4s of the NC&St.L were Dixies; the second group were called Yellow Jackets because of the bright yellow striping on these bullet-nosed beauties. The greatest rival of the NP, the Great Northern was not about to refer to the 4-8-4 type, or any type for that matter, as the Northern type for fear of bringing to mind their chief competitor. The GN people referred to their 4-8-4s as the Montana type. Names withstanding, they were all in fact the 4-8-4s or Northern type of steam locomotive which truly brought in the modern era of the steam locomotive and proved to be possible the epitome of steam locomotive development.
In the following pages, we will take a close look at the 4-8-4s of the Northern Pacific which introduced the wheel arrangement to the rails, from the very first of the type, the Class A number 2600 of 1926 to the Class A-5, number 2689, built in 1943. For good measure a much-traveled boomer will be thrown in, as well as some almost identical engines of a partially-owned subsidiary.
FIRST 6 pages are loose.
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