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Pennsylvania RR L2s Mikado Locomotive

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  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Pennsylvania RR L2s Mikado Locomotive
Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 10:54 AM

This model showed up on BrassTrainsDotCom.

It is a PRR locomotive model, but the lack of a squared firebox and vanderbilt tender do not look very PRR to me.

The item description says the tender is incorrect.

It looks a lot like a Heavy USRA 2-8-2 to me, but not completely. The picture looks like there would be room for a 4 wheel trailing truck, maybe the SGRR could get a light Berkshire from this model?

I love the model, is there a story behind this locomotive design on the PRR?

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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    May 2020
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Posted by wrench567 on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 11:18 AM

  Yes there is. It's called the USRA ban on new locomotive construction. That tender is definitely not correct. Some were sold off quickly after the war rush for power while some got graphed in Bellaire boilers.

    Pete.

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,367 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 11:38 AM

Out of a total of 32 made for PRR Lines West, they actually saw very short service on the Pennsy itself when they quickly sold them off to the Frisco and Missouri Pacific in 1923, shortly after USRA control, the others used on the Grand Rapids and Indiana subsidiary GR&I kept five which were later renumbered for the Pennsy as L2s, 9627-9631.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3633961

I'm not aware of any being re-boilered with a Belpaire type but that's not to say it never happened. Most stayed in the Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio area and were scrapped some time around 1948.

 

 

 http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr9629sa.jpg

One of the GR&I-Frisco USRA Light Mikes, 4018, still exists in Birmingham, Alabama. 

 170927_68_birmingham by lmyers83, on Flickr

The Vanderbilt tender has a B&O look to it.

Good Luck, Ed

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    May 2020
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Posted by wrench567 on Wednesday, December 21, 2022 1:32 PM

  Thank you Ed.

 My old mind must have some recall issues. I was probably thinking of the N2s. The big 2-10-2. The L2s was bought for the light bridges of the subsidiarie of the GR&I I believe. The L1s was too heavy for the light trackage.

  I don't really know why they didn't just flood the road with a few of the thousands of H class 2-8-0 locomotives.

    Pete.

  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Saturday, December 24, 2022 6:39 AM

So is the PRR L2s just a USRA Mikado?

It does not look like it is one, but the model might not reflect the prototype exactly.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

  • Member since
    May 2020
  • 1,057 posts
Posted by wrench567 on Monday, December 26, 2022 2:23 PM

  Sorry for the confusion. The L2s was built before the Feds took over. They are not USRA designed. ALCO Brooks built them and considered a Light Mike. Plus nothing else looks like a PRR locomotive except the J1 and the C&O locomotive the design came from. Lines west was known for doing it's own thing and it shows on their steamers.

    Pete.

       

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Collinwood, Ohio, USA
  • 16,367 posts
Posted by gmpullman on Monday, December 26, 2022 3:03 PM

wrench567
The L2s was built before the Feds took over. They are not USRA designed.

Well, I believe they were built by Alco Schenectady in 1919 and they were under USRA oversight. PRR did not want the 33 destined for them but they did, through the GR&I keep five of them until being scrapped in the late 1940s.

There were 574 L1s built between 1914 and 1919 that, obviously weren't to the USRA design built by Juniata, Lima and Baldwin.

 Alco_USRA_0002 by Edmund, on Flickr

 Alco_USRA_0004 by Edmund, on Flickr

GR&I being a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary.

 Maybe I'm the one confused here?

     Cheers, Ed

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Northfield Center TWP, OH
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Posted by dti406 on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 3:10 PM

Ed, I agree with you, according to Staufer's Pennsy Power I Book, the GR&I took in 5 USRA Mikes #9627-9631 and were based out of Pendleton, OH on the southern end of the GR&I. They were never modified like many of the other radial stay locomotives with a Belpaire Firebox and stayed as built until they were disposed of 1948.

Rick Jesionowski

Rule 1: This is my railroad.

Rule 2: I make the rules.

Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!

  • Member since
    January 2023
  • 30 posts
Posted by scott7891 on Sunday, March 26, 2023 3:13 PM

wrench567
I don't really know why they didn't just flood the road with a few of the thousands of H class 2-8-0 locomotives.

From what I read in Trains published Guide to North American Steam Locomotives by George Drury (2015), when the government took over the railroads they wanted not only complete standardization of the USRA design across the board for ease of maintenance and cost (in their eyes) but they thought their designs were superior to what was already available.  Therefore, they only made orders to the big 3 builders based on the USRA designs regardless of the legacy designs.  The Pennsylvania did not like them and were free to dispose of them as has been noted in this thread already but the USRA designs were popular enough on other railroads that more postwar clones were made than the originals.

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