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Southern Railway (U.S.) duplex locomotive?

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  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Martinez, CA
  • 5,440 posts
Southern Railway (U.S.) duplex locomotive?
Posted by markpierce on Monday, November 26, 2007 5:00 PM

On ebay the other day there was a model listed as a Southern Railway duplex locomotive sporting a 2-8-2-2-8-0 wheel arrangement.  It looked like a standard 2-8-2 locomotive with a 2-8-0 under the tender.  I checked a website on Southern's locomotive roster, and it did not list this wheel arrangement.  Did the Southern Railway ever have such a locomotive?  If so, when and where did it operate?  Was the locomotive built this way originally or was it a modified 2-8-2 with a 2-8-0 frame added under the tender?  How many of these locomotives did Southern have like this?  (If I was to guess, I would say it was a one-of-a-kind. short-term, unsuccessful experiment where an older 2-8-0 frame had been added to an existing 2-8-2.)  Thanks for your help.

Mark

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Southwest US
  • 12,914 posts
Posted by tomikawaTT on Monday, November 26, 2007 6:33 PM

IIRC, the Southern had two such odd fish.  One was a 2-8-2 to which the shop crew had added a tender 'engine' salvaged from a scrapped 2-8-0 (a cheap way of getting a tender booster without buying one from the Franklin Co.)  Apparently it met with some success, since another loco (wheel arrangement unknown to me) had its tender fitted with a purpose-built tender engine.  Both were used for a time on the Saluda grade, where high speed was not an objective and high tractive effort was everything.

The Trains magazine article was titled, Poor Man's Mallets, but they were probably single expansion designs.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • From: Martinez, CA
  • 5,440 posts
Posted by markpierce on Monday, November 26, 2007 7:30 PM
 tomikawaTT wrote:

IIRC, the Southern had two such odd fish.  One was a 2-8-2 to which the shop crew had added a tender 'engine' salvaged from a scrapped 2-8-0 (a cheap way of getting a tender booster without buying one from the Franklin Co.)  Apparently it met with some success, since another loco (wheel arrangement unknown to me) had its tender fitted with a purpose-built tender engine.  Both were used for a time on the Saluda grade, where high speed was not an objective and high tractive effort was everything.

The Trains magazine article was titled, Poor Man's Mallets, but they were probably single expansion designs.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

Thanks Chuck. I just located pictures of two such duplex locomotives: #s 4537 and 4576.  They were both classified as 2-8-2s despite also have the 2-8-0 under the tender.  The steam pipe to the rear drivers came directly from the boiler, so they must have had all high-pressure steam boilers.  The diameter of the rear drivers was smaller than those under the locomotive.  They must have been a wonder to hear with the exhause continually going in and out of sinc.

Mark

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