Biggest steam locomotive?

[Anonymous]

I've always wanted to know what the largest steam locomotive was in terms of length and power. I thought the Big Boy was the most powerful, and the longest. But I heard about the 2-8-8-8-2 and the 2-8-8-8-4 Triplexes built for the Erie. But supposedly they weren't produced in large numbers because they bent the curved rails straight!? I think they built two of each. I'm not sure. Any replies would be apprieciated.

[jrbernier]

They were not repeated - the firebox was too small and they could not generate enough steam even with 2 firemen shoveling.
Biggest steam engine is a moving target. Depending if you look at number of wheels, weight, TE, HP, whatever.... The UP Big Boy was about as big as they come in power and continuous TE, but the C&O 2-6-6-6 had greater axle loading. The DM&IR engines(2-8-8-4) produced more continuous TeE at low speed; the list goes on and on. Most of the modern steamers like the Big Boy, Yellowstone, Challenger, et all were very good for the jobs they did.....

Jim Bernier

PS - I remember watching the DM&IR Yellowstones in the late 50's while on vacation - Real impressive for a kid only 8-10 years old!

[AggroJones]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jrbernier
PS - I remember watching the DM&IR Yellowstones in the late 50's while on vacation - Real impressive for a kid only 8-10 years old!

Ugggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!! You lucky dog!

[Anonymous]

There really is no best steamer. But there were ones that reigned supreme:

Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy
Chesepeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 Allegheny
Norfolk & Western 2-8-8-2 Y6b
Duluth, Misabee and Iron Range 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone
Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I thought the Big Boy was the largest and most powerful. I have a model of an Alleghany. It runs good.

[Anonymous]

On an added note: Hey, Bernier, you are lucky. I would LOVE to see a Big Boy roaring up Sherman Hill with a fast freight of reefers!

[AggroJones]

A bunch of us are still waiting for our Missabe Yellowstone.

[tatans]

Biggest? longest? heaviest? most powerful? Biggest in the United States? Biggest in the world?? remember, there really are other locomotives in the world besides Big Boy.

[AggroJones]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

Biggest? longest? heaviest? most powerful? Biggest in the United States? Biggest in the world?? remember, there really are other locomotives in the world besides Big Boy.

Title of most powerful should go to Duluth Missabe & Iron Range's M-4.
Some people like to argue about Big Boy or Allegeheny, but this 2-8-8-4 out powers 'em all. They could move an 18,000 ton train single handedly. Boo-Ya!

[Fergmiester]

Didn't the Ruskies build something or other that blew everyone else out of the water? Someone posted it here about a year or so ago. Ya might want to try the search engine.

Fergie

[selector]

Yeah, Fergie, it was called an "H Bomb". [(-D]

Seriously, I feel privileged to have seen a Beyer-Garratt 2-6-6-2 at work @ 1300 feet in the Andes mountains when I was a lad. Its stack was more than twice the diameter of the Consolidations that were the majority of workhorses at altitude during the 50's and 60's. If one set of connected drivers and valve gear got you going, imagine seeing it twice as one loco went by. Keewwwwll!

[Virginian]

Go to steamlocomotive.com and read up. Depending on criteria, different locos scored best. The Big Boy didn't win any categories as I recall, but it was always near the top, and for what it was designed to do it was great.
Note that the J, the A, and the Y6b are all at the top of the ranges for comparable engines. As my fellow alumnus Major Jefferies penned; "Norfolk and Western, Giant of Steam".
The Virginian locos had a bit of TE too.

[Anonymous]

The Triplex Locomotives were built for shoving heavy coal trains up short but steep grades. At that service they excelled. They had long idle periods to build up steam, so the small firebox was not a handycap. In fact it was an asset, preventing a crew from wasting fuel. I fail to understand why people insist on considering locomotives a failure because they are unable to perform some duty for which they were not designed. Unfortunately some rather respected magazine editors are in this lot.

The Erie Triplexs had reasonably long lives. The Virginian Triplex lost its job to electrification and because of the limitations of its design was rebuilt into two locomotives.

[Anonymous]

For those interested Mainline Modeler had plans etc for the Allegheny in their Nov 85 issue. I looked those up and among the items listed was that a Big-Boy could fit comfortably inside an Allegheny's Boiler and the only item where it surpassed the Allegheny was in Firebox size and steam pressure. Firebox size was due to the rotten coal that was found in Wyoming and the Allegheny could have been upgraded from the 260 lbs to the 300 lbs of the Big Boy. The Allegheny routinely handled 160 cars up the Limehill grade out of Russell, KY without a helper. And the one time it stalled it was found that it had 186 cars and was transversing a crossover while going up the grade.

While the Yellowstone was handiling 18,000 tons, remember that it was mostly downgrade from the mines to the docks.

Rick

[Anonymous]

Don't forget the Q-2s the Pennsy made. The test locomotive, #6131 had a horsepower rating of almost 8000, at 57mph. They were designed for fast freight.

[howmus]

The Allegheny was considerably more powerful than the Big Boy developing as much as 8000 HP compared to the 6200 HP of the Big Boy. As has been said earlier the "Most Extreme" title depends on what category you are looking at and who is doing the talking........ I have included a couple of interesting links for the Big Boy and the Allegheny. And yes, there are many others that are title contenders. Enjoy!

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/allegheny/
http://www.nps.gov/stea/bigboy.htm

[twhite]

TRAINS had an article in one of their 1980 issues that while mainly about Missabe road articulateds (early 2-8-8-2 to Yellowstone 2-8-8-4's) also touched on comparison with other leading articulateds. If I remember correctly, and I think I do, the list was as follows: This is based solely on starting Tractive Effort, not sustained Horsepower.
#1--DM&IR M-4 2-8-8-4
#2--Union Pacific 'Big Boy' 4-8-8-4
#3--Northern Pacific "Yellowstone" 2-8-8-4
#4--Western Pacific 250 series 2-8-8-2
#5--Norfolk & Western Y-6b 2-8-8-2
#6--Denver & Rio Grande L-131 2-8-8-2
#7--Southern Pacific AC6-12 4-8-8-2
#8--Southern Pacific AC9 2-8-8-4
#9--Baltimore & Ohio EM-1 2-8-8-4
#10--Chesapeake & Ohio 'Allegheny' 2-6-6-6
#11--Norfolk & Western A 2-6-6-4

Using only starting TE, the list is a lot different than you'd expect--the Allegheny, which is the heaviest articulated ever built, is WAY down, while the WP 2-8-8-2, which was essentially a simple articulated drag freight locomotive, is at #4. There are a lot of variables, here. Big Boy, which is not quite as powerful as the Missabe M-4, was designed to use its greatest potential at 40-60MPH, while the M-4 was designed to use its best potential at 25-40MPH. Yet in practice, Big Boy did most of its pulling at 30-40mph, while the M-4 often had its heavy ore trains travelling 45-50mph. In other words, the World's Biggest Locomotive is pretty much a crap-shoot.
Tom

[Virginian]

twhite, I hate to tell you but that list is full of hooey. I KNOW the N&W Y6b at 170,000 pounds had more TE than anything else on that list. The VGN 2-10-10-2 had even more. While there MAY be some errors at steamlocomotive, I haven't spotted them yet myself. Good site. Go there and read their data.
http://www.steamlocomotive.com

[dinwitty]

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/largest.shtml

direct link

The Big Boy by far the longest standard Steamer (US)
East coast restrictions IE turntable size make for smaller but more powerful lokies.

[Anonymous]

Even if we'll never know the biggest, best and most powerful steamer, we do know this........

They kick the crap out of modern day diesels! [;)][:D][:p]

[twhite]

Virginian--thanks for the site--opened MY eyes a little, heh-heh! Actually, I was thinking of the Y6b (a loco that I really admire, by the way) in terms of simple, not compound starting TE, comparing it with other simple articulateds. And I was NOT talking about sustained horsepower, remember. Compound articulateds were capable of incredible starting TE, which fell off noticabely when run 'simple' at speed (which many of them were). However that's a really fine list, and a really fine website.

Jonathan: AMEN!!!
Tom [:D][:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

UP's big boy was the largest, C&O's allengy was the strongest, SSRA's 4-14-4
was the largest nonarticulated, UP's 4-12-2 was America's largest non articulated,
Erie's 2-8-8-8-4 had the most amount of drivers, PRR's duplex had the least amount
of drivers for an articulated, & N&W's J-class 4-8-4's were the most powerful non
articulated.

[AggroJones]

The Pennsy Dulplex was a DUPLEX, not an ARTICULATED.
And some Texans out muscled the N&W J.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mac 4884

UP's big boy was the largest, C&O's allengy was the strongest, SSRA's 4-14-4
was the largest nonarticulated, UP's 4-12-2 was America's largest non articulated,
Erie's 2-8-8-8-4 had the most amount of drivers, PRR's duplex had the least amount
of drivers for an articulated, & N&W's J-class 4-8-4's were the most powerful non
articulated.

No, N&W's Js were good, but they weren't that powerful. C&O's
T1 class 2-10-4s could easily out pull a J, as could PRR J1e class 2-10-4s. And let's not forget ATSF's superior 2900 class 4-8-4s, and UP's all mighty 9000 class 4-12-2s.

[Virginian]

Ain't no 4-8-4 tougher than the 'J'. End of that story. A 2-10-4 certainly ought to have more umph than a 4-8-4 primarily PASSENGER locomotive.
The Virginian Triplex had more wheels than the Erie folks. It was a tie for drivers. It's just that Virginian was used to things working right, and they liked things that way, so they converted theirs into two locomotives.
I do not consider turbines steam locomotives, even though Jawn Henry was the best of those. I'm simple. No chuff, no steam engine. Yes, I do realize it was a steam powered.
Of latter day steam, the Y6b was the strongest, the Big Boy was the longest, and the C&O/VGN Allegheny/Blue Ridge was the most powerful.