Class 144 (Locobase 8170)

Data from the NWP 10 - 1950 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Information on the provenance of the locomotive from http://ncespee.railfan.net/rosters/oldnwptxtros.html, a Northwestern Pacific roster by John Barnhill, Jr, last accessed 22 September 2007.

144 was a handsome-looking pocket Ten-wheeler with good proportions that was delivered to the South Pacific Coast Railroad in 1887 (see Locobase 11847).

When the SPC was taken into the Northwestern Pacific, the NWP renumbered the 20 twice. The diagram book shows that the engine received a new boiler after the transfer that had fewer tubes and a smaller grate in the firebox. But the stroke was lengthened and the boiler was pressed to higher degree, so the resulting engine showed more power.

In December 1935, the NWP sold this engine to the Southern Illinois Coal Company.

Class 3 / E-8 (Locobase 898)

Data from http://www.nprr.org's roster listing (7 Feb 2004) and from 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagrams book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. works numbers were 11265 and 11280.

The 3 passed to the Northern Pacific in 1902, while the 4 went to the Seattle & Northern in 1898, and thence to the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class E (Locobase 891)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004). Works numbers were 6392 and 6394 in September 1882, 6481-6482 in November 1882, 6553-6554 in January 1883, 7005-7006 in October 1883, and 7021 in November 1883.

All of the Ten-wheelers in this class pursued their freight duties for over 30 years before being scrapped. Of those, 391 was scrapped only in 1920 and 392 worked for almost exactly 40 years before being scrapped in January 1922.

Class E-2 (Locobase 893)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004) from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. On the latter diagram, heating surface is given as "1,613.5 sq ft (tubes only)." Works numbers were 9691-9704 in December 1888.

All but one of this class was scrapped by the Northern Pacific in the 1920. The lone exception was 374, which was sold to the short-line Wyoming Railway in 1916 and renumbered 102. The WR connected the towns of Clearmont (Sheridan County) and Buffalo (Johnson County, which lay 28 miles away, and supported coal mining and ranching. It was known locally as the Buffalo, Clearmont & Back - Maybe. From 1911 to 1946, the WR operated independently, then a long battle with bankruptcy led to its abandonment in 1952.

Some time later it appeared on the Alaska Central (south of Fairbanks) as their #4.

Class E-3 (Locobase 895)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004), supplemented by DeGolyer, Vol 15, p. 147.

600-614 were produced in August 1889 as Baldwin works numbers 10182-10186, 10191-10198, 10200-10201. 615-617 followed in September 1890 (works numbers 11227-11228, 11234) and 618-628 completed the class in October (works numbers 11235, 11246, 11248, 11253, 11273, 11286-11287, 11291, 11294, 11299, 11301).

349 (ex-620) was sold to the Billings & Central Montana in April 1920 for another 7 years of service before being scrapped in April 1927.

Class E-4/E-6 (Locobase 896)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004). The diagram refers to engine numbers 310-311, but all the information matches up. The E-6 diagram on NP TO 1944 Locomotive Diagrams shows that the 365 (originally 299) was identical, but was pressed to 145 psi.

Class E-5 (Locobase 900)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004) and from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

The shorter driver wheelbase is an indication, confirmed by the diagram, that the firebox now rode above the rear two axles rather than between it. As a result, the inside firebox length jumped 30% from approximately 78" to 102"

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class E-7 (Locobase 899)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx 7 Feb 2004).

The Northern Pacific Railway Historical Society -- http://research.nprha.org/Lists/Steam%20Roster/DispForm.aspx?ID=284&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fresearch%2Enprha%2Eorg%2FLists%2FSteam%2520Roster%2FAllItems%2Easpx%3FPaged%3DTRUE%26p%5FTitle%3DSID0200%26p%5FID%3D200%26View%3D%257b1622F62C%252dA1EA%252d45AB%252d9CBD%252d3A1E46679886%257d%26PageFirstRow%3D201 -- gives Cooke's works numbers as 2223-2225, which is confirmed by the compilation of Cooke locomotives by B.Rumary 25 Kingscombe, Gurney Slade, Radstock, BA3 4TH, ENGLAND) and supplied to Locobase by Allen Stanley in March 2004.

The Monte Cristo was a railway that connected a gold-rush town with the Northern Pacific at Everett. An account on http://wasteam.railfan.net/emcr/emcr.html (accessed 4 February 2007) relates the railway's short history. Although advanced by Everett's founders and partially underwritten by John D Rockefeller, the railroad suffered from the unfamiliarity of its distinguished parentage with local conditions: "Long time residents of the area warned the railroad's surveyors of the river's capacity for sudden and violent flooding. They ignored the advice, dismissing the river as a 'little trout stream'. Words they'd soon regret. Three bridges and six tunnels in lower Robe Canyon were completed by November 1892, just in time for the largest storm in 20 years.

The storm washed out the grade at many locations, and covered it with landslides in others. The Railway's board of directors dismissed the storm as a 100 year storm and ordered the line repaired, beginning a pattern that would repeat itself continually for the next 40 years. The decision of the board of directors of the Railway to route the railroad through the lower 5 miles of the canyon is acknowledged as their greatest blunder."

Combined with the low quality of the gold deposits, this vulnerability to nature's wrath meant the E & MC would have a short life. The NP took it over in 1903 only to sell it to the Rucker brothers, who ran a sawmill and whose equipment accelerated the line's deterioration. By the late 20s, the line was effectively abandoned; its rails were pulled up in 1936 and sold to Japan.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class P - compound (Locobase 3283)

Works # ranged from 4543 to 4726.

Class P - simple (Locobase 901)

Ps were delivered in two batches of 8 -- one set worked compound, the other simple expansion. The latter is shown here.

Class P-1 - compound (Locobase 906)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

This set of twelve engines were delivered as shown, 2-cylinder cross compounds, in company with an almost equal number of simple-expansion engines of the same design (see Locobase 8157). 209-212 were produced first in 1899 (works #5122-5125) followed by 213-218 (5710-5715) in 1900, and completed by 207-208 (5930-5931) in 1901.

They were later simpled with two 20" x 26" cylinders. Four were later upgraded with superheaters.

Class P-1 - simple (Locobase 8158)

Data from a NP 1 - 1929 Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

At the same time as the NP was taking delivery of the P-1 express passenger Ten-wheelers as cross-compounds (Locobase 906), it was purchasing the same design as simple-expansion locomotives and taking delivery of some of each as several batches. 229-232 arrived in 1899 (works #5118-5121) with 233-236 in 1901 (5932-5935) and 226-228 in 1902 (25660-25661, 25841) .

Some were later superheated.

Class P-2 - compound (Locobase 8155)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

This is the original configuration for this decade of engines that formed part of a series of cross-compound Ten-wheelers. Seven were later simpled; see Locobase

Class P-2 - simpled (Locobase 907)

Originally built as cross-compounds with one 22" HP and 34" LP cylinder each; see Locobase 8155. , 7 later were simpled as shown.

Class P-3 (Locobase 910)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Two Alco builders supplied engines in this class, which was an extension of the P-2 cross-compounds (literally - the fire tubes were a foot longer). Schenectady delivered 10 in 1901 (works # 5916-5925) and Richmond added 10 in 1902 (works # 25662-25671). It appears from the 1944 diagram that the Minneapolis & International acquired 2 (road numbers 300-301) and that they were in addition to the 20 that went to the NP.

These cross-compounds were never simpled and only a couple were left on the roster by 1925.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class P-3 (Locobase 8157)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Locobase 910 describes the 20 cross-compound Ten-wheelers of this class that went to the Northern Pacific. In 1901, the Mike & Ike piggy-backed on the Schenectady order and secured two of its own. Like the NP P-3s, these were never simpled.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface

Class P/P-1/P-2 - superheated (Locobase 6560)

In the mid-1920s, the Northern Pacific superheated four of the P-1 Ten-wheelers that had years before been simpled. (See Locobase 906 for the compound variant.) Three P class engines were superheated along identical lines as were 4 P-2s. (The P-class heating surface is given as 1,802 sq ft and superheater as 390 sq ft, but all other dimensions are the same.)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Class R (Locobase 903)

See "Northern Pacific Ten-Wheel Compound Engine," Locomotive Engineering, Vol X, No. 4 (April 1897), pp. 291-292.

Superintendent of Motive Power E M Herr and Schenectady developed this cross-compound design as a means of substantially increasing available power for their freight service. "A distinctive feature of these engines, [sic] lies in the mammoth boilers which furnish a heating surface of nearly 2,900 square feet, and the larger use of steel, cast, forged and stamped in order to keep the weight of details within the minimum ..." The firebox's heating surface included 32.8 sq ft of arch tubes.

Schenectady would increase the stroke by 2"and tweak the tube length and produce this design in quantity two years later; see Locobase 902.

Class S (Locobase 902)

See Railroad Gazette (Jan 1898, Vol XXX, No 2) and "Heavy Compound for Northern Pacific," Railway and Locomotive Engineering, December 1899, p.543.

Based on the R class of a year earlier (Locobase 903), this design differed chiefly in having a stroke of 2" greater length, which increased tractive effort. Unlike later NP compound Ten-wheelers, this class was never simpled. Instead they were scrapped in the 1920s.

Class S-1 (Locobase 9542)

Data from "Heavy Compound for Northern Pacific," Railway and Locomotive Engineering, December 1899, p.543.

The article notes that this batch from Schenectady differed from earlier engines (Locobase 902) in having a piston valve servicing the high-pressure cylinder and that the change led them to "...handle much easier [sic] than the slide-valve engine." The article does not mention two other differences: a 2" increase in piston stroke, and a 4" extension in ttube length.

Class S-10 (Locobase 914)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Correction on the heating surface data from NP spec card reproduced on http://www.mtmuseum.org/?body=jsr/roster/np328.html, visited 6 June 2005).

Relatively light engines said by some sources to have been intended for the Russian Government (see the Tell Tale article quoted below). In fact, says the Montana Museum, the class came from an order for the newly minted Chicago Southern Railroad. Incorporated in 1904, the railroad ordered 40 locomotives from Rogers. By the end of 1905, however, the project had collapsed and Rogers was left with 14 unclaimed Ten-wheelers. The Northern Pacific snapped up 10 of these in early 1907 for $14,500 each to operate on its branch lines.

Most were scrapped in 1929-1922, but the Rush City, Minn to Grantsburg, Wisc branch had a St Croix River bridge that could only bear the weight of a light Consolidation or these light Ten-wheelers. So 321 & 328 operated well into the 1940s. 321 was scrapped in 1946.

Northern Pacific's Tell Tale magazine of May, 1950 (http://www.employees.org/~davison/nprha/rvntwo.html, 19 June 2003) drew the following portrait of 328 fifty years after its introduction:

"By R. V. Nixon

In this age of Diesel-electric streamliners and fast 125-car freight trains, it is very refreshing to come across a touch of old time railroading, such as exists on the Sixth Sub-division of the Lake Superior Division. Daily except Sunday, a mixed train powered by a small Ten-wheeler, leaves Rush City for the round trip to Grantsburg, Wisc., crossing the St. Croix River on the oldest of N.P. bridges, and traveling on light 56-pound rail. At Grantsburg the engine is turned on one of the few remaining ''Armstrong'' turntables ...

" It is doubtful if such picturesque railroad scenes can be found anywhere at this late stage of the game. Probably they will be short lived as the 328 is due to be dismantled and application has been made for the abandonment of the Grantsburg [B]ranch. An interesting sidelight of the abandonment is the fact that Brakeman Jack Murray, whose father rode the first train over the branch 67 years ago, will probably work on the last run ...

"... The 328 was one of ten small 4-6-0s built by Rogers in 1907. The order was placed rather mysteriously by an agent of a foreign country, supposedly for service in Russia or Manchuria. Upon completion the locomotives were refused for some unknown reason and were purchased by the N.P. for use on branch lines.

Most of the S-10s worked in the vicinity of Fargo, although the 325 and 326 were familiar sights on the Alder, Pony and Norris branches. All have been scrapped except the 328 - which will itself soon be railroad history.

Nxon later reported:

" And that isn't all! Remember our May issue of the Tell Tale where we mourned the passing of Northern Pacific 328? As expected, the 328 was taken to Brainerd for dismantling. To use the words of one of our colleagues, ''The torch was so close the paint was scorching!''

Instead, said Nixon, the Minnesota Railfans Association persuaded the NP to donate 328 to Stillwater. Later it pulled excursion trains in Stillwater (1987-1991) and on the Osceola & St Croix Valley Railway (1992-1999).

Class S-11 (Locobase 894)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Grant's works #1766-1768.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class S-2 (Locobase 908)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Continuation of the definitive cross-compound design that began with the S-1 class (Locobase 9542) in 1899. Principal difference was an increase in weight. Schenectady works # began with 5473-5482 and 5593-5612.

Most were scrapped in the mid-1920s.

Class S-3 (Locobase 911)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection.

Like the P-3, the S-3 was an enlargement of the basic cross-compound Ten-wheeler (Locobase 902, 9542) bought in relatiively large numbers at the turn of the century. There was only a slight increase in the length of the tubes and the number in the boiler. The grate, on the other hand, was half again as ...er ...great in area, chiefly because it was shallower toward the back and mounted above the drivers rather than between them. This allowed 30" increase in the width of the grate.

Like the earlier engines in this series, these cross-compounds were never simpled or superheated and most were scrapped by the end of the 1920s.

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class S-4 - compound (Locobase 905)

Data from a 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. 1902 works numbers were 20273-20277, 20308-

20309, 20366-20369 in April 1902; 20401-20403, 20421, 20456-20457, 20468-20472, 20497-20499 in May 1902; 20538-20540, 20557-20560, 20596-20599, 20621 in June; 20660-20662 in July.

Finishing off the legion of compound Ten-wheelers supplied to the railroad at the turn of the century, the NP went to a new builder and signed up for 40 of its 4-cylinder Vauclain compounds. Few Vauclain compounds had strokes as long as 30 inches, but clearly that was an NP preference. The firebox heating surface included 28.46 sq ft of arch tubes.

Unlike the cross-compounds delivered by Schenectady in previous years, the Baldwins were soon simpled and many later superheated. See Locobase 912.

Class S-4 - simpled (Locobase 912)

Data confirmed by locomotive diagrams from 1900 hosted on http://www.nprr.org/Steam%20Diagrams/Forms/AllItems.aspx (7 Feb 2004).

These were the simple-expansion and superheated modifications to the Vauclain compounds that first appeared in 1902 (See Locobase 905). Drury (1993) says simply that these were the Northern Pacific's "best-known Ten-Wheelers." They were originally mountain-based passenger haulers (note the driver diameter), but "later were all-purpose engines: branchline, pusher, local freight, local passenger."

Many had 50-year careers, after which 4 were donated for display in Pasco (Wash - 1354), Missoula (Mont - 1356), Tacoma (Wash - 1364), and Helena (Mont - 1382).

NB: The direct heating surface (including the firebox heating surface) is an estimate calculated by subtracting the calculated tube heating surface from the reported total evaporative heating surface.

Class T2 / 1742 (Locobase 8346)

Data from UP 11 - 1946 Locomotives & Tenders diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive collection. Works numbers were 33712, 33717, 33723 in August 1909; 33741-33743 in September; 36121-36123, 36144-36146, 36160 in February 1911.

At the same time the Oregon Short Line was taking delivery of 8 Ten-wheelers (Locobas 8342), the OWRRN took on 13 more to the same design. When it came time to superheat them, however, those locomotives that went through the upgrade sacrificed 10 more small tubes in a layout that otherwise was virtually identical to the superheated OSL 4-6-0s. Boiler pressure went higher, however.

The first of the class, probably still fitted with a saturated boiler, retired in December 1933. Two others were scrapped in September 1934, 4 in April 1940. The rest served into the late 1940s, with the 1751 being withdrawn in March 1949.