Helena Motor Railway 0-4-2 Locomotives in the USA

Class Capitalist (Locobase 8154)

Data from 1944 Northern Pacific Locomotive Diagram book supplied in May 2005 by Allen Stanley from his extensive Rail Data Exchange. The steam class list on the NPRHS website -- [][] -- says that this was built by the Brainerd shops in 1903. See also DeGolyer, Vol 15, p. 57. Works numbers were 9928 in April 1889 and 10231 in September.

This stubby little "shop switcher" clearly was a special-purpose machine. The diagram shows a large cab, large, possibly oil-fired headlight, and the trailing axle under the forward edge of the rear bunker. As delivered, the engines had snow plows front and back.

The trippingly named Helena Hot Spring & Smelter was a 5-mile-long street railway running on 35-50-lb (17 1/2 to 25 kg/yd) rail. As of 1890, the line had 3 "steam motors" and 6 cars.

The Capitalist was later sold to the Pe Ell Sawmill. Crystal Springs was sold to the Elliston & Southern, also in Montana, in 1897. The E&S sold it to the Edgar Wood Company in 1908, which sold it to the Northern Pacific who placed it in class H-2. The NP scrapped it in April 1936.

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.